BAKU: Live at Elixir, December 26th, 9PM--FREE

BAKU  (Yuichi Arai, Takezo Aoki and Jerry Gordon) will play an eclectic mix of free improvised jazz-tinged experimentation for your boxing day contemplations and/or Bonenkai--[forget the year]--pursuits. 

The night promises to be ripe with inspiration for New Year's resolutions and offer numerous opportunities for chewing on dreams. 

Date: Friday, December 26th, 2008
Time: 9:00pm - 11:00pm
Admission is FREE

Elixer is Guido's new bar/cafe. He is working his magic atop the stove, so get your taste buds ready. Those of you who remember the vibe of Guido's cafe Agave will be happy to see he's back at it.

Location: Elixer Cafe Bar: Dakota House (just south of YMCA and the National Museum on Nakanoshima)
Street: 1F 1-23-30 Edobori Nishiku, Osaka, Japan
Phone: 0664442001

Salads in Space at Destine 13th, 8:30PM

December 13th (Saturday), 2008

Salads in Space (Rick Tuazon, Charles-Eric Billard and Jerry Gordon) will play two sets starting around 10pm on the 3rd floor.

¥1000 charge includes a drink.

Cafe Destine is a cool little 3 Floor place that's big on seesha and authentic Mediterranean food. Down a super-narrow alleyway in Umeda, it's worth finding early and trying their food, which ranges from vegetarian dishes to grilled meats and fresh seafood. Damned tasty and reasonable chicken kebab sandwiches, in my opinion.

For directions and a 10% off dinner discount coupon: http://www.whynotjapan.com/guide/destine/en.htm

call Destine at 06-6363-6341 to reserve a seat

Jerry's directions into the labyrinth that is Eastern Umeda: To get to Destine, the nearest exit from Umeda Midosuji station is the M2 Exit at Izuinohiroba through the Whity Umeda underground shopping area. Go out of the south ticket gate of Umeda Midosuji and stay underground inside the Whity Shopping area. Head east and look for exit M2. Come out of the M2 exit and walk north towards Tsutaya. Before Tsutaya, on your right you'll see two places called Gallery and then Org cafe. Between them is a narrow alley. Go in the alley and Destine is midway through, on your right.

Good luck traveller.

Salads in Space at Elixir, Nov. 8th, 8:30PM

Salads in Space (Rick Tuazon, Charles-Eric Billard and Jerry Gordon) will be performing with dancer Yangjah at Elixer Cafe Bar.

As well, special guest performers Reiko Imanishi (koto) and Hiromi Shirai (performance artist) will be playing during the evening.

Admission is Free

Elixer is Guido's new bar/cafe. He is working his magic atop the stove, so get your taste buds ready. Those of you who remember the vibe of Guido's cafe Agave will be happy to see he's back at it.


Date: Saturday, November 8, 2008
Time: 8:30pm - 11:00pm
Location: Elixer Cafe Bar: Dakota House (just south of YMCA and the National Museum on Nakanoshima)
Street: 1F 1-23-30 Edobori Nishiku, Osaka, Japan
Phone: 0664442001

Ghost Music, Oct 31st 5:30PM at Cypher

Ghost Music

Jerry Gordon plays small sounds in a dark room

An audio seance welcoming dead avant guardians to step out of the grave for an evening of chai and weird dancing.

Microsonic songs stolen from a radio playing backwards on the far side of the River Styx.

Ghost Music was an event of micro-sonic music played to/for dead people. The concept was to invite ghosts/the dead to come into the space and enjoy the evening with the living: very informed by Day of the Dead sensibilities. When people arrived at the show, I had them write the names of a dead people they know on small slips of folded paper. The slips were then set around the room, allowing the dead to be present in the room. And, as the night progressed and as people thought of more dead people they know, they wrote more slips and we filled the room with visitations, the names of the gone arriving back like timely song birds.

The pieces of the evening were all played for/to specific dead people I and other people know, with the intent to not mourn them but to entertain them, to keep them in the imaginal mind of inspiration and in that way commune. I invited a few people to play with me and/or read poems for their dead folks, and so several other voices joining tonight--Tabou, Charles-Eric Billard and Yuichi Arai played music, Yangjah danced a ghostly piece outside on the street and Ralph read a poem he composed for a neighbor he greeted many times but never met.

The Unknown Gardener
by Ralph Famularo


You in the corner,
Come join this evening confluence.
You who lived around the corner,
at the corner of the narrow path
Where only foot traffic and dappled shadows amble.

You who broke daily meditation on your flowers
to greet my zenith and declination,
the signpost for my going for the gold
and bringing home the bacon.

You who tended to the roots of your Nature
and what stems from growth,
Nurtured unfolding light with each new petal,
As I got entangled in the daily brambles
of human emotion.


And a decade blew by as a late afternoon breeze
in the savory warmth of spring,
in the burnt aroma of summer,
in the weakening hues of autumn,
and the dull, damp clouds of winter


Then you, whose name I never knew,
Blossomed into the Nameless
and left your colored greetings lingering
behind the gate I never unlatched.

So, to you, I now return your greetings
with an invitation to visit the old dimension
and meditate on the flowers.


The first set of the night was me solo playing small sounds. I was then joined by Tabou. Then the event was opened for everybody.

Here are pics of the night, by Kaori Yoshimoto:

NowNowNow October 12th on Midosuji

A 6m X 2m space of momentary improvisations.

7 Improvisers on the Biggest Street in Osaka

NowNowNow is an improvised music, sound art and dance event, featuring 5 musicians and 2 dancers. We will be performing from 12 to 4PM. NowNowNow will also include some audience participation in the creation of the pieces we play. And, if you want to add your improvised sounds, words or bodily angles to the mix, contact me and I'll let you know the secret codes.

We will have a goofy 3 meter flag pole set up to mark our site, so please find us, come over and watch us make sounds and movements on the biggest street in Osaka.

It will take place on Midosuji on Oct 12th, from 12 to 4PM as part of the Rucksack Exhibition. Yeah, right on the street, in the area north of Hommachi station, Exit 4--where the big Starbucks in on the corner. The Rucksack website is: http://rucksack-exhibition.blogspot.com/

Members include: 

On Furukawa（古川 遠） http://www.tcn.zaq.ne.jp/hanaarashi/
Chikako Bando（伴戸千雅子） http://www.tcn.zaq.ne.jp/hanaarashi/
Rick Tuazon http://www.projektivity.net/
Takezo Aoki http://www.myspace.com/qujakushow
Charles-Eric Billard http://charlou2006.blogspot.com/
Tadashi Yonago  http://www.chochopin.net/
Jerry Gordon  http://3cmpress.blogspot.com/

Salads in Space

Putting on the Moon Suits

Oxygenologist: Capt. Monkiefeet

HypGnosis

HypGnosis

Smouldering Door and Tabou

Takedao Tunnel Sessions 2008
August 16th, 2008

Charles-Eric Billard (slitars & plinkplunk)
Jerry Gordon (drum, Bb clar, recorder, plinkplonk)
Takezo “Tabou” Aoki (perc, harps, human BB, v)
Jonathan Crewe (drum on track 10)

1. Kaminari 6:59
2. Somnambulance 5:19
3. A Pixi Plays with Lightning 4:01
4. At a Crossroads in DreamLand 4:15
5. Naming Every Stone 7:07
6. Two Broken Sandals 5:59
7. The BoomBooms 6:25
8. Ambitrance 4:17
9. Landfill Chai 7:02
10. Tunnel 6:35

Breathing Through Metal and Wood

CDR

Jerry Gordon
(alto sax, Bb clarinet and hand drums)

1. Very Short Skyscrapers 5:14

Nagai Stadium Solos
2. Stirring Up the Concrete Molecules 6:14
3. Pixi Time 4:32
4. Soliloquy for a Homeless Man 3:07

5. Pixies Dance for Electric Buddhas 5:11

Nagai Stadium Solos (cont.)
6. Narcissus and Echo 9:25
7. Subtle Betrayals 6:04
8. Lonely Woman 3:48

9. Walking in Underwater Shoes 14:47
Gordon (d, recorder); w/ Yoshiki Kato (g, oud);
Naoyo Yakushi (perc); Mitsuru Toshisato (laptop, v, hose); Uta-chan (acc);

June 25, 08 at Tempozan w/ Yangjah
10. A Reed's Song to the Water Grass
on the Intimacy of Terror and Beauty 5:12
11. Boat Motors and Believable Memories 5:48

Concrete Canyon

CDR

Improvised solos by Jerry Gordon for dances by Yangjah

Jerry Gordon (alto sax and Bb clarinet)

Concrete Canyon w/ Yangjah July 6. 08
1. Warming Up the Canyon 6:01
2. Visa for PixiLand 2:42
3. Chasing Eric Dolphy's Bike 2:38
4. Getting Lost on a One Way Street 3:10
5. "There's a Sky Up Above" 5:04
6. Absinthe Blue (pt 1 & 2) 8:12
7. Police Car 1:34
8. Invisible Dancer 5:21
9. Monkiefeet 1:50
10. Wildin' 3:43

June 18. 08 at Tempozan w/ Yangjah
11. 25 Minutes of a Curved Wall's Life 25:10

w/ Yangjah at Hoshigaoka Sewing School, Aug. 2, 2008

This performance was for an opening event of the Swimy Art Exhibition being held at various venues in Osaka. Concrete Canyon, the film Yangjah made of her and my playing in a space between two Osaka office buildings, is in the Swimy exhibition, at a gallery named Beyer.

A CD of the Concrete Canyon recordings is also available, from 3CMPress.

Jerry Gordon and Yangjah at UrBanGuild July 28, 08

Jerry Gordon and Yangjah at JunkRoom Vol 5, June 7, 08

Salads in Space w/ Yangjah at Gallery SoHo, May 31, 2008

Salads in Space 

is Rick Tuazon, Charles-Eric Billard and Jerry Gordon

with 

dancer Yangjah

g's Leaving

(CDR)
music by Jerry Gordon
(alto & tenor sax, djembes, guitar, Bb clarinet)
recorded late ‘07 & early ‘08, because a friend is goin’

1. Born Lost 5:11
2. g's Leaving (take 1) 4:08
3. As Willing As Gravity 7:17
4. Backyard Jack's Funeral 2:15
5. Jim Hall's Toupee 7:14
6. Isla Summer 3:16
7. Nomad 6:39
8. Lonely Woman 3:53
9. The Marshall Stacks 8:41
10. Cemental Moon 4:35
11. Vodka Martini 2:24
12. The Pixy Riding the Alligator on the Rooftop 4:54
13. Blurry Portrait of Derek Bailey 7:08
14. Cookie Factory 3:16
15. g's Leaving (take 2) 3:24

cover image by Gareth Jones

Nomad

Video poem for a piece of improvised music called Nomad
Alto sax, djembes, images & editing by Jerry Gordon