{"id":232,"date":"2009-10-18T21:58:22","date_gmt":"2009-10-19T01:58:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.warrensenders.com\/journal\/?p=232"},"modified":"2009-10-18T22:09:08","modified_gmt":"2009-10-19T02:09:08","slug":"stuff-from-the-personal-vault-laughing-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.warrensenders.com\/journal\/stuff-from-the-personal-vault-laughing-moon\/","title":{"rendered":"Stuff from the Personal Vault: Laughing Moon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The first &#8220;band&#8221; I ever really gigged with was a free-improvisation ensemble called <em>Laughing Moon<\/em>.  I gather that there is a progressive rock band out there somewhere using that name, which is nice.<\/p>\n<p>I would bet good money, though, that they don&#8217;t sound anything like us.<\/p>\n<p><object width=\"384\" height=\"313\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/eGnitjLPSGw&#038;hl=en&#038;fs=1\"><\/param><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\"><\/param><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\"><\/param><embed src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/eGnitjLPSGw&#038;hl=en&#038;fs=1\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"384\" height=\"313\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\"><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n<p>We started out as an <em>ad hoc<\/em> improvisation group that for a few gigs included guitarist Joe Morris and a drummer named Chris Harvey.  Scott Southworth, Sharrhan Williamson (who was then called Beverly or Bev) and I all connected with a wonderful drummer named Tim Roberts.  That went on for about nine months; I don&#8217;t remember what happened, exactly, but we changed drummers.<\/p>\n<p>Bryan Dennis was a terrific player with an unceasing flow of ideas.  His shifting waves of time were tremendously influential in my early development as a bassist.  The group played together in this configuration for perhaps a year, when it settled on its final incarnation as a trio.<\/p>\n<p>By its very nature, the music of Laughing Moon was not chock-full of popular appeal.  But I recently had occasion to check out one of our old recordings, and I was quite pleasantly reminded of what fun we had, and of how much fun our music was.  Now that I&#8217;ve found the old recordings (and now that my hard drive has been upgraded so I have room for these projects), I&#8217;ve begun putting together some of them with photos.<\/p>\n<p>Herewith, the first batch of Laughing Moon material, unheard since 1979.  Thirty years ago, the three of us went into the broadcast studios at WBUR, on Steve Elman&#8217;s show &#8220;Spaces,&#8221; and broadcast a full set of our idiomatic free improvisations.  <\/p>\n<p><!--more--><br \/>\nHere are some &#8220;videos&#8221; from that show for your amusement and<br \/>\namazement:<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8220;Empathy&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><object width=\"425\" height=\"344\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/Tq3ehyRNyUA&#038;hl=en&#038;fs=1&#038;\"><\/param><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\"><\/param><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\"><\/param><embed src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/Tq3ehyRNyUA&#038;hl=en&#038;fs=1&#038;\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" width=\"425\" height=\"344\"><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n<p><strong><br \/>\n&#8220;The Emu-Pluckers&#8217; Barndance&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><object width=\"425\" height=\"344\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/ct3JqZTm80M&#038;hl=en&#038;fs=1&#038;\"><\/param><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\"><\/param><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\"><\/param><embed src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/ct3JqZTm80M&#038;hl=en&#038;fs=1&#038;\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" width=\"425\" height=\"344\"><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8220;The Star-Spangled Beanery&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><object width=\"425\" height=\"344\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/_297ueV85Y0&#038;hl=en&#038;fs=1&#038;\"><\/param><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\"><\/param><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\"><\/param><embed src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/_297ueV85Y0&#038;hl=en&#038;fs=1&#038;\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" width=\"425\" height=\"344\"><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n<p><strong><br \/>\n&#8220;We Are Not Alone&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><object width=\"425\" height=\"344\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/j3m9u0ATtNQ&#038;hl=en&#038;fs=1&#038;\"><\/param><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\"><\/param><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\"><\/param><embed src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/j3m9u0ATtNQ&#038;hl=en&#038;fs=1&#038;\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" width=\"425\" height=\"344\"><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n<p>There are more recordings buried in my boxes.  I appear to be on a &#8220;resurrect my old material and publish it&#8221; binge.  With luck it&#8217;ll spare me the trouble of constantly inventing <em>new content.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The first &#8220;band&#8221; I ever really gigged with was a free-improvisation ensemble called Laughing Moon. I gather that there is a progressive rock band out there somewhere using that name, which is nice. I would bet good money, though, that they don&#8217;t sound anything like us. We started out as an ad hoc improvisation group [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,9,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jazz","category-music","category-warrens-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.warrensenders.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.warrensenders.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.warrensenders.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.warrensenders.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.warrensenders.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.warrensenders.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":241,"href":"https:\/\/www.warrensenders.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232\/revisions\/241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.warrensenders.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.warrensenders.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.warrensenders.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}