Mr. Loren Connors: "Well… NY Times critic Ben Ratliff says I play notes so slowly it makes you wonder if I’m losing my way. I think this comment was said as a joke, or with a light heart. But I like to think about slowness. The same kind of thing was said about Billie Holliday, Lester Young, Miles Davis, Chet Baker, and on and on. The truth here lies in the fact that a person ages internally. The fast-paced, technically strong youthfulness gives way to a deeper concern. Look at Beethoven’s last quartets, op. 131 and others. Look at Chopin’s last nocturnes. And other great composers. They all offer us their slower, deeper sound in their final days. Like Ebenezer’s spirits, the spirit of Music past and Music present and even Music future is gonna haunt you. It sure will. And when you do get older, if it’s truth you’re after, you play like the man or woman that you’ve grown to become and you leave all the youthful techniques behind. At 63, I play like the man I’ve become, not the boy I once was."

Also, after some delay, we're proud to release a remastered, LP version of Loren's classic The Departing of a Dream. This is a gorgeous reissue of the 2002 CD, now with corrected cover photography and enhanced audio. There are only 700 copies, so it won't be around for long.

Collaborative movement/video piece by our pal Jed Speare and Marjorie Morgan, at MIT Museum in Cambridge, Mass., part of the CyberArts Loops event, April 2009. Photo by Bob Raymond.

Darin Gray and On Fillmore partner Glenn Kotche join Califone members Jim Becker and Joe Adamik at Chicago's The Hideout on Saturday, March 16. Darin will also play a solo set.