Conduit is an improvising collective of four musicians from the Washington, DC area. Most of our recordings are made in the basement of member Bob Crain, though we have recorded two of our live performances in other venues. None of the music is composed or rehearsed. OK, that’s a lie. One or two of the pieces we’ve played were worked out beforehand. The rest of it is simply played as it happens. Someone starts playing, the rest follow him, and we stop when it feel right to stop. Our music can range from dark and heavy to light and spacey, from free jazz to post-modern rock and roll, from pretty melodies to atonality. We have developed a Group Mind through which we channel their music. The results often surprise us.
Some band history. Ted White and Dan Joy had previously improvised together in various living rooms and basements, and performed together upon public stages, but they allowed many years to elapse without any such musical outlets. In 2004, Ted remarked to Dan (at one of Ted’s fabulous 2nd Friday soirées) that they should start playing together again. J. D. Mack, eavesdropping from nearby, jumped into the conversation and invited himself to be part of their group. This was fairly rude and presumptive, and it could have been disastrous since J. D. had never been in a band before and no one knew if he could even play an instrument. Fortunately, all turned out well, and Conduit became an entity on December 11, 2004.
While the trio of two keyboards and bass made some interesting music, we were having trouble really getting our groove on. Drums were clearly needed to take the music to the next level. As it turned out, one of J. D.’s friends, Bob Crain, was a drummer with improvising experience (previously in Unola) and was happy to join the group.
As of this writing, Conduit has recorded 25 CDs worth of improvisations. We hope you will enjoy the selections we have posted to our MySpace page.
