[This blog was posted a week or so ago on a new myspace acount called
It is the first in a series of blogs posted over there outlining the progress of the upcoming
show "The Blake and Baba Show" which will happen in the 8th annual Rogue Performance Festival happening in Fresno at the end of February and the beginning of March. Please pop on over to the other site and add us as a friend, and come to the show....and oh yeah! buy the CD when it becomes available in a couple of weeks. THANKS!]
Today I’m mixing a song. It’s one of the last tracks on an album that’s going to be called “Theremins of Mystery.” This song has no theremin, but it has french horn and trumpet (and a bunch of other stuff). The album will be a collection of 12 short instrumental pieces (many of them featuring that dreaded...I mean...‘beloved’ instrument: the theremin!). It’s the first full CD of new music I’ve put out in four years.
The project was begun this last summer in the hopes that I’d convince a local modern dance troupe to team up to create a show for the eighth annual Rogue Performance Festival in Fresno. Happily, they said yes. I didn‘t know anyone from ‘Baba’ or BabaForNow’ as they are variously known, but the Rogue Festival is all about trying new things (I’d never written music for dance before) and making new connections. In the short time we’ve worked together, I’ve already learned that these are energetic, skilled and friendly people who get excited about creating new things. In short, I think we’re going to have fun.
I’ve done instrumental music before---local radio show themes, short films, incidental music for a play, music for a local PBS kid’s cooking show*, but I wanted to do more. And though all of my band's [Blake Jones & the Trike Shop] albums have included short instrumental bits, I wanted to make a collection that would stand on it’s own and hopefully bear repeated (and enthusiastic?) listens, and who knows, maybe open some doors of opportunity to work more in this field.
The album will be available for the first time at the Rogue show that we are assembling: The Blake & Baba Show. Later it’ll be available online, and the regular places that independent music is found, but the ‘release party’ will be this series of shows (dates below).
Saturday, Feb. 28th at 1pm & 10pm
Sunday, March 1st at 2:30pm
Saturday, March 7th at 8:30pm
all shows are at Dianna’s Studio of Dance at 816 N. Fulton Street
Special thanks to Leland Vander Poel (Trike Shop keyboard man) and Scott Nielson (percussion and all-around handy-musician) for helping make this music come alive for the live performance during the shows.
* “Hey Kids Let’s Cook” is into it’s third season(!!) on KVPT broadcast channel 18 . Check it out on
Wed. eve at 7:30 or Sat. afternoon at 3pm. or at
http://www.kvpt.org/programs_A-Z/hey_kids/hey_kids.php