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The Portland Gig

by Marsupial Hat

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Mark Shilansky
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Mark Shilansky What a gem of an evening of spontaneous composition! This is greater than the sum of its already estimable parts; the players bring out the best in each other. John Paul is a revelation of support and a surreptitious driver of the harmony, allowing Webb and Sullivan to soar in Holland/Braxton-ish conversation, with Neil Shilansky there to adeptly groove or offer expressive color. The music evolves as if composed in advance. Bravo!
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1.
1st tune 27:00
2.
2nd tune 19:00
3.
3rd tune 12:18
4.
4th tune 15:37
5.
5th tune 15:26
6.
Beeaah ba dop dooo dah deh (repeat ad nauseum)

about

It was a cold January night in Portland, ME. We had a little group called Marsupial Hat and liked to go up on stage without much of a plan and just make it up as we went along. I had the thought that we would try to play rock clubs instead of jazz clubs because we didn't really think jazz audiences around here would appreciate us. This didn't exactly pan out. But anyway, back to Portland... we were scheduled to play at The Elvis Room, sister club to the world-famous Elvis Room in Portsmouth, NH, where we played fairly regularly and got good at clearing rooms.

Well, on this cold January night, there weren't many people in the room to begin with, but we started playing and we all quickly realized it was going to be one of those great nights where everything just clicked. I have no idea if the handful of people in the place felt that way or not, they mostly ignored us. But I remember there definitely being sort of a magical stillness in the air that we found our way into. A lot of the tunes built slowly and everything just connected very easily and naturally that night...the ideas were flowing and developing pretty powerfully. We had a blast and I think we were pretty unanimous that this was one of our better gigs.

This is not a high fidelity recording, as you'll hear. But I'm so glad we have a recording of it. It was recorded on a single microphone into Jonathan's four-track tape recorder, which he was great about bringing to every gig. If not for him handling recording duties we wouldn't have this. This is the entirety of the recording we have of that night, with no edits, and actually we ran out of tape in the middle of the last tune so you'll just have to wonder what happened after that...

Anyone who's reading and listening to this, we truly appreciate your interest all these years later. I have to sign off here with our band motto, courtesy of Travis:

"Sit back and enjoy!" :)

-Tim

credits

released May 7, 2021

Travis Sullivan - alto sax and the occasional outburst
Jonathan Paul - guitar and positive vibes
Tim Webb - acoustic & electric bass and concerned looks
Neil Shilansky - drums and good humor

Recorded live at The Elvis Room, Portland, ME, January 7th, 1996. Recording and engineering - Jonathan Paul
Digital transfer and remastering - Tim Webb
Cover photo - Brandon Constant
Cover design - Tim Webb

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about

Tim Webb Kittery, Maine

I'm a bass player / improvisor / performer / composer living in Kittery, ME. I play with free improv group Equal Time, and work as a freelance bassist with many local musicians. Most of my recent work has been in the area of jazz and free jazz, but I'm now working on some new projects that involve progressive rock, found sounds, ambient music, etcetera. Especially etcetera. ... more

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