Jeff Kaiser, Emily Hay groups at Open Gate 12/7/03


Jeff Kaiser and Emily Hay are both well-known LA-area players, and both brought guests from out of town to Open Gate this evening for some adventurous improvisational collaborations.

First up was Kaiser (trumpet, electronic processing et al.) with Ernesto Diaz-Infante, from the Bay Area.  Diaz-Infante covered a gamut of extended techniques on acoustic guitar, with fluttering, scratching, tapping, harmonics, and more.  Kaiser produced a good variety of trumpet sounds using mutes and muffles and reed mouthpieces, and sampled/looped both his and the guitar sounds, with additional processing such as sub-octave harmonization.  The two of them played a single uninterrupted set covering lots of ground through broadly evolving textures, which made for a satisfying musical journey.

Following was Hay (flutes, vocals, prepared piano, et al., with electronic processing), with Marcos Fernandes and Lisle Ellis from the San Diego area on electronics.  Fernandes and Ellis both sampled sounds from recordings (Fernandes also sampled from live-performed hand percussion) while looping, layering, collaging and modifying those sources.  Hay had some harmonization and looping in her processing, but the live performance drove the shape and pace of her contributions, whereas her cohorts tended more to shape their end result in the electronic processing.

This trio played several shorter improvisations, allowing Hay to switch around to various instruments and vocals.  Her vocalizations were some of the most striking effects she created this evening, with an impressive collection of yabbering, swoops, shrieks and other sounds more frequently heard from instruments than voice, with the exception of a few people like Diamanda Galas.  Her flute playing (covering alto, standard and piccolo) was accomplished and effective, and she included a smattering of piano with chains resting on some of the strings and other extended techniques, for a change of pace.

This evening as a whole was dense with energy and motion, lots of accomplished playing, and even more complex electronic digestion.  Quite an earful.