This Friday at 6 p.m. ET, three masterful musicians come together online to give a unique concert experience from three different cities.
Fifteen years ago, an odd mishmash of musicians, theatre workers, dancers, visual artists, and computer scientists figured out a way to play together over the internet. One of those innovators, Mark Dresser, is also a daring jazz contrabass player, renowned for his bone-chilling multiphonics and low-end brilliance.
Believe it or not, Dresser says he was playing with other musicians online since 1998. In this episode of The Checkout, he describes his first L.A.-to-New York live connection, which had notable limitations.
Building upon our Dan Tepfer “telematic” experiment one year ago, The Checkout celebrates a few of the “OGs” of this fascinating technology that continues to evolve to this day. This story includes piano firebrand Myra Melford and renegade trombonist Michael Dessen, who have been performing with Dresser online for more than a decade, as seen with this telematic connection from 2011.
This Friday, the trio continues their history of telematic performances. This time, each artist will perform from the comfort of their own California home: Dresser in San Diego; Michael Dessen in Irvine; and Myra Melford in Berkeley.
As we document in this podcast, these artists did not decide to play together over the Internet to make a statement, but quite the opposite — as a necessity between three likeminded musicians seeking communion. Their locations are partly determined by professorial commitments at higher learning institutions. So it left them no choice but to turn to cutting-edge internet applications, as we will be fortunate to witness on Friday at 6 p.m. ET.
