Here’s a bit of an Eric Clapton tune with me sitting in on mandolin. It’s from Forever Man Unplugged’s debut performance at the Louisville Underground:
Author: Vic
Analogues of Infinity turns 10
My first Curious Automata release, Analogues of Infinity turns 10 today. It’s free on Bandcamp (and up on all the streaming sites) so give it a listen and try to figure out why the heck this is the most popular track:
Music at Dry Land Distillers, March-May 2024
Fearless leader of the Jazz Unit, trumpeter Eric Ottem, joins me in March. Nico Steffens (KoSnoCo himself!) is with me on baritone sax in April. I’ll play the rare solo gig in May, possibly with a special guest or two.
But that’s not all! Pianist Adam Bodine will be playing jazz and beyond on the 3rd Wednesday of each month. He’s a killer player with a unique sound that you definitely need to hear. And with a dj spinning themed vinyl on 4th Wednesdays your midweek blues are cured, at least through May…
New Logo
Ellis Island Day Samper 2023
Here’s a smattering of tracks from Curious Automata’s 2023 releases, including “Somewhere They’ll Find Our Pieces” off my album “What Was”. Richard Ellis has the other 5 tracks… that dude was busy.
Extrapolations on a Familiar Theme by Ellis/Carrillo/Crews (Produced by Vic)
Disaster Squad’s jam is finally fully released. 20 years ago, in pre-Katrina New Orleans, guitarist Richard Ellis, percussionist Louis Carrillo, and bassist Kendal Crews met to run some tunes. Richard was hoping to start a band balancing covers with long improvisations. They played “Strange Brew”, then jammed for hours, filling 5 cassettes. The sound was there, they just needed to refine it and gig. Then came Katrina. Homes were destroyed, clubs closed, and Richard moved to Colorado.
But we have these remarkable tapes. And you can now hear the tune that started the jam, their cover of “Strange Brew”, and wonder what might have been.
Bolder Boulder 2023 with the Eric Ottem Jazz Unit
The Eric Ottem Jazz Unit played the Bolder Boulder 10k this weekend. Playing jazz at 7am is a bit odd but you can watch the coffee kick in as we go
Also, the numbers on this gig crack me up: we played 31 tunes over 4 hours for about 40,000 people. That’s a massive show even outside the jazz world. But, then again, the runners were stuck listening to us as they passed by and probably only heard us for a maximum of maybe 15 seconds so maybe it’s more a typical jazz in the park gig…
Happy 10th to Curious Automata
I started Curious Automata on April 5th, 2013, to solve a problem: that almost every band and musician I knew had a nearly completed project sitting unheard. Aspen Street’s “Still, Still, Still” lost its distributor less than a year after being released. Graphite Addiction’s debut recording had been out of print since 2008. Richard Ellis’ “Disaster Sessions” tapes were shelved for a decade. Tim Carmichael’s “Watching Water” was finished in 2012 with gorgeous production by Gusty Christensen, but no label seemed interested. Pete Ehrmann and I were recording “The Pete & Vic Duo”, a swing duo album that would be a difficult sell during the 2010s push for funkier jazz. I hoped that if I found a way to release those five orphaned albums, along with one of my own, it would encourage all of us to create new material. 10 years later, artists working with Curious Automata have produced a total of:
- 42 CDs
- 4 Lathe-Cut Vinyl LPs
- 5 Bandcamp Exclusive Digital Releases
- 3 Books
- 3 CDs Produced for Other Labels
- 3 Scores for Ads
- 2 Play-Along Albums
- 47 Unexplained Noises Archive Club Releases
I think it works.