Tuberculosis Nurse

The Quarantine Concerts 3/25/2020

My contribution to ESS’s Quarantine Concerts. I was invited to play the day before the scheduled performance, so I didn’t have much time to get nervous about it. (Check out the rest of the sets here: lots of super rad stuff!!! https://ess.org/the-quarantine-concerts)

Rewind to sometime 2014; I started this blog, my tuberculosis nurse project. The idea was that even if I was stuck in my basement without many (any?) people to play music with irl, I could reach out via whatever means possible to collaborate remotely. I remembered visiting Mammoth Cave and learning about the sanatoriums (?) that doctors tried to build in the caves to provide a place for tuberculosis patients to recover; I remembered reading something (what? idk) about tuberculosis nurses venturing into people’s private homes to treat them. Reaching out from isolation has always been on my mind, and I think the name “tuberculosis nurse” actually came to me in a dream?

The idea was to record drum tracks and then I would post them here. If anyone heard it and felt inspired, maybe they would make a song with it? And guess what -- it worked! A few different projects with kind and generous friends developed, including the first recording I ever made and the first show I ever played as a drummer.

And so, in 2020 during this global pandemic, I was invited to play a set from my basement, my happiest place, and share my noises with the entire world. In addition to some improvisation, I chose to play songs from those two projects  for this set specifically because they emerged from the same impulse: to reduce isolation and increase community, even under unusual or dire circumstances.

The second of the two pieces I played during my solo set last night (Jan 8, 2020) at Tritriangle. Definitely more of a slow cooker than a pressure cooker. 

I am playing for the second time in 2020 at this event! (Click on the link above for more info about the event :) 

A short hypnotic video with sound, color, rhythm, and light 7-1-19

I’m playing with a new band! Impulsive Hearts, featuring a talented assortment of my Girls Rock buddies and fueled by the incisive songwriting of lead -Heart Danielle Sines. Danielle played at my class’s final project show on May 14, and the next day I started to learn her songs for a couple of upcoming shows (June 2, and the one profiled here on on June 11). Rehearsals were jubilant and productive, and I think we sounded great. Here is what someone else thought: 

Having gathered a new group full of talented female musicians, Sines and company have been working on a new record and were sharing some of the songs for the first time. Dreamy in their highs, yet grounded in real life lyrically, Sines’ tunes reflect the complex emotions of life in the city. With powerful vocal chops, she grabs hold of you and shakes the feelings out, especially on killer single, “Fool.”  For being together a rather short time (they still haven’t updated the lineup on social media), the band was well rehearsed and tight, with overlapping layers of sound from the two guitar, sax, and synth combo. 

Hi! My name is Amanda. I'm a drummer in Chicago. I want to play more often! Here are some things about me.

What do I want? I want to play music with more people. I do not need to be a permanent part of your musical outfit, and I feel comfortable improvising as well as playing composed songs. What type of music do I want to play? I don’t know – music that I like? I have a catholic (not Catholic) taste in music that developed over decades of caring. There is a long list of things I don’t want, but what I do want is very simple: I want to play music. Most of the music I like to play is instrumental, but I have no problem with your voice or mine.

Why me? I am a responsible, reliable, professional adult. I have a lot of energy. I teach writing, public speaking, ESL, and music appreciation at a small bilingual nonprofit college. In the summer, I also teach drums and lead an improvisation workshop (that I designed) at Girls Rock! Chicago. I have references and my own transportation. I am not afraid of anyone and have an interesting life story. I am clean and have a good sense of humor. My drumming is sensitive, responsive, consistent, and informed by decades of listening. I am a human jukebox. I am a good dancer.

What have I done? Let me show you some things that I have done in the last 5 years:

https://arcpair.bandcamp.com/

Long distance recording project with Matt Weston. Noteworthy on the following points: we had never met in person while making these recordings, I recorded my drum parts on my phone because that was all I had at the time, Matt Weston is an accomplished and creative musician who studied with Milford Graves and plays with Arthur Brooks. Check him out

http://www.mattweston.com/mattbio.htm

https://sabertoothdream.bandcamp.com/releases Guitar-drums duo with my stalwart buddy and frequent collaborator, guitar player, librarian, and family man Nick Ammerman, our first & only show! Very elusive project, not likely to make a comeback but who knows?!

https://boobsweat.bandcamp.com/

Bouncy fun improvised music for keys and drums – on bandcamp we have a live show + some demos recorded live in my basement with Natalia Smirnov, who is a scholar and a genius as well as a scholarly pianist. Recommended track: $A$$Y 7 https://boobsweat.bandcamp.com/track/a-y-7-2

and two live tracks recorded at Club Soda in Pilsen (summer 2018) https://soundcloud.com/marshmallowy/boob-sweat-watery https://soundcloud.com/marshmallowy/boob-sweat-spores-bra https://planquartet.bandcamp.com/releases This is my most recent ensemble (lineup has since changed slightly) and another one I assembled with a particular sonic vision in mind. The recording is from our show 1/16/19 at the Empty Bottle. Do not skip part 2 -- we really started to cook and it was all one long improvisation in spite of what bandcamp wants you to think. Someone after the show said we sounded like Albert Ayler with NEU! Ok! IDK about that but I'll be glad to remind people that such combos are possible and also enjoyable to listen to.

Jam leadership: These are two sessions of fresh new improvisers playing together for the first time, led by me.

Beginner improviser jams 2017 (this is the Friday of a weeklong camp; many campers do not know how to play their instruments on Monday)

https://girlsrockchicago.bandcamp.com/album/girls-rock-chicago-2017-session-1-july   https://girlsrockchicago.bandcamp.com/album/girls-rock-chicago-2017-session-august-2 Other: I played auxiliary percussion (toms/snare/cymbals, bongos, drum pad) for two shows with Kent Lambert’s project Roommate in 2018 – at Sleeping Village and the Hideout. It was super fun and we sounded great, but I don’t have any recordings of it. I do have witnesses, ask me!!

From May 2016-August 2017 I played standing up with a floor tom/snare (most of the time) with superstar civil rights lawyer/guitar player/songwriter/producer/label owner Adele Nicholas in her Axons project. We didn't release any recordings, but we did go on a short tour where we played in Rochester, Brooklyn, and Akron. We played Adele's originals + a Devo cover ("Gates of Steel") and I have recordings of that. It was rad. You can scroll down in this blog and find some artifacts if you want. Fun fact; we played at the Burlington the night the Cubs won game 7 of the world series. 

Solo: I have played solo (with recorded accompaniment and unaccompanied, twice in 2018) and I have some recordings but they have been removed from the internet. The photos survive and you can find them on this very blog. and if you really want to hear the recordings, I have them. I have also recorded a number of synth + drums and drums + voice jams but honestly, with me alone the skill is very limited. I do them because they're fun and practice does genuinely lead to improvement in at least a technical way, if not a creative and expressive way as well (in varying amounts).  

Opening for Graphics & Ze’ev at the Empty Bottle

Wednesday January 16, 2019

Here is the audio from the first NAP/PLAN performance -- it’s a little different than what we played this week, namely because there were only three of us. There was also a harmonium and a tongue drum involved here whereas those things were not in the mix for our PLAN performance this week.

 Anyway, I forgot to post it and I like to use this as my place to keep things so here it is! 

Personnel: 

Nick Ammerman - electric guitar

Amanda Kraus - drums/percussion

A couple of photos from the first PLAN Quartet show as a quartet. We played at the Empty Bottle with Graphics and Ze’ev. It was a great night!! A recording should be available on bandcamp shortly...

Personnel: (right to left)

P.M. Tummala - synth/effects/kalimba

Lorraine Bailey - flute, clarinet, saxophone, voice

Amanda Kraus - drums

Drums + vocals recorded live by me in my basement. 

Another experiment with contact mic! 

At last! Video from the October 12 NAP Trio performance is now up. RIYL percolating soundscapes with a dash of electricity, Cluster with drums, quiet and loud things together.

P.M. Tummala - harmonium/percussion

Nick Ammerman - electric guitar

Amanda Kraus - drums/percussion

Video: Daniel Kraus

Here are two more short clips: 

https://youtu.be/wcTBI9gqzEI

Natalia is moving (sob) and she gave me a little contact mic that she knew I would use. I started messing around with it and totally fell in love. Here are two recordings I made while fooling around with it. I’m really looking forward to seeing what else I can do with it now that I have a vocal looper/processor to add to the mix. Whee! 

This one is a noisy improvisation, IDK what to make of it: https://soundcloud.com/marshmallowy/11-14-18-improv

This one is me playing a pair of bongos with the contact mic in one hand and a clave in the other. I was thinking about popcorn when I was playing it.