For those of you in Seattle or surounding areas, a friend of mine is now in one of the COBRA groups I mentioned earier here. (I believe some of you have met Stu before, as well.) They're playing this Saturday. You should go. All the vital info is below:
-Prof. Tim
-----Original Message-----
From: Stuart McLeod <Stuart.McLeod@SeattleSymphony.org>
To: <...>
Date: Wednesday, February 24, 1999 1:48 PM
Subject: COBRA
>Let me just use the ASKEW mailing list to let you know that I'm playing
>in a Seattle version of John Zorn's COBRA this Saturday at 9:30 at the
>Speakeasy. I will be playing Vibraphone along with a group consisting
>of guitar, banjo, bass, drums, violin, trombone, electronics, maybe
>accordion and who knows what else.
>
>For those of you that don't, COBRA is a musical game. It has no written
>music only rules to play by, hand signals and flash cards. Musicians
>sit/stand in a half circle facing the prompter. They use hand signals
>to request cards from the prompter who then shows the card to the whole
>group and on the downbeat they must improvise according to the
>instructions on the card (play a duo, trade music, volume change, tempo
>change, etc.).
>
>The game is further complicated by Guerilla Tactics where a guerilla or
>group of guerillas hijack the game from the prompter. The Guerillas
>then use hand signals to control the music until either they relinquish
>control or a spy assassinates them.
>
>COBRA not only creates some weird, wacky music but it's fun to watch.
>
>
>Stuart McLeod
>Information Systems Analyst
>