A new project for me in 2013 has been improvised solo drumkit performances.  This is a part of the JUMP Mentoring project that saw me spend time with the wonderful Phil Treloar in Japan in March.  Phil and I spent a lot of time focusing on solo improvising, and his ideas permeate my practice as a solo performer.  This is particularly true in relation to the development of ideas and their relationships, and the relationships of those ideas to the overall structure of the piece.  The performances also focus on particular rhythmic ideas and layered rhythmic ideas, that I find interesting and have been working on in my instrumental practice. In a sense taking these small areas of language and filtering them through the more 'big picture' ideas imparted by Phil, which sees them continually realised in different fashions, more or less recognisably.  Overall this is an attempt to realise a holistic performance practice that while improvised has definite and particular characteristics that are revisited and reworked from performance to performance.  This is the second such performance.  A video of the first performance can be found here - https://vimeo.com/73064789, with more performances to come in late 2013 and 2014 and a recording in the works for 2014.

This performance was given at the Make It Up Club, a Melbourne institution of improvised music, that runs at Bar Open every Tuesday night.  Thanks to Stevie Richards for the recording and Lloyd Honeybrook for programming me.

Solo - Live at the Make It Up Club, August 2013

The Sentiment Of, from the forthcoming debut album A Shorthand of Sensation.  
All Talk are 
James McLean
Sam Zerna
Alistair McLean

The Sentiment Of.

Uhuru, from the upcoming album A Shorthand of Sensation

All Talk are:
James McLean
Alistair McLean
Samuel Zerna

Uhuru

Boubacar, from my upcoming solo album Counter Clockwork.

Watch a video of this track: https://vimeo.com/jamesmclean/boubacar

jamesmclean.info

Boubacar

James McLean is a drummer and improviser from Melbourne, Australia

James McLean

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