Ok, Henry, it happened to me too frequently today with various clicks
on myspace, so I will paste it below. It's kinda long but I hope you'll
enjoy it. When I post links of myspace blog entries, I assume those
blog entries are set as "public", so they can be viewed even from
outside myspace (but it wouldn't work if the privacy settings are "for
friends" only, nor can I see myself those that can be viewed by the
blog owner only - why blog at all, then?). Now, I agree with the
previous posters - Trey may be a bit too full of himself. But, hey,
when you're, what?, perhaps the most innovative stick player on the
planet at the moment, maybe that's excusable, if not acceptable, right?
I will live that to your judgment. Here are two entries:
[the DGM live below is actually a link - here it is as well
http://www.dgmlive.com/archive.htm?artist=20&show=1099
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Monday, November 06, 2006
Trey with Fripp and Eno
Category: Music
DGM Live releases unreleased Brian Eno recordings including sessions
with Robert Fripp and Trey Gunn
It is a rare treat to find the archive of a true creative leap. It is
even more rare to be witness to one.
I can, boldly, make that second claim. Perhaps even a few times over.
And while there is always a subjective element to any such claim, I
feel extremely confident, without even a small sliver of a doubt, that
one of these moments fell upon us at the session I did with Robert
Fripp for Brian Eno's "Nerve Net" sessions.
This was somewhere around the early 1990's, I can't remember exactly. I
was in the UK at the time working with Robert when he said that he was
going to down to spend a few days in the studio with Eno. He and Robert
have had a long history together, from the trio of Bowie records in the
1970s, to their own duo albums that, essentially, birthed the concept
of ambient music. After a day or two I got the call to come down to the
studio and join in. In all, I was only there for two full days, but it
was an eye opener in so many ways.
Firstly, I had never worked with Brian before, nor ever met him. He is
one of my heroes, having either single-handedly master-minded some of
my favorite recordings or, at the very least, facilitated moments of
mastery just by being present. Either way I was excited.
And he was wonderful. Completely down to earth and incredibly inspiring
to be around. He exuded total enthusiasm for whatever was going on.
Cheering everyone on to the best playing. He acted like the perfect
host to musical dinner party where everyone's story was welcome and
absorbed with the utmost interest.
We spent one day going through tune after tune. Robert had done most
the playing that Eno had really wanted from him in the days prior to my
arrival, so we spent a lot the first day with me. However on the second
day, he set Robert and I to play together on all sorts of tracks that
he began throwing at us. It was a wonderful challenge for Robert and I
to get to know each other, and each other's playing, at a different
level in this new context.
By the end of the day we were getting a bit spent and Brian was running
out of things to throw at us. But he had this one last percussion idea
that he thought we might add to. For the first pass Robert played some
kind of strange sustain-y, pad-ish thing while I grooved along in the
low end. There was an odd kind of freedom in it -- very much
foreshadowing what the Crimson Projekcts would more fully come to
realize. A freedom to go wherever the melody took you. Even if it took
you far, far away from where everyone else..s melody was leading them.
And yet, we each heard each other, and the combinations,
simultaneously.
When we finished the recording of this pass I can remember saying to
Robert "It was as if any note I wanted to play was the right one, and I
had the freedom to go anywhere". Mind you this was in sharp contrast to
the kind of harmonic structures that both, I was familiar with and
Crimson had been working in up to this point. So there was clearly a
kind of external freedom to the form that came from such an opened
ended harmonic framework. However, there was also an inner kind of
freedom that we were participating in that I can't fully hold the
harmonic form responsible for.
And then something truly remarkable happened.
Brian asked Robert to solo over the top of this track. Robert gave him
that quizzical, Frippian look that I have since grown to know so well
-- "Oh really! And what should I play, then?"
Brian had the answer, apparently. Or he didn..t have the answer but
faked it very well. Or it didn..t matter whether he knew or not, but he
knew how to put Robert in the place where it could happen. Or all
three. Either way Fripp delivered, and in a way I had never witnessed
before.
Robert was out in the studio and we were all in the control room. The
track took off and Brian began conducting Robert with these insane arm
gestures. He would gesture for Robert to play some kind of line, up or
down, and then hold on a long sustain note. And then would gesture
another line with both his arms swinging out madly all over the mixer
board, and then hold on another sustain note.
While Brian was being more amusing than a court jester with his bounds
of enthusiasm shooting all over the room, I could hardly pay much
attention to him for the sounds that Robert was feeding us. Theses
crazy, uber-chromatic lines spilled out of his hands. He was playing
everywhere throughout the tonality, barely landing anywhere before
moving on to another more distant pitch, and to another landing point
and then on to another. Even the idea of pitches and how they connect
together seemed to have been abandoned for some kind of rolling,
fluidity of pure movement. Like a waterfall cascading down a rock face,
not concerned for where it might splatter on the way, just knowing that
it was meant to hit the earth eventually. And yet, keenly aware of
where every drop fell on its trajectory and how that fit into the
whole.
We were clearly witnessing the emergence of a new vocabulary. I had
never heard Robert play anything like this of the sort. We all know he
is a man of many secrets (nudge, nudge), but this was more revelation,
than show and tell of a past discovery. I knew, instantly, that
something had just been born. And something that would grow fruit for
quite a while.
- - -
We finished the sessions, said goodbye, and went on about our various
businesses. In the end none of the tracks that I played on wound up on
the record. This was sad for me, but it can often happen that
individual moments of good things in the studio don't fit into the
whole of a recording. And even this wonderful moment of musical birth
didn..t make it into the final compiling.
But, now this track has finally become available through the DGM
website. This is, no doubt, due the new possibilities of releasing
tracks separately from a collection of material. The old idea of a
group of pieces (an album or CD) being the only format for recorded
music has been abandoned in this new digital age. And so, we now can
hear this moment.
- - -
It has been very interesting for me to hear it after all this time. In
the interim Robert and I worked with David Sylvian for three years,
with King Crimson for 10 years, and with a span in the middle of that
devoted to the Crimson Projekcts. I know that the moment that I
witnessed that day birthed a vocabulary that carried through all these
projects. It especially saw its fullest realization in the Crimson
Projekcts (which were improvised nights of chaos, mayhem and beauty),
and in the Crimson time period of "The Power to Believe". I could
pinpoint specific developments -- the tracks "Level Five", "The
Deception of the Thrush" and others. But the truth from my insight is
that this moment had the seeds of the music for the following 15 years
embedded within it.
And then the big question is: how does this track sound now? The title
being "Cross Crisis In Lust Storm".
Well, it is very intriguing for me. There is a kind of controlled chaos
to the track in general and Robert's playing is sometimes submerged and
sometimes soaring out over the top. To my ear, the guitarist has long
since superceded what is here. Just listen to Projekct Four or a live
recording of "The Deception of the Thrush", or ask anyone who saw the
Crimson double-duo live in its last two years. But still, here is the
beginning.
It is very hard for most people to go back in time and feel the power
of a revelation being born once you have read the novel formed from its
seeds. But take it from me, this was a birth, and I am grateful for
being one of it..s witnesses.
And here is the link again for those who want to hear for themselves:
DGM Live
4:58 PM - 7 Comments - 22 Kudos - Add Comment
XRAYConcept
Thank you for this interesting part of music ... I have nearly all of
B Eno & R. Fripp recording and I will listen to this one...
Friendly
Pierre
XRAY Concept
Posted by XRAYConcept on Monday, November 06, 2006 at 5:45 PM
[Reply to this]
Mima
Well blow my skirt up.These guys just keep going! Thanks for the info
Trey.
Barbara
Posted by Mima on Monday, November 06, 2006 at 6:41 PM
[Reply to this]
DARREN
thank you so much for the insight!
darren
Posted by DARREN on Monday, November 06, 2006 at 10:08 PM
[Reply to this]
Edi
Probably the most jaw-dropping blog entry I've had the chance to read
in ages.
Amazingly, it also casts a light on what those days of Eno, Bowie,
Fripp days "in the Hansa bunker" might have been like. I've only had a
papercut about.
Also, remembering the statement of moving forward you made on your
official site a few years ago, Trey, the appreciation of fellow
musicians you have worked with, as reflected by this blog entry, is so
intense that, it commends a round of applause, at least from this
humble reader.
Posted by Edi on Tuesday, November 07, 2006 at 2:04 AM
[Reply to this]
Sun Moon Star
Thanks for the incredible insight into the creation of "Cross Crisis
in Lust Storm", a song currently in heavy rotation in Johnny Love's
truck!! Very much appreciate your post which was a joy to read! Reminds
me just how much I loved your road diaries over the years!
Wishing you continued success in the new year, Trey!
Johnny
Posted by Sun Moon Star on Tuesday, November 07, 2006 at 3:01 PM
[Reply to this]
Adam
Most excellent indeed - thanks for the info!
Posted by Adam on Tuesday, November 07, 2006 at 3:01 PM
[Reply to this]
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Re-reading the last two lines in your message, Henry: perhaps you
remember the statement Trey made on his official site when he left
Crimso - it was brought over here on r.m.p. too: "I thought I would
play with the best musicians on the planet, but I don't want to do the
same thing over and over again". And yet he expressed deep appreciation
for Fripp and Eno in the aforepasted blog entry, as can be read. And
that was the whole point of the humble comment I myself made above, as
can be viewed. And now, just for curiosity, here's the other blog entry
that I mentioned previously:
[he includes a screenshot, perhaps it can be viewed at
http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i154/7directions/Idontlikeyou.jpg ;
also, my very own comment below is just the LOL emoticon
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Monday, October 02, 2006
A Refreshing Bit of Honesty
Finally, a person who speaks from their own truth.
My hat goes off to anyone as blunt as this.
5:25 PM - 7 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment
Youth International Party Deux
I guess to each his own?
No Apologies frtom me either, however I like your music!!
Posted by Youth International Party Deux on Tuesday, October 03, 2006
at 5:01 PM
[Reply to this]
Ivano aka Jestas
quite strange, one who actually doesn't like something doesn't even
bother to write about it, usually, I just deny the friendship request
of any musician I just plain dislike, I don't write them to say I don't
like them, or if I do I try to do it in a constructive way :) I just
look away and don't bother whenever I see something I don't like, am I
wrong?
Posted by Ivano aka Jestas on Tuesday, October 03, 2006 at 5:02 PM
[Reply to this]
Edi
Posted by Edi on Tuesday, October 03, 2006 at 5:05 PM
[Reply to this]
Mark
ROFL!!!!!! Wow!! Just, WOW!!
Is that what's meant by "Baseball bat honesty"???
Posted by Mark on Wednesday, October 04, 2006 at 12:51 AM
[Reply to this]
Gezha Prime
I love it when people do that!
Posted by Gezha Prime on Thursday, October 26, 2006 at 2:03 AM
[Reply to this]
Davin
Posted by Davin on Saturday, October 28, 2006 at 5:25 PM
[Reply to this]
Will Freedom
paul simon is the one whose music is terrible. irony!
Posted by Will Freedom on Monday, November 06, 2006 at 6:38 PM
[Reply to this]
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