Standing at the Precipice: MOFO, Part 1 of 6

Alright, there's nothing quite like flying for over 30 hours to make your day, or days. I am now here in lovely Hobart, Australia, to perform at the MOMA FOMA (MOFO for short) festival. The headliners are The Flaming Lips, but the theme this year is percussion. So there are a lot of great percussionists on the bill, including Dame Evelyn Glennie and Antonio Sanchez, who tonight will be performing a live soundtrack to the film, Birdman. This is a must see!

 There are some fantastic Australian percussionists who I look forward to seeing and possibly playing with some of them. I'm doing 6 performances: 4 solo and 2 duo. I have a duo set with Melbourne trumpeter, Scott Tinkler. Check him out on YouTube. He's got some really cool ideas where he plays foot pedal percussion while playing trumpet. Oh, by the way, he's an amazing trumpeter! My final performance is an open one where I can invite other festival artists to play, so we may have some sort of percussion thing happening.

So now I'm sitting in my hotel at 5am working on what I'll be playing. I brought some small Gongs, bells, and percussion with me, but the Big Gongs are being supplied by Paiste and Festival curator, Brian Ritchie, who has quite a collection. This enabled me to travel light with just 2 suitcases and 2 bags. Thank you both Paiste & Brian!

 I'm trying to figure out which of my compositions I can adapt to the gear provided. It will  be fun to play different instruments. It will also be a challenge, as each Gong tends to have it's own personality. So, there will be a fair share of improvisation, which suits me fine.

 And don't worry, I'm recording it all, so there will be both audio & video to check out later.

 ~ MB
Chop Water  /  Carry Wood  /  Play Gongs™




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