Whew, this has been a roller coaster of a ride the past couple of weeks. It all began with a stellar performance with Crater Tater February 18 at the Copper Rocket and ended up last night at the bring-down-the-house style party with the Delusionaires reunion at Will’s Pub. Both are intensely great bands that I am proud to be part of.

Sandwiched in between these two shows Keaton Orsborn, Lucy Bonk, Jadi Lane and I rented a tank and headed North, performing live conducted improvisation interpretations of “The Fortune”. First stop was Conundrum in Columbia, South Carolina. Owner Tom Law showed up the real Southern hospitality and was an incredibly gracious host. It was the premier performance of The Fortune and worked well as a trio of electronics, field recordings (Keaton), more electronics, bowls, waterjars (Lucy), game calls, reeds and the voice of John Ajac provided by my laptop, not to mention the visual presentation that accompanied the performance, courtesy of Keaton and Jadi.

The following performance was at The Stone in New York City. The Stone is a legendary performance space that provides a venue for intense music. There we were joined by my old friend Mario Schambon on percussion. This brought it all together! The performance was amazing and I am very happy with the way it came off. Thanks to Al Margolis  and Pogus for inviting us to perform during his curated event.

Tonight (March 3) will find me in Gainesville for Laboratory Music 5. The Lab Music series are always a blast and it’s always great to see my friends.

Coming up later this month I will be presenting my chance operations piece, “Milton Bradley”, in Jacksonville on the 24th, the Civic Minded Five will present performances by Jaap Blonk (March 25), Fred Ho (March 25), Wolter Wierbos (April 1), David Manson (April 1), and Endangered Blood (April 8).

One final note: Another glowing review of The Fortune CD released on Ilse. This one comes to us from The Free Times out of Columbia, SC:

Jim Ivy’s The Fortune – As if one needed further proof that Tom Law’s little art space (Conundrum) could bring in top shelf avant garde music: two days after this gig, Florida improvisor Jim Ivy presents the very same program at John Zorn’s legendary New York City avant outpost The Stone. A collaboration between Ivy, a saxophonist by trade, and writer John Ajac, The Fortune blends bleating reed instruments, oscillating electronics and shamanistic spoken word into a haunting and harrowing work of music, an aural story that unfolds on a sonic canvas.

~ Patrick Wall

 Thanks for the kind words Patrick.