12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 320
Date: 11/16/2013
Instrument: Tenor saxophone
Location: Wolf Creek, Oregon
Notes:
Today is day one of a brief, three day tour with Bad Luck down the west coast from Seattle to Los Angeles. Our first show is in Berkeley, CA tomorrow morning, and today we’re making the full drive from Seattle down to the bay area. Just before dark and about seven hours into the trip, I pulled off at the town of Wolf Creek, Oregon. I followed a two lane road a few miles up into the woods. It was a landscape of Pine and Madrona tress, with thicker, bramble covered brush underfoot. Every few hundred yards or so a mobile home was awkwardly placed onto the landscape. I pulled off at a spot 100 or so feet from some train tracks. I found a path and walked the short distance until I came into a clearing with the rail line above me.
I was inspired by the dichotomy of this environment. The cold air was filled with the scent of pine and the metallic, oily tracks cutting through the wilderness. I found myself out of eyesight from any people, but trailers were just on the other side of the tracks above me. I played for a few minutes and settled into a piece that combined a folk, picturesque quality with a more industrial, hardened approach to the harmony. I had no defined pulse but worked to settle into a semi-constant feel. Once having established some small bits of melodic material, I began fracturing the established key center and combined this will trilled chords to work against the single-pitched melodies.
-Neil
The image “Near Morton, Mississippi” accompanying today’s post by William Eggleston (1972).