Donkey Lopez performance and CD launch: at last

I better get some sleep. It's nearly 2 a.m. and my knee hurts still, it's been bugging me lately, and I haven't been sleeping enough. And I need energy for tomorrow night because tomorrow night Donkey Lopez finally has its first full performance.

Plus we're launching our first CD, Juan Lonely Night.

So there it is. I designed the packaging; Steve Lederman drew the donkey; Ray Dillard mixed and produced the ten crazy tracks, recorded live during three sessions in his Crush Studio in Barrie, Ontario.

We did a fourth session, but there was a definite shift in our sound with that one, so we decided to save those pieces for our second CD. Which will manifest itself very rapidly.

We play on Friday, May 30, at Arrayspace, 155 Walnut Street, in Toronto. At 8 p.m. Ten bucks gets you through the door.

Also on the bill: the fantastic poet Aisha Sasha John, performing with Bea Labikova (sax, fujara), Raphael Roter (percussion) and Michael Lynn (bass). What will they do? What will they be like? I have no idea.

This will be Donkey Lopez's third performance in front of an audience. The first was in March, at the tribute to Paul Dutton, where we did a nutsoid interpretation of Paul's text piece "This and That." The second was at a surprise 50th birthday party for Steve in early May. He didn't know he was coming to perform at his own party. We did two sets, and a total of four improvised pieces. Steve said he was in shock the whole time. Here we are at that event, in a restaurant on St. Clair West in Toronto. (Photo by the awesome Chloe Lederman.)

I wonder what it'll be like to perform improvised pieces onstage for an hour. I guess I'll find out soon enough. Ray says we should just treat it like we do our sessions in his studio. Only difference is that we won't have the ten- or fifteen-minute break between each piece while Ray does whatever it is he does with our recordings.

I better get some sleep.

Over and out.