Oh, what a night. This was seventy minutes of pure improvisational bliss. These four incredibly talented musicians have played together before in various combinations, but never as a quartet. Ryan Jewell should be familiar with the readers of these pages in his many outings with Chris Forsyth and with Ryley Walker, and a few months back we posted a five-piece improv set that featured Stuart Bogie and Jonathan Goldberger. Andy Hess has only appeared here with Govt Mule (2007), but has played with a plethora of area musicians over the years.

On this night, the quartet performed an unrehearsed improvisation set that extended to almost an hour before starting another shorter piece as an encore of sorts. Generally speaking, these types of events lean towards the avant and noisy side, but these four folks naturally seemed to be able to instantaneously conjure up chunky nuggets of melody interspersed with tasty bits of effects, some quiet interludes, and some squonk. Ultimately, this was an exceptionally satisfying night of music, and one that I hope gets repeated again.

I recorded this set with a pair of Schoeps mounted at the front of the stage, and mixed with a board feed. The onstage recording was so crystal clear so that the board mix is only used as some fortification and also to soften the hard pans of the stage capture. The mix is superb. Enjoy!

Download the Complete Set [MP3] / [FLAC]

Stream the Complete Set:

Bogie Goldberger Hess Jewell
2020-01-05
Nublu
New York NY

Digital Master Recording
On Stage + Soundboard

Schoeps CCM4u’s + Soundboard > Sound Devices 744t > 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (post production) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and tagging via Foobar)

Recorded and Produced
by nyctaper

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:08:26]
01 Improvisation 1
02 Improvisation 2

Stuart Bogie – Tenor Sax Clarinet Flute
Jonathan Goldberger – Guitar
Andy Hess – Bass
Ryan Jewell – Percussion\

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I’m not going to say anything about this Phish show that is going to give any more information or insight than the experts. Consult Phish.net for that kind of coverage. Suffice to say, this Sunday night show at a venue near which I grew up, and where I’ve attended many shows, sports games, and various entertainment events, was special for a variety of reasons. In terms of Phish, the only other time I saw the band at Nassau was almost exactly 20 years ago, when Phish lyricist Tom Marshall joined the band to sing a Who cover. This show wasn’t a novelty like that, this was a band operating at full powers and playing a serious set of expertly performed material old and new. I’m hoping for a similar experience at the Garden shows during New Year’s week, and fully suspect that excellence will continue.

I recorded this set with the trust Schoeps cards from the front rail of the Official Taper’s Section, and although we were placed pretty far back on the floor, I’m generally pretty pleased with the quality of this capture. Enjoy!

Download the Complete Show MP3 | FLAC

Stream the Complete Show:

Phish
2019-12-01
Nassau Coliseum
Uniondale NY

Digital Master Recording
First Row Tapers Section

Schoeps CCM4u Cardioids > Sound Devices 744t > 24bit 48kHz wav > Soundforge (post production) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and tagging via Foobar)

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper

Setlist:
Set 1 [Total Time 1:19:30]
01 Ghost
02 Rift
03 The Man Who Stepped into Yesterday
04 Avenu Malkanu
05 The Man Who Stepped into Yesterday Reprise
06 The Wedge
07 Martian Monster
08 Timber
09 Cool it Down [Velvets]
10 Roggae
11 Poor Heart
12 Tube
13 Character Zero

Set 2 [Total Time 1:33:35]
14 Everything’s Right
15 Down With Disease
16 Cities [Talking Heads]
17 Carini
18 Ruby Waves
19 Twenty Years Later
20 Backwards Down the Number Line
21 Say It To Me S.A.N.T.O.S.
22 [encore break]
23 Roses Are Free
24 Slave To The Traffic Light

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