Dan Reaves – Analog Artist Digital World

Sunday January 27th I went to Urban ReThink,(625 East Central Blvd, Orlando FL) for Sunday Afternoon Improv. I didn’t check the invite closely and I thought I was going to sketch some comedians. Patrick Greene and Jim Ivy introduced the event which will be happening quarterly. Jim explained that the theme of the show was, “Of the Earth”. Musical sounds would be created with natural objects like stone, wood, water or metal. Jim was the first to perform. He sat on stage in the retro 60’s chair and opened his laptop. The laptop generated sounds and then he began to play what looked like a Frankenstein altered clarinet that had a long PVC body. Perhaps it was a flute played with a reed mouth piece.

All of the performances were improvised and experimented with found objects. At one point a pizza pan was amplified. Dan Reaves performed second followed by Christopher Flavo and A.J. Haring. Just about everyone in the audience was a musician.

Daniel Gruda experimented with pots and pans and a tea kettle. The whole time he adjusted an electronically generated tone using a foot pedal and tons of wires. A skull decorated his microphone. With a second sketch finished, I decided I should get home. As I left, more speakers were being loaded out of a car. In all the improv went on for a good four hours.

SUNDAY AFTERNOON MUSIC IMPROV featured musicians from Central FL, Jax, and Miami. The session was on August 18th from 3-7PM at Urban ReThink (625 E Central Blvd, Orlando). When I arrived, Dan Reaves and Lucy Bonk were performing on stage using electronics and a wide assortment of found objects. Lucy used several kitchen bowls, using them like gongs. Dan’s instruments were gathered on a sheet of corrugated steel. He used a foot pedal and a dial with his right hand to modulate the electric sounds which sounded like someone scanning a short wave radio for a signal. Several large nuts on a screw were turned and he had a cow bell, a brass bell which he would use for percussive effects. The performance was on the edge of absolute dissonance. At times the beat and rhythm was mesmerizing to sketch to. When they were done, the electronic sound persisted making it hard to know when, or if, to clap.

Four musicians set up on stage with more traditional instruments. They were Dan Kozak, Kris Gruda, Jim Ivy and A.S. Herring. They had a game show spinning wheel which could be spun to decide if the piece performed would be a solo, duo, or quartet. Large foam dice would be rolled just to pick which musician would spin the wheel. A laptop displayed a visual representation of the next performance but I never got a glance at the screen. Various sayings were used to inspire the performances. For instance one was, “Life is a lamp flickering in the wind” and another was “The fallen flower never returns to the tree.” It was a fun idea to help structure the improvisation adding chance and luck into each piece. Perhaps ten to fifteen people were in the audience with new arrivals all the time. As I was getting ready to go, Chris Belt who organizes the Accidental Music Festival ran into the room drenched head to toe from the rain. Nothing will stop people who want to experience something new, cutting edge and different in Orlando.