Fall Gallery Night coincided with the return of moderate temperatures, so we celebrated by visiting the Oakhurst gallery space of our dear friend Jesse Sierra Hernandez, stopped back at the house for some leftovers, then hoofed it to Illuminate Art Space, the studio of Greg Davis Photography and Amy Lynn Jewelry, before continuing to Curly's Custard for dessert. (Make mine Death By Chocolate. It ain't health food, but I don't do this every day.) After stopping to visit with a neighbor, I toddled off to the Grackle Art Gallery to catch an improv set by the duo of Phelps and Progglebot, aka Drew Phelps and Gregg Prickett. ("Groglydyte Progglebot" is a sobriquet bestowed on Gregg by Aaron Gonzalez, in his fashion.)
Drew and Gregg are always a joy to hear improvise together, combining stellar chops with the ability to listen and respond in the moment (rather than just running licks). On this occasion (the second appearance of this duo at Grackle), Drew announced that they were "without a song" (perhaps in honor of Sonny Rollins' birthday?), but would pick up where they left off last time, with "Improvisation #4," which proved to be a nifty slice of electric chamber music, with Gregg's volume pedal swells blending with Drew's arco bass.
Gregg gets more expressive tonal variety out of his volume and delay pedals than lesser players do from huge pedalboards, with fluidity to match early John Abercrombie's and a color palette to rival Bill Frisell's. His digital facility -- lots of hammer-ons and pull-offs -- had him swarming over the fretboard like Jerry Reed or Albert Lee on steroids to pizzicato counterpoint from Drew on "Improvisation #5." (Drew commented that they'd continue using this method of naming tunes "until we have to write this stuff down.") "Improvisation #6" was a mutant blues featuring slide guitar with delay and more arco bass. They finished with "Improvisation #7 (Bossa Nova)," which Gregg started on electric and finished on acoustic.
Gregg will celebrate his birthday at Full City Rooster in Dallas on September 20 with an array of collaborators including Sawtooth Dolls (his guitar duo with Paul Quigg, who was along at Grackle to provide audio and video documentation) and Monks of Saturnalia (my favorite band that doesn't play often enough), a vehicle for Gregg's Mingus-influenced compositions featuring Drew and multi-reedist Jeffrey Barnes (Brave Combo). Looking further down the road, they also plan to do a live soundtrack to film (possibly clips from Fellini's Casanova) on October 19 -- same day as Daron Beck's memorial at Texas Theater, so we may need to make a Dallas day of it.
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