It all started with a trip to Cuba with my good friend and fellow percussionist Kofi Andoh. We were immersed in the worlds best Cuban Salsa, Rumba and Bata music from Habana to Santiago. This music had such a profound effect on me. We knew we had to do something about it. Shortly after coming home we had the good fortune of teaming up with the great Mike Hams (traps and Brazilian percussion) who had just migrated to S.D. from Seattle. We all quickly filled my truck up with our percussion instruments and took to the streets (my favorite place to make music happen) where we found our voice. What makes this group is our ability to improvise and effortlessly weave in and out of musical cultures at the drop of a hand. We pride our music on its mostly improvised language and wide variety of ethnic instruments.

"Kodami" means "codes" in Polish and Ko/Da/Mi is the first two letters of our names.

The group is:
Kofi Andoh
Congas, Surdu, Bongo, Clave, Talking drum, Bells & Blocks

Mike Hams
Traps, Triangle, Vibes, Shakers, Gamelan Chimes, Bells, granite blocks

David Hurley
Timbales, Gamelan khyber, Tuned Alpine Bells, Graduated Bells, Cuica, Marimba, Bamboo Flute.

Web site and more music coming soon!

Love,

David

MONDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2008 David Hurley Interview It started with an advertisement for Porter Records in an issue of Waxpoetics. Along with recordings by older greats like Byard Lancaster and Rashid Ali, Porter advertised a CD by drummer David Hurley. I was intrigued and ordered a copy. I'm glad I did, as Outer Nebula Inner Nebula is a really cool CD, full of great, percussive improvised group music and spacey solo pieces by Hurley. It's a fun listen. I really enjoy the way Hurley plays within an improvising group, and wanted to ask him a few questions about his influences, his processes, and what his plans for the near future are. Thankfully, he agreed to do a short interview. Read on and be inspired! You are based in San Diego. Is this the area that you grew up in? Yes! Born and raised and at the moment based in SD. What were some of your formative musical experiences? Having the chance to see Ornette Coleman still bring it at age 78… He really impressed me. As a musician I’d have to say playing (sax and traps) on the streets or “busking” if you will… I can honestly say this has made me a stronger and more conscious musician. Playing down town on the busy street corner, I find myself in a position where I’m able to freely bounce ideas off an unsuspecting audience, which naturally reflects consistent honest (sometimes too honest) feedback. After doing this for a few years I’ve found it has greatly helped me as a creative improviser to be comfortable and confident improvising freely while keeping the ball rolling and thus keeping things interesting. You start to be aware of things like attention spans as you play off of your audience… When you have one. The club situation offers this but not nearly as raw and intense as the streets. It’s much easier to consciously or subconsciously disconnect yourself from the audience on stage and in the comfort of a venue. I get formative musical experiences off youtube all the time. Most recently I had the opportunity to record and play music with Elliott Levin. It was an amazing experience thanks to Luke at Porter Records. To be connected by some thin branch in the same jazz family tree as Cecil Taylor and so many other great players is an indescribable feeling. On Outer Nebula Inner Nebula you play horns, flutes, and keys along with percussion. Did you play in school bands, church bands, etc? How about teenage years? Did you play in Punk or garage bands? Never played in school “band” bands. I started playing drums in a punk band at age 16 in high school. Punk is and always will be at my roots. The interest in other instruments came partially natural. I try to think in melody and colors with rhythms. I do remember someone explaining to me early on that if I wanted to be a great drummer I should learn other instruments. I took that to heart. You also play a lot of percussion from various parts of the world. Have you played in any kind of ensembles, e.g. a Gamelan or Taiko group? I wish!!! The closest Gamelan ensemble I know of is at UCLA. I’ve always wanted look into it. My Gamelan instrumentation came about with a good run on ebay with some pot-gongs and hours of youtubing/listening to Balinese Gamelan and Ketjak. I obsessively listen to world music for inspiration. Just recently I spent some time in Cuba studying conga drums. Did you take trap lessons? Any teachers/elders that had a great effect on you in your personal life? I didn’t take lessons for the traps. I often wish I did… About the time I discovered Elvin Jones’s magical drumming I was really into Fugazi’s drummer Brendan Canty and music of that genre. Elvin stumped me. I knew if I just listened hard enough I’d understand. That’s how Tony Williams, Billy Cobham, and Christian Vander worked their way into my head. Not to mention a huge appreciation for all of their music. You dedicate Outer Nebula Inner Nebula to Elvin Jones. Clearly you have a high amount of reverence for him and his music. Can you talk about this, or any other great musicians from history that inspire you? Well, Elvin has this enormous heart and soul that emanates from his drumming. He is one of the most honest drummers I have ever heard. You can actually hear him feel the music and lift it up on his shoulders. He was a reflection of Coltrane and vice versa which made him even stronger during the time of that synergy. He completely absorbed the moment! Other great drummers are takers of the moment like Tony (who I love). Tony was a lot of flash and talent. But I always come back to Elvin. Christian Vander is just straight up entertaining… Elvin on acid and steroids . I love the way Christian looks with his iced over eyes rolled up in his head behind his Gretsch bebop spaceship… A huge inspiration! Were improvised music or Jazz styles that you heard in your house as a child? No! My mom did listen to Mahavishnu Orchestra and King Crimson when she was my age. Sadly her LPs were long gone by the time she had me. Jazz and Improvised music came much later. The ensembles on Outer Nebula Inner Nebula feature a lot of percussion and not too much of the more traditional instrumentation. What were some of the factors that lead you to organize groups like this? I wanted a sense of balance between the sounds and instrumentation. Percussion is a given, however, I specifically chose the djimbe and djun djun to provide the high highs and low lows so the alto and the drums (two mid range instruments) could weave in and out freely and comfortably. It takes a lot of consideration to make a group or ensemble really work. Also I’m fortunate to make music with such talented musicians. Can you talk a bit about the members of the ensembles on Outer Nebula Inner Nebula? Are these men all part of and improvised music scene in the San Diego area? Do you play in any of their groups? Leonard Mack and I are cousins and grew up together. The funny thing is we both found the drums independently of each other. He is a member of a folkloric African drum and dance ensemble with Ousmane Toure. The Nebula sessions are only the second time we had played together. I felt an intense visceral/familial connection to his drumming, which I feel came across nicely on the album. Preston Swirnoff is a close friend and multi-talented producer of dub, psych and experimental music. We have worked on several projects together over the years. Most notably Seesaw Ensemble and Habitat Sound System. Brian Ellis is one of my musical heroes. He makes anything he picks up sound good. I don’t think he had that violin more than a week before he recorded solar wind drone. He is the lead guitarist in ASTRA, a psychedelic neo-prog group I am honored to be a part of. Google or youtube him… He’s making an impressive mark. Zuri Waters is foremost an artist and was my faithful street companion and horn player in Seesaw Ensemble. Needless to say we know how to listen to each other very well in an improvised situation. He’s now studying art at RISD. One of the things that I love about the CD is the way in which you leave lots of space in your playing. Can you talk a bit about your approach to percussion/trap set playing within an improvising group? If you can listen harder than you are playing you can count on being in a good place to make music interesting. Studying congas has given me a new sensitivity to the traps. Sometimes I’d rather be playing them with my hands (sometimes I do). On the album the drums almost gel like some sort of swinging language at the best moments, which created a more African vibe than a jazz vibe. I kept from riding the cymbals too much which also helped the drum set become more African. Outer Nebula Inner Nebula features four tracks that are solo pieces. How do you go about with this process? Hard to say… Cosmic Moon March was actually the first song I recorded for the album and coincidentally the first thing I ever recorded with my computer in my living room all by lonesome. Funny how it’s also one of my favorite songs on the album. When I was researching mics and preamps I wanted to have just enough to make a “Van Gelder” style recording using dynamic mic and focusing on placement to absorb the room sounds. I haven’t quite mastered this yet!!! With the tracked songs I approached the music as if it were improvised. Making a simple rhythm or bass line, which inspired the next rhythm or sound and eventually it would take shape and I’d know where it was going and how I wanted it to get there. I have a house full of collected musical instruments from all over at my disposal. Sometimes I just set them all up and try to find the best combinations of sounds and rhythm. The track Solar Wind Drone is quite intriguing to me. It's under a minute long, but there sounds like so much is going on within it. If you'd like to, please describe the process of composing/recording this amazing piece. Ha, it actually was part (the very end) of a much longer piece, which I liked very much. My computer farted and most of the songs tracks were lost in a spit second. When the album was nearly finished I had this thought of using some of Ellis’s violin and my moog from the remaining tracks and thus Solar Wind Drone was reincarnated… This time as a forty second vamp. It works in so many ways in contrast with the rest of the album and with the order of the songs as a bridge from one style of recording to another. I’m glad you like it. What kind of drum set did you use on Outer Nebula Inner Nebula? How about cymbals? It was custom made for me by Hard Bop Drums out of Arizona. My graduation present to myself. I use Zildjan K Constantinople hi-hat and ride cymbals and a Meinl Jazz ride. Do you have a favorite non-trap set instrument? Congas are my first love lately. I’ve also been giving the cuica and flute a lot of attention. Do you have any plans to tour in the near future? It would be great to hear you at the Elbow Room in S.F. or 21 Grand in Oakland! I don’t have any solid dates at the moment; however, sometime in May I’ll be in SF with Khan Jamal and Byard Lancaster and members of Seesaw Ensemble for a Porter Records tour. I should be headed your way with ASTRA soon as well. It would likely be in February or March. My most recent project is an all percussion ensemble. It’s taking shape quite nicely at the moment. We ought to make something happen in SF soon. Until then, Cheers. POSTED BY DISASTER AMNESIAC AT 7:41 AM

Year: 2008 Record Label: Porter Records Style: Various Jazz Styles Review: San Diego, CA., resident and percussionist David Hurley’s 2008 release looms as one of my unanticipated favorites within the seemingly ceaseless expanse of experimental and progressive jazz genres. With African rhythms, resonating primal screams, Moog EFX and free-jazz sax lines by Zuri Waters, the music translucently incorporates various jazz-drenched and world music stylizations. The album artwork looks like something you’ve seen before, especially during the enterprising late ‘60s and ‘70s psychedelic or perhaps free jazz music scenes. Consequently, Hurley injects a nouveau slant into these works amid his arsenal of ethnocentric percussion implements, sometimes shaded with Preston Swirnoff’s droning organ phrasings. Highlighted by studio-based echo treatments and the sounds of what might be considered, music for an avant-garde rainforest, the percussionist’s game-plan also consists of spaced-out lunar sojourns. In effect, Hurley’s music jubilantly works its way into your neural network. On “Inner Nebula,” the musicians execute a turbulent free-jazz thematic foray amid Waters’ soul searching lines, yet Hurley tempers the flow via his quaintly rendered mallets and flute passages during “Wenckbach.” Ultimately, this largely upbeat session rings with a resounding breath of fresh air. Not overcooked or superfluous, Hurley shines as a forward-thinking artiste. And he’s a prophet of good cheer as the proof lies within. (Strongly recommended…) Record Label Website: http://www.porterrecords.com Reviewed by: Glenn Astarita

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2008

David Hurley-Outer Nebula Inner Nebula
avant-garde- n. A group active in the invention and application of
new techniques...esp. in the arts

Using the given definition, it would be really hard, almost impossible, to consider any music currently produced as avant-garde. I'm not trying to by cynical here, just trying to come to some sort of definition of the music played on David Hurley's great CD, Outer Nebula Inner Nebula. Let's go with Creative Improvised Music.
Hurley is a San Diego based drummer/composer whom I found about in the great Waxpoetics magazine. On this CD, which seems to be dedicated to Elvin Jones, Hurley leads quartets, trios, and duo's through six tunes, augmented by four more solo multi-tracked ones. The former for the most part sound improvised, and are characterized by their heavy emphasis on percussion. Hurley generally augments his drumming with djembe and junjun, played by Leonard Mack II and Ousmane Traore. This percussion heavy approach gives the ensemble tunes a great AACM or Sun Ra Arkestra feel, with lots of clicking, chirping, chiming and bubbling sounds surrounding the alto saxophone soloing of Zuri Waters. Waters takes good advantage of his often lone melodic role within the ensembles, soloing in free form interaction with the percussive bed around his sounds. His solo on Inner Nebula is particularly great; at one point I swear I hear him quoting Aaron Copeland! On Deep Giant squid he takes a slower, more contemplative approach for a while before launching off into the depths of the tune, interacting with the spacey-as hell organ bleeping of Preston Swirnoff. His tone throughout the disc is raw, kind of like Sonny Simmons or Archie Shepp. Hurley's trap set drumming on the cuts with other players in pretty remarkable. Even during his most heated interactive moments, he has a great sense of space, as in leave some for everyone else. Oftentimes it seems like free drummers take all of the freedom and none of the discipline, either groove-wise or ensemble-wise. David's drumming never comes across as overbearing. One gets a sense that he's really listening to his band mates. On the solo pieces, the listener is treated to more contemplative soundscapes, often reminiscent of John Cage's percussion pieces. Hurley is particularly effective with the brushes on Shake the Noise Maker as he explores quiet sounds on his expertly tuned kit. Here is where the Elvin influence really comes across (see the track Who Does She Hope to Be? on Sonny Sharrock's Ask the Ages for comparison). Cosmic Moon March ups the tempo a bit, with groovy Moog and balaphon playing making it sound like the music in the club in which Sun Ra took up residence after leaving this planet. David drops the drums entirely for the fifty second long Solar Wind Dance, a weird duet with violinist Brian Ellis. The song's strange ambiance is disturbing, all the more effective for it's brevity.
In terms of production, Inner Nebula Outer Nebula is quite strong . Hurley wisely keeps tunes on the shorter side of the spectrum, thereby avoiding one major pitfall encountered in improvised recordings: the CD length track. This wise editing allows the listener to move through the different spaces presented by his various combos, getting the full effect and not having to put up with the inevitable filler that occurs within group improvisations at just about any level. The sound is warm, with great separation between the various instruments; even the "little sounds" of shakers and bells come across well in the mix.
Inner Nebula Outer Nebula is a great example of creative, improvised music. At this point, so many years after the initial forays of the Jazz Avant-Garde, I hesitate to give it that description. I can unhesitatingly call if cool, fun, creative, funky, spacey, and ass-kicking. If you dig any of those factors in your ears, you could do a hell of a lot worse.
POSTED BY DISASTER AMNESIAC AT 8:31 AM

Ha, guess this is my month of press! Just wanted to share a few cool tidbits...

Look out for a full page photo/interview in the Union Tribune arts section for Nov 30th. Had the pleasure of meeting/being interviewed by George Varga - SDUT Music Critic. A real diamond in the ruff!!!

Here's a link to a SDUT blog posted by Keli Daily my new friend/neighbor:

http://www.signonsandiego.com/entertainment/street/2008/11/nebula_rising_on_david_hurleys.html

San Diego City Beat elected Seesaw Ensemble as "Best Miles Davis Worshipers"

Using an original template to create jazz is not exactly something that San Diego is well-known for, but the Seesaw Ensemble (www.myspace.com/seesawensemble) might change that. They're all young, extremely talented cats carving a niche for themselves in the scene by performing in dives and playing free jazz that's somewhere between Ornette Coleman's "harmolodics" and, as Seesaw puts it, the "Pharoah Sanders Ensemble with Sun Ra sitting in." The core unit consists of Manny Vega (bass), Zuri Waters (sax), Preston Swirnoff (piano, percussion) and the multi-talented David Hurley (mostly on drums, but he also plays a ton of other instruments, such as flute and Bulgarian bagpipes), but they're known to collaborate with poets at the Kava Lounge or with Mira Cook Dance performers at Qualcomm Hall. You could call it hipster jazz, but think of them like The Bad Plus, except without the random Nirvana and Rush covers.
—Seth Combs

Also, ASTRA was elected "Best Local Band Under the Radar"

Astra, recent signees to U.K.-based Rise Above Records, specialize in a super-uncool vein of progressive rock, the kind played by Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Yes and post-Syd, pre-Dark Side Pink Floyd. By some miracle of the retro gods, not only does it not suck, but the band manages to make prog sound kinda good. They've been kicking around town for awhile, and as stylistic kinfolk to fellow local shredders Earthless, it's a high priority to catch them live when they're done recording their debut.

A contemporary album, but one with all the spiritual, soulful 70s modes you might guess from the cover image! David Hurley plays drums and percussion -- stating a big influence from Elvin Jones in the notes, but also showing an approach that's a lot more sensitive and organic as well -- much more in the range of some of the best percussionists of the 70s loft jazz scene, particularly in the way their approach was almost as melody as it was rhythmic! And in addition to percussion, Hurley also plays a bit of flute, vibes, and moog on the record -- shifting easily between instruments with the relaxed, curious ear of an AACM musician -- and joined by various groupings of players who include Zuri Waters on alto sax, Leonard Mack II on djembe, Ousmane Traore on junjun, Brian Ellis on violin, and Preston Swirnoff on organ. Most tracks have a style that's outside, but never too much so -- more creatively improvised, with a very thoughtful ear towards organic sounds. Titles include "Cosmic Moon March", "Shake The Noise Maker", "Deep Giant Squid", "Outer Nebula", "Inner Nebula", and "Don't Wake The Baby". © 1996-2008, Dusty Groove America, Inc.