Join us on June 24th 2010 at 7pm for the CD release concert of "Water Tiger 10" Featuring: KeLan: Basses, guitars, loops, cymbals. Abel Rocha: Harps and Voice. Alicia Jones: Voice. Greg Sinibaldi: Tenor Sax and EWI. Jean Mann: Voice. Steven Banks: Drums. Terry Wergeland: Accordion, Flugelhorn, Piano.

Place: The Good Sheperd Chapel
4649 Sunnyside Ave N. (4th floor)
Seattle WA 98103
Tickets are $15. Buy one ticket at full price, the second is only $5. One free CD with full price ticket!
Tickets at the door or at brownpapertickets.com
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Water Tiger 10 “Conversations on Three Poems”
“Water Tiger” started as an idea to explore more of a compositional form with 3 different trios. The poems deal with themes of transition, compromise, goals and aspirations, reservations, and in general the things we must balance in life.

Each trio entered into a deep musical dialogue on each poem. Compositionally, there is a blend, (and a blurred line), of what is “composed” and what is improvised. The “recording” was done live with no overdubs at London Bridge Studios in Seattle.

The Trios:
Trio #1 finds me on basses, 12 string guitar, loops, and percussion, with the two amazing voices of Alicia Jones and Jean Mann. Coming from very different backgrounds the voices travel from Opera to Pop to Latin to pure sonic expression. We go from spine chillingly beautiful sounds, to rich and luscious tonal textures, to a darker more ominous presence in the course of a measure or two. This trio is “full” of surprises!

Trio #2 is bass, tenor saxophone, and drums. Lots of space emerges without the harmonic or “chordal” layer and the compositions embrace this space. Greg Sinibaldi takes on the tenor and Steven Banks on drums and we all push rhythm and time throughout. “Water Tiger 10” adds guitar loops and an electronic wind instrument called a EWI that changes the spacial context and keeps the sound palettes sizzling!

Trio #3 enlisted the wonderful Harpist and Vocalist; Abel Rocha and multi instrumentalist Terry Wergeland. Terry played accordion, flugelhorn and piano and I was on fretless and 6 string basses, and cymbals. The composition “Trade” is rich in its grooves and complex in its form, and the piece “The Time is Now” addresses the idea of “time” both in motion and meter overlaid into a complex pulse of clocks and sonic textures that can be at once haunting and melancholy, while sending us into a perpetual forward motion.

The Title:
2010 is the Year of the Tiger in the Chinese calendar. I was born in the year of the Tiger. Within each Chinese animal sign there are five different “personalities” of each animal-Water, Fire, Metal, Earth, and Wood depending on the year in which you were born. I am a Water Tiger. For “Tigers”, 2010 is a year of taking chances, aspirations and reaching for high goals. It is a year with many possibilities and surprises and is touted as a year to “step out” into a new beginning. So far this year has been just that and more-hence: Water Tiger 10!

Join us for our “live” conversation on June 24th, 2010 at the Good Sheperd Chapel in Seattle.

Hello and happy year of the Tiger!

April 29, 2010
Zai Circle to perform 2 compositions at the Haiti relief Benefit Concert at Town Hall in Seattle, May 14th at 7pm-lots of great music at this event!

"Water Tiger 10: Three trios: Three paths." is almost finished!!! "Water Tiger 10" features 3 different trios and will showcase some new original compositions as well as some improvisational sets and is a deep conversation on 3 original poems and a look into life's twists, turns and developments. This will have a bit more of a jazz flavor to it. I am really excited about the way it is shaping up. We will do a CD release concert with all three trios at the Good Sheperd Chapel in Seattle on June 24th, 2010. Tickets will be on sale around May 3rd.-more info on both of these events in the upcoming events section!

Its been awhile since I posted any new developments and I wanted to give you all an update of new projects at Zai Circle.

I am currently mixing and designing the new CD from the "Dialogues of Here and Now" series from 2009. I am taking two pieces from each conversation and putting that all together on one CD. It is difficult to find which 2 pieces from each concert go on the disc but in the end I think this will be a nice overview of the series as a whole and give a solid look into the range and depth of Zai Circle. I hope to have this CD finished and released in June of this year.

"The Dance of Meditation" is also in the works and will hopefully push Zai Circle to a new place combining our conversations, with a seminar and will focus on healing and transition through movement and sound waves/overtone vibrations. Although still in the works we could feature dance, bass, and Tibetan gongs and possibly trombone, saxophone, or accordion. The goal is to develop a day long workshop that would preceed the conversation for a group of participants to join us in going deeper into the conversation and healing process. Look for more info later this this year.

New sound clips have been posted in the project archives sections with more to come soon. I will be posting clips from the Dialogues series- check them out-they are free to download.

New photos added in the Gallery section-

Face book page is now active-follow the link here to get to the page. Please drop by and say hi when you can.

As always thank you for your interest-see you out there soon.
Peace
KeLan