tlev on crim2k

Tony Levin's Road Diary:

May 24, Nashville

There's no experience quite like rehearsing with Crimson.
We're working on the classic material, not trying to write more yet - but some of it is so complex it's quite an effort to get it right.
For Gavin (Gavin Harrison is playing drums now, in addition to Pat Mastelotto) it's all new. For me, a couple of the pieces from the recent albums I hadn't played on are proving very challenging indeed. I even wrote to Trey Gunn (he'd played the bass parts) asking for some clues to the parts!

Actually, The Construction of Light is kind of like a game of Myst - occasional clues lying around, which may, after a lot of wandering, lead to finding the right part. I joked with Trey that to figure out the part I needed an abacus and a bottle of Advil.

As an example, here are some of my names for sections of the piece:
Trey's 28 Ramble - then 29, followed by Rising 15's.
C tone row in 5, triple offset with guitars, then backward.
E Boogalooga with Silent Seven followed by Variable 11's with door knocks in G.
And, from Level 5 there's the Blazing 11's RiffSplat on E, then inverted after two drum 11's.

As I said, there's nothing quite like rehearsing with Crimson!
(Note to self: learn to play parallel 7/8 and 5/8.)

RiffSplat. i'm gonna name my band that...