Stage Set Up

iamthebassman · Post by **iamthebassman** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 8:04 am

First set:

Typical Second set:

Typical Third set:

revolver323 · Post by **revolver323** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 9:00 am

Any of these beat the Elvis-in-Vegas style black outfits my band wore in the mid-1970s on the Holiday Inn circuit (disco days). They had spider webs with rhinestones. I felt ridiculous and looked even worse. Thank god I don't have a picture to post.

wayang · Post by **wayang** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 9:01 am

Ronn: You are the Bass Man!

Kent, that's me on the far right with my back to the camera, playing 'right-side' reong...

Everything we do at this stage in our lives should be a far cry from playing Louie, Louie in a basement...

Get out and play it in public!

brammy · Post by **brammy** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 10:44 am

hard to see.... beard/long hair/bandana? ... that one? Looks cool. What instrument do you play ?(not that I'm going know what it is)

Do you also play guitar?

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 12:11 pm

Yeah how did you play that double neck there, it must have stuck out like a sore tabla.

wayang · Post by **wayang** » Thu Aug 04, 2005 7:20 am

You're right, it's far too crowded in a gamelan for a double neck...I'm playing an instrument called a reong (ray-ong), at the number two position of a four-player rig. It consists of bronze 'kettle' gongs ascending in pitch from left to right. In the case of the orchestra pictured, the reong players have two gongs each, played with string-wrapped wooden sticks. On larger rigs like our Semara Dana orchestra, each player covers three gongs, with movements to the left or right into other players' 'territories' as the melodies require...the learning curve involves some mid-air collisions until everyone knows the piece well enough...

I have played quite a bit of guitar, but not lately...I need to get back into it again. I used to play whatever it took to get a band together on the ice, and in many cases that meant playing guitar...my Fender P and Telecaster both have ice time...

winston · Post by **winston** » Thu Aug 04, 2005 2:39 pm

Jeepers Dane I am impressed. I must admit I looked at that site and figured that I somehow got misdirected to another site. I was looking for a rock band. Now that's what I call diversification. Great stuff. Can you post an mp3 of your music from this ensemble so we can all enjoy your music?

wayang · Post by **wayang** » Sat Aug 06, 2005 5:10 pm

Brian...I think you can hear a bit of one piece on the site...there's a category called Listen to Music that should have an MP3 of Panyembrama...it's just a taste of our smaller ensemble, but you'll get some idea from it...

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Sat Aug 06, 2005 6:09 pm

Wow. Beefheart in triplicate. A trip into another mind.

winston · Post by **winston** » Sat Aug 06, 2005 7:51 pm

Dane,

I checked out your MP3 of Panyembrama. Cool stuff. Great for meditation I would imagine. It took me a couple of listens to appreciate the intricacy of the time measure. Aside from the instrument creating the reoccurring melody the other instruments would appear to be quite difficult to play from a timing perspective. I imagine that initially one would have to do a lot of silent counting.

wayang · Post by **wayang** » Mon Aug 08, 2005 6:52 am

Brian, at first that's the case, until subdividing becomes second nature...but silent counting and meditation are very similar disciplines...

It's hard to form a complete appreciation for gamelan by listening alone...the visual aspects of a twenty to thirty piece orchestra, especially accompanying dance or a dramatic presentation, is half the 'entertainment value'. Until one sees gamelan live, it's difficult to imagine exactly what's being done to produce the sounds...

We followed a solo 'new age' synthesist at an outdoor gig a few years ago...I do the stage announcing for the group, and when I got on the mic (after my traditional Indonesian greeting), I told the crowd that they had just been listening to one person sounding like twenty; now we were going to show them how twenty people can sound like one...

There are many styles of gamelan played throughout SE Asia; Bali alone has around two dozen varieties. If you're interested in hearing more, there are many places to start...besides just perusing the world music racks, one good introduction is Mickey Hart's recordings from his Endangered Music series...

brammy · Post by **brammy** » Mon Aug 08, 2005 10:05 am

Dane, I must admit I'd never even heard of gamelan. How did you first get into this?

winston · Post by **winston** » Mon Aug 08, 2005 10:49 am

Thanks for the post Dane. I love exploring "new to me" forms of music. Especially from other cultures.

The textures and the tapestries of these works are often quite ancient and very moving pieces. In particular I love the delicate intricacies of music from the orient and the bold hot blooded music of South America.

I am glad for the fact that there are still musical frontiers to explore at my age.

Again. many thanks for sharing your music.

wayang · Post by **wayang** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 7:50 am

Right on, Brian...there's still plenty of planet to explore right here...

I think we should leave space exploration to the robot golf carts and get on with the Discovery of The Earth...

wayang · Post by **wayang** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 8:00 am

Kent...it's kind of a long story...(you'll have to wait for my Rolling Stone interview for all the details)...but in short: a couple of Denver drummer/percussionists had played a cultural exchange type of concert in Singapore in 1988, and visited Bali, where their minds were blown by gamelan...they came back here and discovered that the University of Denver owned a gamelan, but wasn't using it (stored in a closet for ten years!) They got permission to use it, and got a group of fellow-wierdos together to study and perform. I was one of those wierdos, and am one of two founding members still with the group...we'll celebrate our seventeenth anniversary this October...