TONY LEVIN'S B.L.U.E. Tour Diary
April 5 thru April 19, 1998
Pre-Tour
April 5 - Tokyo
Arrived two days ago with Bill Bruford for our Japanese tour. David Torn and
Chris Botti are arriving today, then after travelling tomorrow, we'll play our
first show Tuesday in Nagoya. Very much looking forward to it. Rehearsals in
New York were fun - our live versions of the music from the "B.L.U.E." cd
will bear some resemblance to it, but they're going to be more stretched out.
We'll also do a composition from David Torn's "Cloud About Mercury" cd. And
improvise, of course.
Yesterday there was a press conference - Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew and Trey
Gunn are also here, to promote their new "Projeckt Two" release. (on DGM
Records) They and the Bruford Levin Upper Extremities group will be playing
as a double bill here in Japan (only.) Should be very interesting. The "press
conference" was also open to the public, (I thought I saw a PapaBear t-shirt
out there, and even some funk fingers being waved. Maybe it was my
imagination!) and was well attended.Each of us spoke about our respective cd
releases, and tracks were played from them. Since the four members of the
'80's King Crimson were all there, we also spoke to the press about the coming
release of "Absent Lovers" which is a live recording from 1984 of the last
show we did before the band broke up (for 10 years, that is - perhaps 'took a
long break' is a better phrase.) (That cd release is coming this Summer, I
believe, from DGM Records.)
As usual in Japan, I'm only sleeping a few hours a night for these first days.
Spend much of the night trying to get my modem to work (perfect activity for
the middle of the night!) It's having a bad hair day now, so I've logged onto
Trey Gunn's account and computer to send this update to the page.) Today we'll
do a couple of "instores," which consist of the musicians being parked at a
table in a record shop, and autographing their respective cd's for the public.
It's a bit strange, but helpful to sales - I would like it more if there were
time to talk to the people, but here in Tokyo it'll be too big a crowd.
On the U.S. tour, Bill Bruford and I will do a few instores shortly before
our soundchecks - the locations are below. Other than those, Papa Bear
Records is just selling the B.L.U.E. cd over the web, and by 800 number. (and
at the gigs, of course.)
There seem to be Starbucks in various parts of Tokyo, so decent espresso
isn't far away anymore here. We've hit Japan at their lowest exchange rate in
years - remarkably a cup of coffee costs about what it does in the U.S. A few
years ago, it was up to $10 a cup here.
I'll update in a few days - looking forward to seeing some of you on the
upcoming tour.
B.L.U.E. Japan Tour: Day 1
April 7, Nagoya - Japan
Tonight was the first show for Bruford Levin Upper Extremities. The double
bill, here in Japan only, includes "Projekct Two" which is a Crimson off-shoot
with Robert Fripp, Trey Gunn, and Adrian Belew playing electric drums! Nice
double bill - they're completely improvised, and we do written material from
our cd - but we won't be doing any shows together after Japan. The show went
very well, with the expected foul-ups. The monitor engineer speaks no English,
so when things are wrong, it's a comedy scene up on stage to get it fixed. The
B.L.U.E. part of the show is only an hour long here in Japan, and we had to
shorten the set while it was underway - again no way to tell the monitor mixer
that!
One of the big challenges for me was singing my one-note drone on "Cerulean
Sea" - it's the first time I ever sang lead (albeit, it's only one note!) and,
to increase the challenge, I start the piece with just voice. Having decided
to introduce the piece in Japanese, I got so focused on the pronunciation of
the introduction, that I forgot the pitch of my note. I started it anyway, and
after a while, when I added the bass - ouch, I was flat! In my clamor to get
the pitch up to where it belongs, I must have sped the tempo up a bit (still
just me singing and playing) so when David Torn's rhythmic loop entered,
(another challenge to be going at exactly the right tempo) again, I was off,
and needed to adjust. Sweat dripping down my forehead, I tried to enjoy having
given myself some decent musical challenges. Now hopefully, I can move on to
actually getting it RIGHT!
The show features a wonderful combination of things. Chris Botti's stage
presence is great - at times he seems to be speaking right to each member of
the audience. Then, there's David Torn's wild loops and 'seagulls on acid'
solos. Bruford's feeling and playing great - you never know what to expect
from him. We're starting the show in the Crimson manner, i.e. Bill comes on
and improvises, then we each join one at a time for some chaos - finally
joining to go into the first piece. The U.S. tour, with at least an hour and a
half in each club, is going to be a lot of fun for us all - I only wish the
tour could be longer.
B.L.U.E. Japan Tour: Day 2
April 8, Osaka
Second show went well too - funny how quickly the chaos has subsided. It's
always fun doing the first show of a tour when you're under-rehearsed and
don't really know what's going to happen. By now, we're working on the finer
points - endings and cues - and the only real shocks from here on will come
from somebody counting wrong, or just plain old mistakes (lots of them
around.) We got our needs translated to the monitor mixer, and I decided not
to introduce "Cerulean Sea" in Japanese, so I could focus on the vocal
instead. Much better.
Here in Japan you generally travel between cities on the 'bullet train.' It's nice, but our baggage needs to travel the night before, so typically we return from the show, have to pack and have the bags outside the room door by 11 pm. Next morning, meet in lobby, taxi to train, train to next city, taxi to hotel, (no luggage yet) lunch, taxi to soundcheck, taxi back to hotel (baggage there by now) and .... taxi back to the gig. You can see that the short part of the day that's actually PLAYING is the easy part.
Back in the U.S, we've had a great response to the B.L.U.E. cd - both in pre-release sales and in people saying how they enjoy it. Almost all of the sales so far have been from the web site - funny that we almost didn't add the on-site-ordering feature, thinking not many would use it.
With the holiday weekend and our travel back to the States, I don't think I'll update this letter until next Monday - having done a couple of live internet chats over the weekend. Happy Passover and Easter to all. Hope to see some of you at the shows in the coming weeks.
B.L.U.E. Road Diary: US Tour - Day 1
April 13, New York City
The show at Toad�s Place in New Haven was marvellous. Much jetlag within the band, but it was shrugged off for a fun evening - helped along by a great crowd. Reminded us why we�ve always liked playing at Toads.
Bill and I did a medium sized signing at Cutlers Records, a nice shop near the venue. I took some photos of Bill signing, of course - we saw a lot of the same faces later at the show.
Drove to NYC after the show, and now on to Philly on Tuesday - instore at
Tower Records, and what should be a very good gig at the T.L.A.
Note: quite a few people have written asking if it's o.k. to take photos at
the shows (unlike with Crimson!) I've contacted all the clubs, and neither
they nor the band mind photos as long it's without flash.
B.L.U.E. Road Diary: US Tour - Day 4
April 16, Alexandria, VA
The Bruford Levin Upper Extremities tour has been .... breathtaking! Fantastic
audiences every night, very appreciative and receptive. Bill and I have done
some instore cd signing (in New Haven and Phily) and met with quite a few of
those who like our music - amazing numbers of whom mention having visited the
web site!! Bill kind of shudders when he hears that because he's a staunch
non-computer guy ("I like to communicate with the quill") and doesn't want to
hear about how some people actually get the virtual thing to work well for us.
The shows have been wonderful - the band is getting better and better - still
lots of surprises from Mr. Torn over in guitar loop land on stage left! You
never know with David what's going to happen - one of our pieces, "Cobalt
Canyons," is sometimes begun with him strumming a tape recorder over his
guitar pickup in time, the recorder playing what sounds like a middle Eastern
call to prayer - he samples the rhythm of the distorted pickups hearing the
player, and that becomes the guitar rhythm! He's also been known to sample
Chris Botti's trumpet as Chris is playing, and quickly echo it back, backwards
and an octave lower - stuff like that. Whee.
Some notable events: Philadelphia, down on South St, at the T.L.A, I got my
second parking ticket of the tour when I had to park at a meter which demanded
to be fed hourly till 9pm. Do they expect me to leave the stage to feed the
meter! Same happened in New Haven. Also in Philly, I was doing an interview
backstage after soundcheck, didn't notice the time, and showtime came while I
was still being interviewed, not in stage clothes, and totally not prepared to
play. Same night after show, a minor crisis when Bill's pants took a walk!
What I mean is that, having removed his sweaty stage clothes, he couldnt find
his other pair, for a LONG time - and was wandering pantless, trying to find
them. We decided that Chris might have inadvertantly packed them in his bags,
and I went out into the house looking for Chris. The 150 people who had
remained there to have their cd's autographed, assumed, naturally, that I was
among them to perform that function, meanwhile Bill remained pantless.
Eventually, the errant trousers turned up, being black, and having been hung
on a black door in a dark corner of the dressing room.
By the way, the after
show cd signings have been a big hit. The impression I get is that the Crimson
fans can't believe that Bill and I can be so accessible, since Crimson isn't!
Really, it's a pleasure to have some contact with the audience, and with such
a small record label, I really appreciate those who want to plunk down their
dollars on our product -- it's just with Crimson that, alas, there are more
rules imposed about signings and photos (as many of you know, I'm sure!)
The Birchmere, in Alexandria VA, is a wonderful club - very organized, nice
sound, and great backstage room for the band. Made for another excellent show
last night. Now off to Baltimore for a gig there tomw. I haven't had time to
update till today, and my powerbook isn't in the mood to let me send graphics
- I'll upload some photos when I hit NYC and some more news of this thoroughly
exciting tour.
P.S. Yesterday we set a one-day tour record with 4 U turns, all within blocks of our hotel, (two of them were actually legal ones.) It was a pretty ifficult place to find. Then, after doing a Voice of America show in
Washington, Bill and I, late for soundcheck, were given faulty directions to
the venue (we think!) and found ourselves again on the same hotel road, again
going the wrong way. This time after doubling back, we thought that maybe they
had been right -- so we re-doubled back, went a few miles, and found that the
directions were indeed wrong. Another U turn, and we were on track for
soundcheck, though a tad late!
B.L.U.E. Road Diary US Tour: Day 5 Baltimore, MD
Yesterday, our first day off - a much needed break and band dinner (they're
always fun - it's funny how musicians so appreciate a night free to go out and
get a bite to eat.) Not so many U - turns yesterday - we found our way from
Washington to Baltimore with only a little travelling in the wrong direction.
(In my car, with me driving, and Bill Bruford's navigation, spoken impeccably
in his BBC voice, it always surprises us that we go wrong so much!)
Yesterday's Washington hotel, actually in Arlington VA, was pretty bad for us.
It's hard to describe the dejection one feels when, having been working
solidly from 9am to midnight, you arrive finally at your hotel after the gig,
and they've given away your room. That was the situation there for only one of
our touring group, Paul, who does our monitors and asst. in sound. We're
without the usual exclusive road manager, (Robert Frazza is doubling as sound
engineer and some of the road managemt - and I'm doing some - some just isn't
getting done) but, faced with this hotel mess (the lobby was full of angry
travellers also unable to get their rooms) we had a surprise. Mike Nunziatta,
who's doing our merchandising at the shows, stepped to the front and took over
the situation. He demanded the manager - he pulled out faxes he'd received
guaranteeing the room - he had documentation of faxes and calls he'd made to
the hotel - he wanted them to call the daytime mgr and wake her up - seeming
indignantly outraged, he said we'd refuse to pay for all 7 rooms - he was
GREAT. They, of course, responded that they had no rooms, but somehow (an hour
later, at 1am) Paul got his room! So Mike's the hero of the day, and will
certainly handle all hotels from here on! (It could be that his experience
being road manager for NYC rock groups touring Eastern Europe has prepared him
for the inevitable hotel disaster. He sure seemed to be expecting it.)
Tonight will be a long one - two shows here in Baltimore, then drive 4 hours
to New York (though a tornado system that's arriving here from Nashville) for
two shows tomw. in NYC. At least, from New York, I can upload some photos from
the tour.
I'm off now to do some instore cd signing at a record shop called "Of Sound Mind" - somewhere in Maryland!
B.L.U.E. Road Diary: US Tour - Day 6
New York City
The shows in Baltimore were a hoot. The Orion Studio�s venue is quite small,
staffed by really nice, helpful people, and attended by a very enthusiastic
audience. My pals Mark and Lee flew in from Detroit for the show, and I
enlisted their help in filming the show. I hadn�t been in a place that small
since Uncle Funk, our local Woodstock bar band, last played the Tinker St.
Cafe. After doing the two sets, and signing some cd�s (I�m getting to really
like that part, but my signature�s getting pretty hard to read!) some of the
band took off for New York, with me driving. I had feared the tornado weather
following us, but I guess we drove too fast for the raindrops, because it was
clear all the way. There was some fudge backstage, and though I don�t love
chocolate, it was a correct guess that a couple of pieces of that made me
buzzed enough to fly to NYC. I dropped Torn and Botti off in the village, and
made it to my apartment by about 5am. (should I apologize for being too tired
to update the road letter? I think not.)
Bands always get psyched up about playing in New York, but this isn�t a
normal kind of tour, and we were too tired, and also, the Knitting Factory is
a very laid back kind of place - I thought I saw a sign saying legal capacity
is 199 -- odd, since there were 400 people at each of the two shows we did.
At the Knitting Factory, the music went great again - it�s really fun with this linuep - we�re all bemoaning that we can�t keep touring for the next month. It�ll be sad to see it end. I shot some video from the stage at the shows. Torn�s solo segment with the electric bouzouki was especially tasty, and we had a great band improv. in the second set. A great pleasure not driving anywhere after the show - tomorrow we�ll be off to Boston for the last night.
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