4 spontaneous guitar-cello pieces

[Mark Kleinhaut]

A set of four for those of you who might enjoy this sort of thing!

[Rob MacKillop]

Adventures in Three-Way Listening - cello, guitar, the guy in Scotland with his eyes closed, listening.

Please make a well-recorded album, gentlemen. I’ve just given you a title contender for it.

The instruments are so well balanced, as are the musical sensitivities of the players. Duo format is perfect for this music. Or should I say trio format with guy in Scotland listening? Wonderful.

[Mark Kleinhaut]

Adventures in Three-Way Listening - cello, guitar, the guy in Scotland with his eyes closed, listening.

Please make a well-recorded album, gentlemen. I’ve just given you a title contender for it.

The instruments are so well balanced, as are the musical sensitivities of the players. Duo format is perfect for this music. Or should I say trio format with guy in Scotland listening? Wonderful.

my gratitude to you for being you!! Speaking of adventures, it’s beyond amazing that music making experiences like this can be so easily recorded at home and shared across the globe!! I don’t know if it offsets the comparable technologies humanity simultaneously holds for self annihilation, but it feels at least to me as a bit of a silver lining. My cellist friend Ed is now 83 and I’m about to cross 69, but I have no doubt these two old fools will carry on as long as we’re able

About that “album thing”, I’m afraid I’ve lost the plot to understand what that means anymore these days. Years ago, I went repeatedly through the cycle of composing music, rehearsing the band, sometimes finagling a “name” guest, going to the studio to track, mixing sessions, mastering. Then the graphics, the liner notes, the manufacture of little silver discs in pretty packaging. A small truckload of boxes arriving. Writing up one sheets, mailing out hundreds of review copies, hundreds more for radio play, hiring publicists for print media, publicists for radio rotations, Store shelf allocations, amazon, cdbaby, Apple Music, I’m forgetting a few things as this was mostly from 1999 to 2007 or so. A couple of strangler albums we released in around 2012/2013. Then I just stopped. 7 or 8 albums, every one a money loss, and nobody buys CDs whatsoever.

Anyway, I didn’t mean to rant, but what is an “album” when I can give it away for free on YouTube and not loose money doing it?

[Rob MacKillop]

I completely understand, Mark. It’s a mug’s game these days. I was perhaps being nostalgic…

But you’ve completely embraced the online venue. Music such as yours was never destined to be a big seller, but you have your audience, and I’m happy to be one of them.

[Mark Kleinhaut]

I completely understand, Mark. It’s a mug’s game these days. I was perhaps being nostalgic…

But you’ve completely embraced the online venue. Music such as yours was never destined to be a big seller, but you have your audience, and I’m happy to be one of them.

I know My wife has been after me a while to put something out on vinyl, speaking of nostalgia I’d rather take a trip to Scotland!

[Rob MacKillop]

It’s still here! And welcoming to Americans on the run

[Mark Kleinhaut]

It’s still here! And welcoming to Americans on the run

Careful what you wish for! What part of the country are you located in or near?

[Rob MacKillop]

Edinburgh. There is a growing influx of Americans here. I live near the Stockbridge area, which is too expensive to live in now, though when I met my - to be - wife there, 35 years ago, it was quite run down. Since Scotland narrowly lost becoming independent from the United Kingdom, there was a big influx of southern English people into the area, buying up the flats/apartments, and prices soared. We now have lots of cafes and restaurants, specialist food shops. This has attracted a lot of Americans to move in, buying flats but being concerned that there’s nowhere for their huge cars. We moved out of Stockbridge twenty years ago, and now live a fifteen-minute walk away. It’s nice to visit early mornings, but gets too busy thereafter.

There’s only one jazz club in Edinburgh, but it’s popular and very active, pulling in a young crowd who like their jazz with ‘beats’. But there’s an alternative creative scene as well. For instance, I was invited to play a completely free improv solo set at a poets gathering. My task was to react to poems I’d just heard. People there were very interested to hear such music. As with the poetry readings, the audience sat in silence, focused. Edinburgh can be a cool place.