-
My buddy Gunther and I have been asked to provide some live theme music for a Head Lice Awareness Week presentation at the local school. We'd like to do this tune, but can't quite nail the changes. Any help? Mary really is on the cutting edge.
-
10-11-2012 07:04 PM
-
Ah...music for people in college. I might have claimed to enjoy this once as well.
Nice Guild.
-
I wonder what the theme for Athlets Foot Week will be?
-
I read that 3 times before I realized who the OP was. I sounded just like that last week. I was taking my AA down into the basement and fell down the stairs. That's what I played on the way down. The changes are Lmin6, Tmaj7+9, R7b5b9, M6 and Jmin/maj6b2. No, make that last change Jmin/maj4.
-
Perhaps a song by Critters Buggin would be more appropriate?
PJ
-
And Russell Malone:
Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
... Mary Halvorson. I’ve seen her play. I kind of dig her, man. I went to go see her at a place called The Stone [in Manhattan] a couple of years ago, and it was a band with Chris Cheek on sax and a couple of other musicians. I’ll tell you, man, I know a lot of people who may not like this kind of music—free music or avant-garde or whatever you want to call it. But this stuff is hard to play. First of all, they’re not up there just playing a bunch of random stuff. It’s composed and these guys are good musicians who can read well. I know a lot of guys who, if you take them out of their comfort zone and put them in a situation where they have to play this kind of music, it probably wouldn’t come off as well. But I respect the musicianship here and I respect the music. This is good. She’s a good musician and she’s sincere. It’s just another way to hear. I mean, if everybody’s playing the same way and thinking the same way, then nobody’s really thinking.
-
He's right really...Mary does know what she's doing.
It's funny, I like a lot of noisy, avant garde stuff...but I can't get into her music.
I guess it bugs me that so many critics like her and laud her as doing something new...these guys never heard Derek Bailey?
This duo performance doesn't work for me...but I have heard some of the stuff she does with a bigger group, and it's pretty cool. But this performance has a bit of "Emperor's New Clothes" or "Metal Machine Music" (jokes on us music) to it.
-
Alrighty then. I must be one of those low brow characters. I just can't understand that kind of music and I don't understand what it takes to compose it. It may be composed but to my untrained ears, it's still a lot of random notes but on paper. Can someone out there give an explanation or tell me what the essence is? Thanks in advance.
-
For some insight into the difficulty, consider a Joe Morris exercise that was relayed to me:
Try to improvise a melody that involves as little repetition or recurring motivic material as possible. Obviously you're going to repeat yourself (use the same intervals, phrases of similar length, repeated rhythms) but the attempt to minimize doing so is quite challenging.
-
I haven't spent really any time with this type of free playing, and to be honest no I don't enjoy listening to it, but I know some people devote their lives to it, and generally those are folks who have an extremely high level of musicianship and practice constantly, or did at one point in their lives.
I respect it as an artistic pursuit. I am, however, uncomfortable with the idea that some people will pay $200K to study it in a university.Last edited by JakeAcci; 10-12-2012 at 12:01 PM.
-
Thanks Jake. That does give me some insight into the style. It won't make me like it but I have to respect it.
-
This is a good point...and one reason I do like Derek Bailey...it's very hard to divorce yourself from melody and rhythm... Originally Posted by JakeAcci
-
Hopefully somebody who is more versed in free improv will chime in here. For now, more thoughts:
I live in Boston near New England Conservatory, where free playing and other 'avante-garde' forms are not only appreciated, but people really do devote a lot to being proficient at it. I mean, you do ensembles, you study with private teachers, you write papers, you write pieces. It is definitely not children bashing away and doing whatever they feel like, even though that might what the result can sound like to the unfamiliar ear (but isn't that the same with a lot of more 'straight' jazz?)
A lot of players seem to get into free playing after they've done quite a lot with more form oriented music. Like I said, I've barely done any free group improv myself, but I know it requires very good ears and a lot of experience listening and knowing how to interact. If you can't hear and identify what your bandmates are doing, it's hard to have a conversation with them.
It's subtleties like: If you are playing with somebody who is playing a high melodic line, you have a choice...do you go up to that register with that player, or do you stay lower to be out of their way...do you play chords with him or play a line underneath that hopefully compliments what he's playing. Or do you lay out? From what I do know (which is relatively little, just to be clear) I know that the details of interaction are a huge point of interest and attention.
Along the theme of paying respect to this form of music, it's interesting to note some of the players that have gotten very involved with it...Mick Goodrick, John Lockwood, George Garzone, Jim Hall, John Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, on and on. There's something to the music (being played at a high level) that draws in the interest of extremely accomplished players. Bob Moses, who played drums on "Bright Size Life" is, last time I checked, really, really into free playing these days.
Last point for now...just like all styles of music, it all can be hit or miss. I didn't particularly enjoy the clip posted above, but I have seen some free improv stuff that has really blown my mind, both by the compositional results as well as the emotional intensity.
-
More cowbell.....
-
I feel that a lot of the time I can tell the difference between the random noisemakers and the folks who can actually play straight too...
Something about being able to actually play makes it more "authentic" to me...maybe that's a bad attitude...but I like the idea of free playing being something that an artist comes to because they've perhaps exhausted ideas in traditional music and are really "searching." So for some reason, that makes me really want to check out Bob Moses' free stuff, wheras, the bearded, bespectacled hipsters at the local "indie" club making noises...I ignore them...
Again, maybe it's a bad attitude...I just know how hard a jazz player has to work at stuff...I respect that...
-
I generally agree. And as for the hipsters sporting the freshly minted Taliban beards (has it become "beardz" yet?) and $150 ripped jeans, we call those "Logan Square-West Town facial hair" Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
As for Mary, she strikes me as very arrogant--giving herself credit for having no precedents in jazz guitar as a female. apparently, Emily Remler, Mimi Fox and Sheryl Bailey mean absolutely nothing to her.
-
Not sure I'd want to sit through an entire set but there are definitely moments I dig:
-
Originally Posted by NSJ
-
Anyone here ever hear James Blood Ulmers "freelancing" it is a pretty cool harmelodic disco/funk album. I relate to the "free" jazz thru the lense of Jimi Hendrix live recordings to me there is a similar vibe between that and 'Trane's Impulse work. I think alot of "improvised music" or "free" jazz utilizes 20th century compositional devices (tone rows,serialism, game pieces) and all the people I know involved in this sub-genre take it very seriously even though sometimes it sounds easy or child-like I think it isan art when done with inspiration. Gunther Schuller at New England Conservatory was an early champion for this type of music, I think that is why so many Boston cats are into this style.
-
yeah...see...thats pretty cool. Originally Posted by Jazzpunk
-
I agree that this is stuff you might go to once you've felt that you can't really satisfyingly express yourself anymore in the standard formats. It may seem to be without structure, but usually involves some formal concepts. I think a big factor and credo involves being in the "now" as totally possible, so it is completely in the moment, and never to happen again the same way. Sometimes nothing really happens at all, but sometimes it is transcendent beyond description. It's not for everyone...it would be normal to not like it.
Anyhoo...so we decided to do this Thomas Chapin version of a Beatles tune instead, plenty of room to be expressive. He was a major motherfucker. RIP.
Last edited by cosmic gumbo; 10-12-2012 at 05:38 PM.
Reply With Quote
Monk's Mood
Today, 04:25 PM in The Songs