Green With Red Breath - ProfilesArchive

About Me

I grew up with the albums "Areatha Live at the Fillmore East", Ramsey Lewis's "Sun Goddess" and Miles Davis' "Greatest Hits" (late 50's and early 60's stuff) and for some reason, the music of the Bugs Bunny and Tarzan cartoons on TV made a lasting impression. Its a good reflection of my current sensibilities. My main mentors and teachers are; Dr. Wayne Goines (guitarist, my initiation to jamming/freely improvising), Pat Harbison (trumpet, lateral approaches to learning music), John Von Ohlen (drummer, the Taoist view of music and learning), Tyrone Wheeler (bassist, the ideal study of good bass playing), and Adam Friedman (bassist, my early conduit to John Von Ohlen and Pat Harbison, and a compositional mentor). My main musical influences, distilled to the very essentials, are Igor Stravinsky (harmony and contrapuntality), Charles Mingus (contrapuntality and rythmic approach), Elvin Jones (an approach to music from below), Don Caballero (my generation's expression of sublime beauty), John Coltrane (the sacred side of music, the pursuance of a vision), Miles Davis (the poetry of music), and Bill Evans (balance and contemplation). I compose music, mainly jazz head/recipies for select individuals to improvise around/off of, and I also play the doublebass and electric bass. Some previous Green With Red Breath projects: a freely improvised accompaniment to the reading of James Joyce's novel "Ulysses" by ten or so instrumentalists (performed at a local outlet of a large bookstore chain) and a Sun Ra/Ornette Coleman jazz marching band (performed at a local Independence Day parade). In any endeavor, I hope above all else to communicate my feelings of joy, beauty and interconnectedness through the music.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 2/25/2007
Band Members: Green With Red Breath up to this point is basically my influence, rather than a organized group of people. On the songs: Thumbelina: Andrew Neff, sax; Dan Karlsburg, piano; me, bass; Adam Greenberg, drums. Interlude: the Pavillion Music Company Big Band, directed by Rob Mulhauser (with Chris Novy on drums). Green With Red Breath: Oz Landesberg, sax; Sandy Suskin, flute; Dan Karlsburg, piano; Dave Ridenour, guitar; Steve Whipple, bass; me, bass; Tina Raymond, drums; Anthony Lee, drums. Smilla: Andrew Neff, sax; me, bass; Jason Smart, drums.
Influences: Charles Mingus ("the Black Saint and the Sinner Lady"), Igor Stravinsky ("the Rite of Spring"), Sun Ra, Miles Davis (w/Wayne,Herbie,Ron & Tony), John Coltrane (w/McCoy,Jimmy & Elvin), Eric Dolphy ("Iron Man" and "Out to Lunch"), Don Caballero ("What Burns Never Returns"), Henryk Gorecki (Symphony 3), Gustav Holst (the Planets), Glenn Gould ("Goldberg Variations"), Frank Zappa ("Joe's Garage", and his guitar solos/drum interactiveness), Tethered Moon (Masabumi Kikuchi, Gary Peacock, Paul Motian, "Les Chansons de Edith Piaf" - this is what living is all about), Albert Ayler ("Witches and Devils"), Duke Ellington ("the Far East Suites", "And His Mother Called Him Bill"), Monk ("Underground"), Bill Evans (w/ Scott Lafaro), 1970's Tarzan cartoon (synth-y and suprisingly dark), Aaron Copland (film music, general harmnonic sense) and Meshuggah (but don't call it math metal).
Record Label: unsigned
Type of Label: None

My Blog

Where the Bass Belongs

Where does the bass belong time/pulse-wise? Is there a certain place in certain musics that the bass traditionally belongs? Personally, it feels best for me slightly behind the drums, letting th...
Posted by Green With Red Breath on Wed, 31 Oct 2007 08:47:00 PST

the Gospel of Mingus

From the liner notes of "the Black Saint and the Sinner Lady" "When I met Dannie (Richmond) several young drummers had just about burned me out time-wise, and they were sound deaf and tone deaf. ...
Posted by Green With Red Breath on Wed, 18 Jul 2007 01:21:00 PST

Modern Jazz Marching Band

The Modern Jazz Marching Band (for lack of a better name) is on its way. The entire hour-long route consisted of one tempo of a New-Orleans-ish jazz beat (that sometimes dropped to a half-ti...
Posted by Green With Red Breath on Sat, 07 Jul 2007 10:01:00 PST

Gw/RB Drawings in "Pics" Section

Check out some Green With Red Breath Surrealist-ish drawings in the 'Pics' section. (They make great tatoos)!
Posted by Green With Red Breath on Tue, 22 May 2007 10:37:00 PST

Sorry, Jesus...

I have to share an observation, and I wonder if others have had similar experiences/obsvations... and please, please, please share any similar experiences. And first, let me preface it by saying...
Posted by Green With Red Breath on Mon, 09 Apr 2007 03:39:00 PST

Contrarian Miles

Some of my favorite music is Miles Davis recordings from the 70's - "Live at the Fillmore West", At the Isle of Wight (sp?), the Cellar Door Recordings ("Live Evil") - I think its ground breaking stuf...
Posted by Green With Red Breath on Tue, 20 Mar 2007 02:05:00 PST

Rafi Zabor's "the Bear..." and Andrew Neff

I've been re-reading Rafi Zabor's "The Bear Comes Home" and have decided that, of all sax players I've heard, I think the most "the Bear"-like is New York's Andrew Neff. From what I've observed ...
Posted by Green With Red Breath on Fri, 02 Mar 2007 08:44:00 PST