The 12 Houses 2.0

I’m 69 stacks in here on the stack as I call it. I’ve pretty much written a book one week at a time. I plan to write an actual book titled The Spiritual Science of Sound. I’ve written here about musicians I knew and loved, many of whom never got their flowers. I’ve done a fair amount of jazz research here as well. I believe my 6 stacks on Paul Gonsalves to be some of the definitive work that exists out there. Lately I started getting into creation mechanics and deep diving the blues in jazz and asking what is melody? There’s no person, topic or question coming to me this week so I’m indulging myself with a deep dive of me. The main reason being is that I don’t think there’s anybody out there doing research on me the way I do on others. The truth is I’m also a completionist to a degree. That being said, this dive is on my orchestra the 12 Houses. Next week, I’ll do my no longer existing quartet, and then it’ll be a wrap. I was stunned recently after playing the Black Squirrel in Philly to meet a person who had a Matt Lavelle playlist.

I was with Ornette Coleman in his loft once and he was talking about the imbalance of male and female energy in the world. He said what would be amazing would be if there was a large music ensemble that had figured this out. In that exchange, the idea of the 12 Houses was born.

In my first attempt I went to far at the Brecht Forum with a group of majority women. The music was great but the energy went to far in the other direction. Next I went to the Stone for a truly incredible event with Catherine Sikora and Ras Moshe, Ras Miguel, Chris Forbes, Hilliard Greene, Michael T.A. Thompson, Michael Wimberley, and both Andrea Wolper and Lola Danza on vocals. I really went for it on this one. I also tried leading a large ensemble with strings at the Stone that has been lost to time. Both of these events helped me formulate the 12 Houses. I was also largely inspired by Matana Roberts beginning her Coin Coin project. The question I was asking myself is what can I do that’s me that’s just outside of everything.

The Houses first appearance was filmed by Windows have Eyes on June 27th, 2011 at University of the Streets. Everyone looks so serious! It was a beyond risk for me to try conducting and leading a large ensemble. What I was trying to do wasn’t just new to this great group of people, it was new to me as well. I wasn’t even conducting in the rehearsal and Ryan Sawyer suggested I cross the line. Part 2 of this event was a feature for Laura Ortman on violin and vocals singing my piece End Times. Indeed, as bad as things are today, we felt the world was ending then too. Laura is a real life comet that I knew from a music family of sorts known as Stars Like Fleas. SLF was an adventure away from jazz for me, though I was free jazz in the ensemble. I wrote a string quartet piece with SLF in tribute to queen Elis Regina. We added harp and used a pump organ to make it happen. I miss the fleas.

Our next stop was the Firehouse Space in Brooklyn. 12 Houses was official now and I started writing and just going for it. Windows Have Eyes was with me again, and these early wonderfully made videos are truly special in the history of the group. Daniel Carter, Solidarity, and Knee Braces. If you click on anything in this stack, click on Knee Braces. These videos are also Art Baron’s first time playing with us. Art has been the heart of the group ever since. We did a concert with Daniel Carter as our featured and lead soloist, something he doesn’t do often. YouTube has another full concert from the Firehouse: Set one, and Set two.

When Roy Campbell Jr. suddenly died, we sang his name and built from there in free jazz spiritual ceremony.

Shapeshifter Lounge was our next stop with special guests Bern Nix and one time Jemeel Moondoc guest led the orchestra, conducting his music. We also played the Dissident Arts Festival.

Next our Nublu residency began. Every Sunday for a year. Nublu had history and a great vibe. There was a giant picture of Butch Morris on the wall leading a conduction. Butch had led the Nublu orchestra there, so the environment was perfect. This was a composers dream with 2 sets every week. At this time I was working, going to school for a masters in jazz history, and doing hot yoga to keep my knees working. Nevertheless I tried to write new music every week. The real gift is that the houses were willing to come week after week. The audience was hit or miss and the bread was light. We carved out some space on the LES NYC music scene. One night I was stunned when Steven Bernstein and Eric Mingus pulled up. They were at the Stone around the corner.

The weeks that I can still track in all out completionism:

Valentines Day with the 12 Houses

Easter with the 12 Houses

The 12 Houses with Daniel Carter

The 12 Houses: Love Supreme

Let’s Tune the World

Skyscrapers for the Homeless

The Old South Will Die

The Gift

The 12 Houses play Miles Davis

The 12 Houses play Albert Ayler

The 12 Houses play Ornette

The 12 Houses play Wayne Shorter

The 12 Houses play Giuseppi Logan

The 12 Houses play Alice Coltrane

Special Edition

The 12 Houses featuring Nicole Johanntgen

During this time there was many special guests, several from outside the country. The drum chair was fluid for a minute with Ryan Sawyer, Tom Cabrera, Reggie Sylvester, and Bobby Kapp until Jeremy Carlstedt locked in. There’s lots of videos from this period on youtube and the 12 Houses Facebook page. The biggest change was I asked MC-spoken word artist Ar'braf, a master of free verse to join the houses. We had met with William Hooker and he was open to see what we could create together.

From Nublu we went and played a major concert at Roulette that I spent years trying to make happen. Playing Roulette was very important to me at the time. I felt that the 12 Houses were being overlooked and I wanted to plant a flag for all of us, so dedicated to playing. It was a good turnout and my late father was in house. He said he didn’t understand the music, but he was happy to see me in my element. Years later I discovered this entire concert online. Musically it was a wild night overall and the spirit was up. I composed The Black Lives Matter Suite for the occasion and I have mixed feelings about it some 10 years later. There’s music here from our book that was never recorded in the studio. In a spiritual sense, this concert was a bright moment for sure.

Over the course of the story of the band I tried to musically deal with the reality of America many times writing memorial pieces Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice, and Trayvon Martin. We had protest anthems Break Barr, Ted Cruz Must Lose, No More Guns, Bernie Sanders, and our main one Dump Trump. Here in Philly I have 2 more, AOC, and Jasmine Crockett Saves the World.

From Nublu we started playing at 2 music studios. Michiko, where I worked, and Scholes St in Brooklyn. Scholes has become a kind of second home for the houses since then.

In pursuit of completing my completionism we had the following events:

The 12 Houses: Africa (I had spent 2 weeks in Zimbabwe and South Africa meeting my wife Sue’s family)

The 12 Houses: Americana

The 12 Houses: The future is now

The 12 Houses featuring Hilliard Greene

The Night River

The 12 Houses play the Blues

The 12 Houses play Ornette

The 12 Houses with Daniel Carter

The 12 Houses 10 year anniversary

The 12 Houses: For Joe, For Juan, For Ramsey

Indeed, my musician friends Joe Rigby and Juan Quinonez had passed on, as did the great Ramsey Ameen who had joined us for the last few years and believed in what I was doing more than I did, and gifted me with big time support.

During this times James Keepnews produced 2 events for the houses. We played the Red Hook Jazz Festival and then James gave us the one and only time we played outside of NYC. He produced an epic event: Jazz at Atlas: The 12 Houses in Newburgh, upstate New York. The band was at full strength and great videos were made. Afterwards during a Q and A session, Ramsey Ameen gave a heartfelt talk.

Here’s Jazz at Atlas, part one and Jazz at Atlas, part two.

Everything was peaking for 12 Houses then and it led up to an amazing event where we were paired with the legendary Bernard Purdie and storyteller and pianist David Haney at Joe’s Pub. Joe’s Pub is a major NYC venue, and master Purdie is of course a legend. The concert was recorded and released on Bandcamp on David’s series New York Jazz Stories. The highlight for me was opening in a duo with Art Baron on plungers. I’ll never forget seeing Mr. Purdie giving drummer Reggie Sylvester a huge hug backstage. As ever, the human element supersedes all other experiences.

Joe’s Pub was in February 2020. Little did any of us know that Covid was coming down the pike. 12 Houses had peaked and now entered the abyss like everyone else. During this time I moved to Philly, but I’ve been back in NYC 6 times to date with the Houses:

Hymn to the Universe: The Francois Grillot memorial

Big Love: The 12 Houses play for Claire Daly

The 12 Houses play Drom

The 12 Houses: Back at Nublu

The 12 Houses Return: Bali and Beethoven

Indeed, both Francois and Claire, long time friends and Houses had passed on, and we celebrated their lives.

We also attempted an event in Astoria Park in extreme heat: 112 musicians for peace and unity. There was about 30 of us that came through. The warriors came out for this one. Even my Philly crew came out.

The 12 Houses have 3 official studio albums over the 15 year on going story of the music.

Solidarity was first and I’m enormously proud of the work. It was a great picture of the band at the time. The final piece, Faith, written for my Mom’s journey of 6 brain surgeries stands as the ultimate testament of her belief in life.

End Times was music from the same 2014 session that produced Solidarity. I pursued concertos of a sorts to feature different houses, much like Duke Ellington did with his band members like Johnny Hodges and Cootie Williams. Bright Moments abound. The unique element in these 2 albums is that they included the great singer Anaïs Maviel. Another comet, she continues to soar. I truly believe that she is one of those rare humans that was born to sing.

The Crop Circle Suite: Part One is our most recent release. I’ve written about it quite a bit here on the stack. In a nutshell, the music here is the reason I created the band. It took me about 12 years to get to the point where I could write it. It also took all the music played and documented here to reach.

Crop Circles Part One brings us to the next season of the 12 Houses. During that recording session 5 additional pieces were recorded more in the tradition of the earlier albums. I’ve attempted to record the core of our book. These 5 pieces each have their own story and history. In that way, maybe songs are actually living beings. They arrive this October 3rd, my late Mom’s birthday, on the Mahakala label. The cover photo above is locked in.

This whole thing about Philly being another borough of NYC is a joke. Philly is an entire other universe. From here my hope and plan is to continue the story of the 12 Houses whenever possible. I have several large works in mind for them. I’ve started writing Crop Circles Part 2 and also Sacred Flower Music where I’m writing music from my Sacred Geometry paintings.

I hope folks will get into Hymn to the Universe. I’ll have more to write about the release as we get closer. Like our pianist Chris Forbes says, and Chris was a house on day one, whenever the houses get together it’s special.

If anyone has the energy left for one more link, then the 12 Houses brightest moment is here in a moment filled with hope..

This one is dedicated to each and every house. Once you play with us, you’re a house for life.

Peace

ML