Derek, I bet that's the first time anybody has ever hoped that a mic would be whirring--at least at a non-EAI gig!

;>}

Jolly good that he is playing all the time.. hope he gets paid well too - I seem to remember a story about Zorn inviting him to play the Knit in NYC about a decade ago and Misha ended up having to pay for the piano rental. As a Mishaphile of the first order, I wish I could be there at The Stone.. Still toying with the idea of a weekend in Amsterdam in June, as the Bimhuis is presenting two consecutive evenings of the ICP Orchestra to celebrate MM's 70th birthday, one featuring Brötzmann the other Braxton. Wow.

Good call Walt, though I'm hoping it's a subsonic sort of whir emanating from those MXL 992 mics. Don't want 'em interfering with the audibility of Misha's multifarious keystrokes.

That Bimhaus double shot sounds like a must hear, Dan. I caught ICP here in Minneapolis a few years ago & Han tried to steal the show with his usual flaming high-hat & shovel percussion tropes. Misha mocked a gesticulating tirade in response & the pair ended up pretty much battling to a draw on the audience inveiglement meter.

Riffing on that Knit anecdote, I recall a story about him being booked at their Left Coast L.A. outpost shortly after its opening, showing up for the gig and finding a cheapo electric console as his conscripted keyboard. From what I gather he adamantly refused play and the gig got cancelled. Good for him, I say.

there's a very cranky (& funny) Before & After with him in the new Jazz Times...

on Dolphy: "I was not an absolute admirer of him." then later: "He's one of the very few that I think died too soon. It was ridiculous."

on Dave Holland: "He should be forbidden to do anything himself. He should act on the impulses of other people. He's a sideman."

on Dave Douglas; "he is an OK trumpet player. He likes to play my pieces, and is not afraid that som of them have no future at all anymore."

Thanks for pointing out the before & after, Adam. With my low self esteem and all, I was glad to see that Misha dug what he heard of Gonzalo's new album, Paseo, too. Anyway, it was a good read, thanks again - been a while since I last checked the jazztimes website so I'm working my way through the before & after archives.

Derek, it's always a pleasure to see your humorous and lively prose, but I'm sad to disappoint on this one. I don't actually live in NYC, so I have to be extremely selective about my concert outings, and piano is just not my thing, to understate the case. I did come awfully close to making it up for his duo with Mat Maneri, though. Hopefully somebody else will chime on this one in the way of concert reportage.

Adam, thanks for the heads-up on that JT column, that's a mag I don't normally peruse. It's funny how many pubs have spun variants on the venerable "Blindfold Test."

Michael, fiddlesticks! Apologies for my presumption on your digs, where is it that you do hang your hat? I noticed that you seem to make it up & down the right coast quite regularly (Philly, Baltimore, etc.) to catch shows & just assumed NYC/Brooklyn as the focal.

"fiddlesticks"?!?!?

dang.

I regard NYC, Philly, and Baltimore equally as my "adopted urban home" of sorts, and where I live in PA forms an isosceles triangle with Philly and B-more. It's one of the best possible locations in my view, the best of many worlds. I do stay on top of NYC stuff pretty well, because obviously it's where the most good stuff happens! Living out in the country (I can hear at least a dozen different birdsongs as I type this), going anywhere involves a lot of driving, so the difference between, say, one hour, and two hours, doesn't register on me much at all, just part of normal life. (The price of gas is starting to register on me though! wow...)