KARMA ROULETTE QUARTET – "Opening Suite"

This Opening Suite is completely improvised, with some basic structure.

Part One is a series of short solo improvisations (order is pre-determined) designed to introduce each player to the audience with one (or more) instruments, drawing from any style or source. The use of tympani mallets on a set of West-African djun-djuns, and the playing both dumbek and daf simultaneously are examples of what that freedom affords.

Part Two has the keyboard (using a harmonium sound) joining the end of the cello solo with very high and non-pulsed playing, absent a tonal center.

Part Three makes use of four identically tuned dumbeks (a non-traditional texture) where one player starts a rhythm very slowly and the tempo gradually accelerates. Both individual and paired soloing is left up to the moment.

Live From The Back Room, Berkeley, CA September 26, 2021
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