On December 16 2019, bassist and composer Brandon Lopez presents sun burns out your eyes, a new work for trio and 4tet developed as part of his Roulette Residency and made possible with funds provided by the Jerome Foundation.
Tell us about yourself and what you’re planning for Roulette.
I’m a bassist and composer and my work deals with improvisation. This coming December, I’ll present music for trio and quartet. The work, I think, will involve repetition and stasis and also none of it.
Who would be your ideal collaborator?
The ideal collaborator has little problem with frustration and the wrong choices being the right ones and the right ones needing a little shit on them.
What is influencing your work right now?
I’ve been thinking a lot about the intangible, the left hand path, and how to make a cat happy. Unsure how that cocktail is influencing me, but I need to stand up. The level of inebriation can only be seen then. Unsure if the legs work. Will see in December.
What is your first musical memory?
Swearing off the stuff after getting a D in 3rd grade music class. My recorder had melted next to the family’s wood stove, and I was too sheepish to ask my mother to order a new one. That was maybe the first time I muttered, “fuck music”—and by no means the last of the sentiment.
How would you describe the New York music scene?
The New York music scene seems, by the grace of god, a fertile valley. Have to admit, all these condos feel like watching the fast-motion bleaching of the great barrier reef that creates a sometimes overwhelming sense of dread.
Brandon Lopez: sun burns out your eyes takes place on Monday, December 16, 2019 at 8pm with performers: drummer Gerald Cleaver, electronicist Cecilia Lopez, and saxophonist Steve Baczkowski.