LarsMortensen.com Bio/Blog

So the residency at the Kiss Cafe in Ballard has been pretty cool.  Amanda (co-owner) and John (cuisine master) have been so awesome.
I love playing two sets in a night.  I’m really enjoying jamming on songs for a while, especially looping layers down to really go far out there.

So far I’ve been playing 7-10 pm-ish.  Last week Set 1 started at 7:30 pm and I played until just after eleven.
Things are flexible, very organic.  Already a number of songs that I’ve been playing for a while have under gone some serious transformations and new arrangements.  Songs like Ranger, Cesar, Traffic Control and more.  Thanks to the live looping tools I use I’ve finally been able to improvise at  length and mutate songs just a little here and a little there.  I love improvisation.  Probably 2/3 of the music I listen to regularly involves improv, whether it’s live jazz, Phish, or one of my favorite local secrets, Goat.  Kind of Blue (Miles Davis-one of the biggest selling, most important jazz records of all time) is an amazing testament to the power of stream of consciousness style, skilled improv.

I must also mention that I am really diggin on the sweet beer selection at the Kiss.  Seriously.  All the Ninkasi brews are awesome.  Elysian Jasmine IPA… mmm.  You definitely get quality here.  A dollar or  two more then yer typical draft but oodles more satisfaction.

Periscope has sold out so I’ve got a new special edition coming including a few bonus live tracks, 1 or 2 are live from the Kiss Cafe, and some others remastered from the WebSet series.