Out of Your Head Brooklyn starts February 19 at Freddy’s Bar!

Many of you reading this are already aware of the Out of Your Head Collective and the history behind it, so I won’t go into much detail. Guitarist Matt Frazao and myself founded this collective of improvising musicians in Baltimore in 2009 and there has been a weekly performance by OOYH pretty much every week for the past three years at The Windup Space in Station North. I’ve decided to start a chapter of the collective in Brooklyn and the first performance will be Sunday, February 19 at Freddy’s Bar in South Slope. I’ve made some of my best friends through OOYH in Baltimore, and I can never ever thank Russell de Ocampo enough for supporting this vision, so I’m very excited to be expanding to the north. For now we’ll be appearing every 1st and 3rd Sunday of each month at Freddy’s Bar (627 5th Ave, BK NY). In the tradition of OOYH there will never be a cover (but we will accept donations for the musicians) and it will always start at 9:30pm, two sets of completely improvised music by a band that has never played together before. Fun! More details at outofyourhead.org.

Here’s the full schedule for OOYH BK through April 2012. For more info follow us at twitter.com/outofyourheadbk. Hope to see you out!

Sunday 2/19:

Set One (9:30p): Nathaniel Morgan-alto; Josh Sinton-reeds; Jonathan Goldberger-guitar; Kate Pittman-drums

Set Two (11pm): Timo Vollbrecht-reeds; Rick Parker-trombone; Dustin Carlson-guitar; Landon Knoblock-keyboards; Devin Gray-drums

Sunday 3/4:

Set One (9:30p): Ed Rosenberg-tenor; Patrick Breiner-tenor; Flin van Hemmen-drums; +TBA

Set Two (11pm): Adam Schatz-tenor; Kirk Knuffke-cornet; Shannon Barnett-trombone; Patricia Franceschy-vibes; Will McEvoy-bass; Tim Kuhl-drums

Sunday 3/18:

Set One (9:30p): Pablo Moser-tenor; Joe Moffett-trumpet; Mariel Berger-accordian; David Grollman-snare drum

Set Two (11pm): Yoni Kretzmer-tenor; Brad Henkel-trumpet; Sebastian Noelle-guitar; Sebastian Ammann-keyboards; Haim Peskoff-drums

Sunday 4/1:

Set One (9:30p): Ben Syversen-trumpet; Mike Gamble-guitar; Carlo Costa-drums

Set Two (11pm): Caleb Curtis-alto; Jon Lindhorst-tenor; Josh Reed-trumpet; John Blevins-trumpet; Matt Plummer-trombone; Keisuke Matsuno-guitar; Nico Soffiato-guitar; Adam Miller-drums

Sunday 4/15:

Set One (9:30p): Jonah Parzen-Johnson-reeds; Kenny Warren-trumpet; Ryan Mackstaller-guitar; Noah Garabedian-bass; Devin Drobka-drums

Set Two (11pm): Jake Henry-trumpet; Dave Miller-guitar; Xander Naylor-guitar; Matt Rosseau-drums

Sinking Ship @ Freddy’s Bar 1.28.12

Sinking Ship is a band that I started with my great friend TJ Huff.  In a way it sort of started when we played together in a Faith No More cover band on Halloween 2002 with Nate Rappole (who played right before Sinking Ship this past show under his solo act of Gull…it ruled).  In a way it’s a completely new thing, and our attempt to revisit the energy we gave playing in punk bands in high school, but with some twists.  TJ wrote all of the current music. and the best way to describe it is mid-90′s pirate rock, chock full of improvisation, but could easily be the soundtrack to a playstation snowboarding game. We enlisted my frequent collaborators Eric Trudel (sax) and Nathan Ellman-Bell (drums) to round out the band.

The show at Freddy’s was great.  TJ was not feeling so well, at times seeming like he may vomit on me mid-set, and also his second-most-important pedal broke right before we played.  But playing with him and listening back I wouldn’t have had any idea that this guy was feeling bad…he played great, and did some funny things in the process.  Below is a chronological photo documentation of the set, and the unedited full set mp3 (after a shaky start we really get going!).  Awesome photos by Fiamma Piacentini (Huff).

Unedited Full Set MP3: Sinking Ship @ Freddy’s 1.28.12

Setting Sail–a pretty normal beginning.

What’s That Noise?–starting to feel it.

We’ve Sprung a Leak–TJ goes down.

More TJ floor.

SOS–Adam joins on floor.

Down With The Ship (One Last Dip)

Saluting

We All We Got–end scene.

Adam Hopkins’ Over/Under @ LaunchPad 1.14.12

My good friend and great trumpeteer Jake Henry is taking over a monthly series at the LaunchPad in Brooklyn called Sounds and Sounds. Jake will be presenting concerts of creative and improvised music the second Saturday of every month. This past Saturday was the first concert of the series and I was excited when Jake asked me to put a group together for it.

The group featured on the concert was a brand new band (this was our first ever performance as well) featuring Kenny Warren-trumpet; Mike Gamble-guitar; Devin Gray-drums; and myself on bass. We premiered a piece of mine entitled Airports, and it was truly an honor to have these amazing musicians play my music and to be able to perform with them.

I traveled a lot by plane this past Summer/Fall and this piece was conceived as a way to productively use my time while sitting alone in an airport. Not a very clever title. Anyway, the concept is that it’s written for quartet in five movements. Each movement three people have a written part and one person is left to improvise their own part. The final movement is through-composed for all four musicians, and each movement is open for group improvisation. This particular performance took the form of one long piece, with improvised sections connecting the movements. I’ve provided a link to the LaunchPad performance below. Feel free to share with your friends, download, put in your computers recycle bin, etc.

Airports (A. Hopkins)–performed by Kenny Warren-trumpet; Mike Gamble guitar; AH-bass; and Devin Gray-drums

John Dierker’s Holiday Sextet @ The Red Room 12.30.11

John Dierker is one of my favorite musicians in the whole word, both to play with and to listen to. I have the pleasure of working with him often as members of Quartet Offensive and Lubbock, and in a number of varied improvised ensembles (an impromptu duo performance as a result of two people not showing up for OOYH is one of my favorite musical memories…and one of my biggest regrets for not having my mp3 recorder). He is truly one of the gems in the Baltimore creative and improvised music scene. Other people recognize this as well, which is why the Red Room features John every holiday season in a year-end improvised blowout concert. The band he put together this year was top-notch, and I was honored to perform with these amazing musicians and great friends. This years holiday ensemble featured John on reeds; Dave Ballou-trumpet; Marc Miller-guitar; Chris Pumphrey-rhodes; AH-bass; and Will Redman-drums. More video to come…this is the first segment from the performance. Enjoy!

BeeP HonK (Ballou / Pirog / Hopkins / Kuhl) @ Birkfest 12.18.11

Just a quick post to share some live recordings that I’ve been a part of lately. BeeP HonK is a new band that I’m REALLY excited about. We were formed as a one-time-only ensemble as part of the Out of Your Head Collective, and the band played so well together that we decided to continue as a fully functional band. There are some very loose compositions written for the band that we sometimes play and sometimes ignore. In this particular Birkfest set (our third gig, including the OOYH set) we more chose to ignore the written material. The band is Dave Ballou-trumpet, Anthony Pirog-guitar, AH-bass, and Mike Kuhl-drums. Stay tuned for more from this band…more gigs and a record hopefully in the works soon. Enjoy:

BeeP HonK @ Birkfest 12.18.11

1) Fluffer Nutter (D. Ballou)

2) Scratch & Sniff (A. Hopkins)

3) BeepHonkChuckle (A. Hopkins)

4) Nice Spot (D. Ballou)

Lubbock @ Windup Space 9.25.11 Full Set Recording

A new Baltimore-based 10-piece ensemble that I’m a part of called Lubbock had our second (ever) gig last night at the Windup Space. I’m so excited about the band and last night’s gig that I want to share the music with you. The entire bill was great, and much thanks to Friday Night Book Club and Sunshine Soldier for making it an awesome show.  As always thanks to Russell, Holly, and Bobby at Windup Space for making it our favorite place in the world to play.

The band is Cam Collins-alto sax; Eric Trudel-tenor sax; Colin Renick-bari sax; John Dierker-bass clarinet; Dave Ballou-trumpet; Brent Madsen-trumpet; Jim McFalls-trombone; Chris Pumphrey-rhodes; AH-bass; and Nathan Ellman-Bell-drums. These are some of my favorite improvisers to play with, and they all have some sort of roots in my hometown of Baltimore. This gig was so inspiring and I’m looking forward to doing more with the group in the future.  Feel free to download these tracks and share them with anyone who might be interested.  Enjoy!

Lubbock @ Windup Space 9.25.11:

1) The Rabo 10 (A. Hopkins)–featuring Chris Pumphrey-rhodes

2) Hapie (D. Ballou)–featuring Jim McFalls-trombone

3) [Title] (D. Ballou)–featuring Eric Trudel-tenor sax; Colin Renick-bari sax; John Dierker-bass clarinet

4) The High/Low 3.0 (A. Hopkins)–featuring Dave Ballou-trumpet

5) little e (A. Hopkins)–featuring Cam Collins-alto sax

6) Haymaker (E. Trudel)–featuring Brent Madsen-trumpet

7) Characters (C. Renick)–featuring Dave Ballou-trumpet; John Dierker-bass clarinet; Brent Madsen-trumpet; Eric Trudel-tenor sax; Jim McFalls-trombone; Cam Collins-alto sax; Colin Renick-bari sax

Out of Your Head Complete Fall Schedule

Guitarist Matt Frazao and myself have a lot of musical projects together. We play together in and both write music for Quartet Offensive which is still playing these days and recording a live album at An Die Musik on August 25. In March 2009 we created this thing called Out of Your Head.  Many of you know what it is, so I won’t go into any detail but there is a lot more information at outofyourhead.org. With the help of our great friend Russell de O’Campo (Windup Space owner) it has grown beyond out belief, involving over 50 creative musicians in Baltimore, and seeing steady crowds each week for our performances. Seeing these bands perform every Tuesday is my favorite part of the week and we couldn’t do it without the awesome musicians who are part of the collective.

We just finished the schedule for the rest of August, September, and October and it is a good one.  Lots of amazing bands in here.  The collective performs every Tuesday night at the Windup Space (12 W North Ave) in Baltimore from 9:30p to midnight.  And it is always free. Here’s the full schedule for Fall 2011 (OOYH Fall Schedule):

August 16–Ben Frock-trumpet; Susan Alcorn-pedal steel guitar; Jackie Pollauf-harp

August 23–Danny Gouker-trumpet; Janel Leppin-cello; Chris Pumphrey-rhodes; Will Redman-drums

August 30–Eric Trudel-reeds; Matt Rynes-reeds; Mike Cerri-trumpet; Savino Palumbo-piano; Patrick McAvinue-violin; Zack Branch-cello; Zach Swanson-bass

September 6–John Dierker-reeds; Matt Frazao-guitar; Jack Leckie-bass; Mike Ross-drums

September 13–Peter Formanek-sax; Anthony Pirog-guitar; Brian Brunsman-bass; Alan Munshower-drums

September 20–Colin Renick-reeds; Adam Hopkins-bass; Ethan Snyder-drums

September 27–Amanda Bloom-voice; Lauren Shusterich-voice; Erik Spangler-turntables, electronics

October 4–Dave Ballou-trumpet; Blake Cramer-vibraphone; Michael Ronstadt-cello; Mike Kuhl-drums

October 11–Anna Meadors-sax; Dan Wallace-sax; Dan Ryan-guitar; Jason Cohen-drums

October 18–Derrick Michaels-sax; Jon Lipscomb-guitar; Kevin Gift-keyboards; Mike Ross-drums

October 25–John Dierker-reeds; Andrew Delclos-bassoon; Liz Meredith-viola; Alex Weber-bass; Nathan Ellman-Bell-drums