Ethel
I played a concert in New York Thursday night with Ethel, a progressive string quartet. I first met them at Joe’s Pub in 2005, and we invited them to perform at the TED Conference last February. They are an astonishing group of players who met at Juilliard, but unlike many classically trained musicians, they’re able to stretch out and lend their skills to many diverse styles of music. They often collaborate with rock musicians like Joe Jackson and Todd Rundgren, and have a flair for rhythmic beats that would do Led Zep proud; yes they can segue effortlessly into Phillip Glass-style mesmerism, or even Delta blues.
Thursday’s performance was billed as the first annual Ethel Fair, where they brought together a group of friends to raise money for their non-profit foundation. Also on the bill were the brilliant multi-instrumentalist Mark Stewart (currently working as Paul Simon’s right-hand); Klesmer clarinetist David Krakauer; a young prog-rock band Electric Konpany; Navajo singer/storyteller James Bilagody; and a guy called Kurt who has a band called P.A.M. the’s entirely made up of mechanical automata.
Not having a full crew, I just brought a ‘B’ rig consisting of my MacBook, Virus TI Polar, and a TriggerFinger. I built up ‘The Flat Earth’ from scratch; then in the second half Ethel joined me onstage for ‘I Love You Goodbye’ and ‘Science’.
I enjoyed making use of the venue’s tasty 9′ Steinway concert grand. The last time I played a ’steam’ piano onstage in NYC it was the white grand that comes up out of the stage at Radio City Music Hall. And it’s been a while since I sang into anything other than my headset Crown mic, so it was strange to have a boom mic that doesn’t follow my mouth around!
It was great having real strings (and Mark Stewart’s banjo) on ‘ILYGB’. It’s the first time I’ve played it live since New Year’s Eve 1999, and it sounded really fresh. Ethel are very easy to work with, and I hope to compose something specifically for them one day.
The only downer was that when I arrived at JFK airport yesterday for my flight back to San Francisco an hour and 35 minutes prior to my flight, it was utter mayhem and after standing in three didfferent lines, by the time I got to the front I was told it was too late to make my flight. There were no more that day and the first one they could get me on was the same flight 24 hours later! Fortunately I have some good friends in Brooklyn who rescued me and took me to their family’s Chinese New Year party, which was a lot of fun. So now I’m catching up on some email backlog and I’ll make sure to get back to the airport REALLY early today.
Glad the concert was a success…. was it recorded/filmed? Would love to hear ‘Goodbye’ with strings. And a future collaboration with Ethel written by you? Very cool idea. Working with other musicians always brings out new creative avenues.
Beech
Hi Thomas,
It was great seeing you again as always in the big apple. Thanks for saying hi after the show, I was the guy who looked like a black hatted Russian. The show was really terrific my wife and I thoroughly enjoyed it, as it was a truly a unique and fun show.
Sorry you had the flight problem. Seriously if you ever need a place to crash in the city, I have a spare flat in the building next to mine ( actually it’s my mother-in-laws but she is usually in France) . I live in Sty-Town in the East Village off of 14th street so it’s pretty central and usually close to wherever you are playing and it’s a great quiet spot in the middle of MAdhattan , same offer goes to Darren or Lunnese if they need to.
i to would love to hear ilygb done like this,ive got a feeling it could be quite “balanescu quartet-ish?” anyway glad all is well,but the question still remains mr d,when are you coming to uk? cheers,david
Wow.. I would have loved to have been at that show!! I fell in love iwht Ethel when I saw them as part of the Todd Rundgren and Joe Jackson tour. I have both of their albums, Ethel and Light, and cannon reccommend them highly enough! They are making some of the most innovative music out there these days and really redifine what a string quartet is all about. On my myspace page, you and Ethel have been side by side on my friends list. I hope that is prophetic and that you tour with them sometime in the future. As a fan, it is very cool when two artists that you love, make a musical connection. Gives a bit a validation to one’s musical tastes. :
so glad I trekked the Vermont Blizzard to go to this show!
I love you Goodbye made it all worth it, it really filled the place up.
we had the forum section in the 4th row, NatK, Space Intruder Detector and I with our chicks, It doesn’t get much better than that.
cool having the band sing the background vocals of Ilove you goodbye into their pickups.
and Damn could that Clarinetist wail! (I never thought I’d say that)
hey Thomas,
where did you play I love You Goodbye on New Years Eve 1999???
Stevie- I think the New Years Eve ’99 gig was one of the shows taped for “Forty,” right?
Beech
for some reason I had those Forty dayed listed as:
12.31.0 Whistler BC
10.14.0 Whistler BC
maybe (probably) I am wrong??
Holy Schmolly! You were in town and I blinked. ILYGB is one of my faves. These are all the songs on my computer at work. Airhead
Airwaves-long version
Budapest by blimp
Hot Sauce
Howard the Duck
Hyperactive-heavy mix
Hyperactive
hyperactive-GTA mix
I Love You Goodbye
Neon Sisters
One of Our Submarines
Screen Kiss
She Blinded Me with Science
She Blinded Me with Science-Hot tracks Mix
The Flat Earth
When Love Breaks Down
White City
Windpower-extended mix
It makes for a very nice working enviroment to say the least.
‘Forty’ dates:
10.14.98
12.31.99
Sounds like good times. When I flew to Washington, I was terrified that I might miss my flight, having just fallen off the turnip truck in OKC. Luckily all the nice people at the “real airports” were very helpful and explained things to me in terms that even I could understand. Anyway just be glad you didnt make the mistake of eating one of those “pretzel dogs” from Annes… By the time I got into the air I felt like I was going to die!!
Anyway glad things went well.
Very cool!
Ethel has to be the nicest bunch of musicians I’ve ever met, not to mention…they rock hard!
They were here in Fullerton, CA last year for a Women in New Music festival and did a very interesting piece as a collaboration with Pamela Z (Ethel Dreams of Temporal Disturbances–which is on the new Light CD). With Thomas Dolby, I can see endless possibilities!
I’d be in heaven with a TMDR/Ethel collaboration.
seroiusly? the 2 Whistler (Forty) dates were over a year apart?
“TMDR Says:
February 20th 2007 at 8:43am
‘Forty’ dates:
10.14.98
12.31.99″
Random thought:
The first thing I thought of when i read the title was:
“I said, ‘Ethel! Don’t look!’ But it was toooo late.”
“…he was nekkid’ as a jay bird……oh yes they call him the streak, fastest thang’ on two feet….”
Sorry…. could not resist. Nothing to see here…. Please continue the conversation…..
Look guys, seriously, I think it’s time we all acknowledge the cultural debt of the White Nudity-Based Novelty Single to the Black Nudity-Based Novelty Single.
*
(Mr. D wants not for covers, however I would run to an actual record store to acquire his take on Ray Stevens’…erm…”classic”…imagine the audio quality of those news-flashes!…plus, perhaps the ideal double A-side with Robyn Hitchcock’s “Kung Fu Fighting”…the mind simply reels…)
*
Ethel 4-ever.
Huh, the formerly vanishing blog…I read this the day you posted
But hey, now it’s back,
it, Thomas, but didn’t have the time to reply then. When I came
back to reply, it had VANISHED! Oooo!
so better late than never for me, hmmm?
Man, I’ll bet “ILYGB” sounded wonderful, Thomas. I always loved that fast-paced piano part you played so masterfully in that
song–I’d think, “Wow, that man can *play*.” And I do love the sound of a banjo, for some reason–I was into the Kingston Trio for a while a few years back, even. Heck, ya never know what you’ll find in my music collection.
Ethel sounds amazing. That sounds like an excellent collaboration,
that would benefit both yourself and Ethel, I think.
You know we all love the way you can generally get your “infer-
Yup, sometimes real wood-and-strings-and-wire {piano wire,
nal machines” to make incredible music, but I know that a few
of us are glad that you’ve been around a few actual pianos lately.
I should clarify} instruments can be a breath of fresh air. Their
resonance goes right down into the soul…
Peace and hot tea with lime [I got tired of lemon]
Kara, incurable music lover.
Oops, I feel compelled to clarify {just in case anyone ever reads
this, hee hee} that when I said that I didn’t have time to reply,
I meant that I didn’t have ample time to just relax and compose
and rewrite at my leisure, the way I like to do. I do like to
attempt to avoid potential for misunderstandings, ’cause misunderstandings make me very uncomfortable {I cannot bear
discord}, so I like to ‘get it right the first time’.
But obviously I don’t always!
Peace and Tiramisu {one of my few irresistable weaknesses}
Kara again…