Michael Mull Octet

Michael Mull Octet

Friday, July 2, 2010

A few gigs and a project

Happy 4th of July weekend to you all. I'm playing a quartet gig at a party tonight with Milen Kirov, a great composer/keyboardist. We're playing some killer Bulgarian and Macedonian funk jams, ornaments and odd time signatures, but always funky. If any of you are going to be in the South Bay tomorrow morning (Saturday), come check out the Alex Smith Trio featuring Alex Smith on drums, Emilio Terranova on bass, and myself on saxophones. Yes, this is JAZZ THUNDER under the leadership of Alex!

Close friends of mine know that I have been a long-time fan of Meshuggah, a metal band whose music centers around intricate, "over-the-barline" rhythms set over a deep groove. Meshuggah holds various points of interest for me, but I am finally getting to a little project of transcribing some of the incredible guitar solos by lead guitarist Fredrik Thordendal. I've only got one down so far, but several more planned for the coming weeks. His solos are both frantic and skillfully constructed, and each solo yeilds a different, highly creative approach, something not often found in the rock/metal world. I will post some pdf files here for reference and (hopefully) discussion once I've compiled a few solos. In the meantime, if you haven't checked out Meshuggah yet, DO IT!

2 comments:

  1. I'm pretty sure Meshuggah played in my living room some years back...oh wait! That was you!

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  2. I guess Fredrik plays both 7 and 8 string electrics...nothing easy about playing those and definitely opens up the tonal possibilities.

    Nice to hear from you both on the 4th!

    I'm off to the studio 2 nite w/Dog, Sparky and Kip...(Dog just got back from Norway)

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