Hello!
The weather has turned oh so nice up here in Toronto, definitely something to be happy about. Today's CD purchases were the new brad mehldau and the new norah jones. I guess I am now one of the million folks that bought the jones disc... I was on her bandwagon long before the hype, honest. :) Anyway, all reports are that the disc is great, I have only heard one tune which I thought was really nice, so every once in a while popular and good can mix. That's also something to be happy about.
"winter music" is being prepped for official release. The first edition was entirely home-made (cd burner, et.al), but with the inclusion of cover art by Robert Blonski (www.robertblonksi.com), and a general sense of positivity surrounding the music (thanks in part to the warm reactions of the first recipients), I'm going to press it professionally, and embark upon promoting it. Expect some performance dates soon for MO and myself... in the meantime, go visit robert blonski's site...
Arywn and I rehearse tomorrow, and things are taking shape in a very great way. Playing drums in this project is really fresh feeling and I am tending to let the music play itself, as opposed to any other, less natural method.
Friday, February 20, 2004
I was out in Fergus, ON yesterday doing a session at Eclipse Music, with producer Doug Stronach. It was my third session in as many years for an artist that I have still yet to meet, Mark Curtis. He's a gospel/folk singer/songwriter, and I am invariably always overdubbing to a scratch-vocal, guitar and click track, and then they re-build the tunes around my parts. It's more fun than it sounds, actually. I bring a whole pile of stuff, and Doug pushes me and prods me in various directions until he gets what he wants. Doug is a great producer, and a helluva drummer himself... In other news, Michael Occhipinti and I are hoping/planning to do a concert at the end of March, I am just waiting on comfirmation of our schedules, then I'll announce something....
Monday, February 16, 2004
we aren't rehearsing (arwyn and myself) this week, but we have some useful DV footage to investigate individually; I took the weekend off and it was much appreciated. The end of last week saw some new developments in my other professional life, that of musicformovement.com. Michael Reinhart has brought a new disc to sell at the site, one which I have had for some time but he had not gotten around to officially designating it for sale at the site. go to wwwmusicformovementcom to check it out... also, sooner or later 3 brand new American Clave releases from Kip Hanrahan will arrive, and that is definitely something to get excited about.
Tuesday, February 10, 2004
I just did an interview for a friend studying at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. The interview deals with the topic of improvisation. Here's the questions (and answers)...
1.Who introduced you to improvisation?
I think that, in my experience, improvisation came rather naturally. I acquired my first instrument (a drumset) before I had any formal training or any experiencing with music notation. As such, my very first encounter with my instrument was improvised. The quality and/or musicality of these improvisations was likely minimal, as I was just beginning to discover the sonic possibilities of the instrument let alone how to make music with it.
Beyond that, I think my next true encounter with improv as a discipline would have been through my discovery of jazz music at around the age of 12/13. The first "jazz" record I had was "Bitches Brew" by Miles Davis, which I received as a 13th birthday present. This was not the first jazz music I had heard (my parents had some jazz records), but this was definitely the first one I truly devoured and explored. The record itself is mostly improvised, or improvisational variations on basic composed themes.
After I was well into my studies and experiences as a musician I encountered improvisation in a formal setting at YORK University where I studied the subject specifically with Casey Sokol and also was a student in the Jazz and South Indian music depts. (two musical genres with a strong improvisational character).
2.When and why did you begin to incorporate improvisation in your work?
I used it from the very beginning, initially as a way to explore and understand the sonic possibilities of my instrument; and to extend or diverge from my music lessons (which variously, I would have in my mind completed, or was simply bored by them). As I began to play with other musicians, I found that improvising with others was a very exciting way to connect with other musicians and it gave us a sense of place and purpose within the music (the improvs were OUR OWN, as opposed to playing someone else's composition).
3.Do you use improvisation primarily as a tool to create music, or as a way of performing? Why?
Both, but I think the character of the improvisation is different in each application. As a performance discipline, it can't help but be tempered by the particulars of the performance (audience, venue, technical realities of recording studios, etc.). As such one may improvise with some portion of one's sensibilities attuned to the audience's satisfaction. This cannot help but have an effect on the performers creative choices in an improvisation. I think that the effects themselves are variously positive and negative (and probably hard to codify as a standard), so it is more important simply to acknowledge this influence on the improvisation, than to try and control it.
Another outlet for improvisation is where one improvises freely to discover new work. I am currently developing a duet with dancer Arwyn Carpenter and we are relying heavily on improvisation in our creative process. We are documenting a series of improvisations (some theme-directed, others "free") and reviewing them later to extract motifs, phrases, moments that we find compelling. We'll use these as foundations for the final piece, which will be a mixture of composed and improvised work.
The question of "Why?" is less easily answered. I don't think that I improvise to necessarily "express myself". I think that my dedication and training to and in my chosen discipline has (hoepfully) developed a sensitivity and ability within me to convey these musical ideas. I concentrate less on "what I want to say" and more on simply speaking.
4.Do you set up structures to follow when you improvise? Are they formal structures, or do you work with images, moods, emotions, etc?
All of the above, yes. Structure can be very rewarding for improvisers. I don't find it limiting at all. Some say that "there is no freedom, without structure"; when you give yourself boundaries, I think you find that you explore the space within those boundaries more thoroughly than if you had never set the boundaries.
Having said that, there is much value in "free" improvisation. However, I think that even when one plays "free" they set very temporary structures all the time, explore them, and disband/discard them. I think it's human nature to do that.
5.Do you prefer to improvise alone or with others? Why?
I am rarely improvising alone. Much of my day is spent improvising while accompanying dance classes. While I am the only musician present, I don't think I am "alone". The presence of the dance teacher and the dancers has a tremendous impact on how and what I play, and I am certain that were I in the dance studio truly alone, I would not play as I do when there are dancers there.
I think the best way to describe my experience of improvising with others is to view the improvisation as a conversation. Having a conversation with one other person is a very different experience from being in a discussion with 4 other people. I really do feel that the dynamics and formal structures of a conversation (which is, in essence, improvisation too) are more than analogous to a creative improvisation; I think they are essential.
6.Do you consider playing for a dance class a form of improvisation?
Yes, a very structured improvisation, but nonetheless improv. Some of the characteristics of dance-class improvisation for me are: as stated above, the effect of the dancers on my playing; the "goals" of the improvising are tempered by the needs of the class, and as such I make creative choices skewed to the dance in favour of the music. There are some dance exercises that require an accompanist to play consistently from class to class (the Graham floor work, for ex.). I think that "what" one plays is not nearly as important as the formal structure and phrasing (tempo, accents, etc.) of what is played that maintains the consistency. I have never played the same thing twice in class, but there are forms and rhythmic patterns that recur all the time.
7.How do you play when you are asked to accompany a movement improvisation?
Dance requires that I watch it while I improvise, so that in itself is a challenge. Also, I have to remember to give the dancer sonic space. They may not actually make any sound when they dance (voice, clapping, etc.), but if I fill the sonic spectrum entirely, I feel that it makes it harder to see the movement. So, I try and leave spaces in the overall sound spectrum for the movement. When you're working with dance, I find it's easy to neglect the importance of breath (the dancers' and yours). So, I also try and be sensitive to that, and it can affect rhythms and dynamics greatly. (The "breath" element is something that I think is universal, but I only truly discovered it once I started working with dance/movement).
8.What do you see as similarities or differences in musical and movement improvisation?
Again, I would draw the "conversation" analogy. As such, I think the "rules of the game" are the same, it is the tools we use that differ. The way a musician "bends" the sonic spectrum, a dancer inhabits the physical/spatial world. I think one can see a relationship between, for ex. pitch (music) and levels (movement). Tempo and rhythm are already identical in each discipline, in my opinion. There is a relationship between melody (music) and gesture (movement); and we affect both with emotion/character etc.
So, I think the differences are the obvious ones, and somewhat inconsequential as it pertains to the effectiveness of the improvisation (neither holds an improvisational advantage). The similarities are numerous.
9.Is there a difference for you between recording improvised music and playing it live?
Yes, not so much in my intention, but the execution of those intentions is greatly tempered by those two environments. Recording, presuming it is done without an audience present, introduces all manner of technical minutiae into the creative process. How a microphone hears music and how one's ears hear music are very divergent. The recording medium is unforgiving: in performance, a musician may strain to reach a particular note, the audience sees/feels this strain and is "with him" all the way, and as such will be sympathetic if he doesn't reach the note, or the note sounds strained... In a recording it is simply a missed note.
So, sonic clarity becomes a concern in recording. The musicians may do a "sound check" whereby they can record a bit of playing to assess what is really being transmitted to tape. This affects how one will improvise, because you will omit musical acts that may not "transfer to tape", and insert ones that surely will. This is not to say that one can't get great improvs in a recording situation. I quite enjoy the recording process; but it is a definitely different.
10.Several pieces on your Winter Music CD were improvised. How did you go about creating these particular pieces?
That project had very little direct preparation. Out of the five pieces on the CD, only one was composed "Hope Song". I composed that piece some time ago, and I simply presented Michael (Occhipinti, guitarist on "winter music") with the main melody line and its harmony (chords). The actual written portion of the piece is only a few bars, (30 seconds worth of music in "real time"), but the performance is over 7 minutes in length. That was, essentially, a highly structured improv; we maintained a formal structure that repeated, and improvised continuously atop it. The improvisation itself is framed by the statement of the composed melody at the beginning of the piece (repeated twice), and then its return at the end of the piece.
The other four selections were entirely improvised in that I had prepared no musical material in advance to present to Michael and myself. What I had prepared were a series of cues: emotional, contextual, and sonic. In certain instances we established the sonic characteristic of what we would play, but what we would play by way of themes, motifs, tempi. etc. Others were very programmatic (the theme of "winter", times of day, etc.), whereupon I asked that we imagine ourselves to be in a certain space or time, and allow that to inform our performance.
1.Who introduced you to improvisation?
I think that, in my experience, improvisation came rather naturally. I acquired my first instrument (a drumset) before I had any formal training or any experiencing with music notation. As such, my very first encounter with my instrument was improvised. The quality and/or musicality of these improvisations was likely minimal, as I was just beginning to discover the sonic possibilities of the instrument let alone how to make music with it.
Beyond that, I think my next true encounter with improv as a discipline would have been through my discovery of jazz music at around the age of 12/13. The first "jazz" record I had was "Bitches Brew" by Miles Davis, which I received as a 13th birthday present. This was not the first jazz music I had heard (my parents had some jazz records), but this was definitely the first one I truly devoured and explored. The record itself is mostly improvised, or improvisational variations on basic composed themes.
After I was well into my studies and experiences as a musician I encountered improvisation in a formal setting at YORK University where I studied the subject specifically with Casey Sokol and also was a student in the Jazz and South Indian music depts. (two musical genres with a strong improvisational character).
2.When and why did you begin to incorporate improvisation in your work?
I used it from the very beginning, initially as a way to explore and understand the sonic possibilities of my instrument; and to extend or diverge from my music lessons (which variously, I would have in my mind completed, or was simply bored by them). As I began to play with other musicians, I found that improvising with others was a very exciting way to connect with other musicians and it gave us a sense of place and purpose within the music (the improvs were OUR OWN, as opposed to playing someone else's composition).
3.Do you use improvisation primarily as a tool to create music, or as a way of performing? Why?
Both, but I think the character of the improvisation is different in each application. As a performance discipline, it can't help but be tempered by the particulars of the performance (audience, venue, technical realities of recording studios, etc.). As such one may improvise with some portion of one's sensibilities attuned to the audience's satisfaction. This cannot help but have an effect on the performers creative choices in an improvisation. I think that the effects themselves are variously positive and negative (and probably hard to codify as a standard), so it is more important simply to acknowledge this influence on the improvisation, than to try and control it.
Another outlet for improvisation is where one improvises freely to discover new work. I am currently developing a duet with dancer Arwyn Carpenter and we are relying heavily on improvisation in our creative process. We are documenting a series of improvisations (some theme-directed, others "free") and reviewing them later to extract motifs, phrases, moments that we find compelling. We'll use these as foundations for the final piece, which will be a mixture of composed and improvised work.
The question of "Why?" is less easily answered. I don't think that I improvise to necessarily "express myself". I think that my dedication and training to and in my chosen discipline has (hoepfully) developed a sensitivity and ability within me to convey these musical ideas. I concentrate less on "what I want to say" and more on simply speaking.
4.Do you set up structures to follow when you improvise? Are they formal structures, or do you work with images, moods, emotions, etc?
All of the above, yes. Structure can be very rewarding for improvisers. I don't find it limiting at all. Some say that "there is no freedom, without structure"; when you give yourself boundaries, I think you find that you explore the space within those boundaries more thoroughly than if you had never set the boundaries.
Having said that, there is much value in "free" improvisation. However, I think that even when one plays "free" they set very temporary structures all the time, explore them, and disband/discard them. I think it's human nature to do that.
5.Do you prefer to improvise alone or with others? Why?
I am rarely improvising alone. Much of my day is spent improvising while accompanying dance classes. While I am the only musician present, I don't think I am "alone". The presence of the dance teacher and the dancers has a tremendous impact on how and what I play, and I am certain that were I in the dance studio truly alone, I would not play as I do when there are dancers there.
I think the best way to describe my experience of improvising with others is to view the improvisation as a conversation. Having a conversation with one other person is a very different experience from being in a discussion with 4 other people. I really do feel that the dynamics and formal structures of a conversation (which is, in essence, improvisation too) are more than analogous to a creative improvisation; I think they are essential.
6.Do you consider playing for a dance class a form of improvisation?
Yes, a very structured improvisation, but nonetheless improv. Some of the characteristics of dance-class improvisation for me are: as stated above, the effect of the dancers on my playing; the "goals" of the improvising are tempered by the needs of the class, and as such I make creative choices skewed to the dance in favour of the music. There are some dance exercises that require an accompanist to play consistently from class to class (the Graham floor work, for ex.). I think that "what" one plays is not nearly as important as the formal structure and phrasing (tempo, accents, etc.) of what is played that maintains the consistency. I have never played the same thing twice in class, but there are forms and rhythmic patterns that recur all the time.
7.How do you play when you are asked to accompany a movement improvisation?
Dance requires that I watch it while I improvise, so that in itself is a challenge. Also, I have to remember to give the dancer sonic space. They may not actually make any sound when they dance (voice, clapping, etc.), but if I fill the sonic spectrum entirely, I feel that it makes it harder to see the movement. So, I try and leave spaces in the overall sound spectrum for the movement. When you're working with dance, I find it's easy to neglect the importance of breath (the dancers' and yours). So, I also try and be sensitive to that, and it can affect rhythms and dynamics greatly. (The "breath" element is something that I think is universal, but I only truly discovered it once I started working with dance/movement).
8.What do you see as similarities or differences in musical and movement improvisation?
Again, I would draw the "conversation" analogy. As such, I think the "rules of the game" are the same, it is the tools we use that differ. The way a musician "bends" the sonic spectrum, a dancer inhabits the physical/spatial world. I think one can see a relationship between, for ex. pitch (music) and levels (movement). Tempo and rhythm are already identical in each discipline, in my opinion. There is a relationship between melody (music) and gesture (movement); and we affect both with emotion/character etc.
So, I think the differences are the obvious ones, and somewhat inconsequential as it pertains to the effectiveness of the improvisation (neither holds an improvisational advantage). The similarities are numerous.
9.Is there a difference for you between recording improvised music and playing it live?
Yes, not so much in my intention, but the execution of those intentions is greatly tempered by those two environments. Recording, presuming it is done without an audience present, introduces all manner of technical minutiae into the creative process. How a microphone hears music and how one's ears hear music are very divergent. The recording medium is unforgiving: in performance, a musician may strain to reach a particular note, the audience sees/feels this strain and is "with him" all the way, and as such will be sympathetic if he doesn't reach the note, or the note sounds strained... In a recording it is simply a missed note.
So, sonic clarity becomes a concern in recording. The musicians may do a "sound check" whereby they can record a bit of playing to assess what is really being transmitted to tape. This affects how one will improvise, because you will omit musical acts that may not "transfer to tape", and insert ones that surely will. This is not to say that one can't get great improvs in a recording situation. I quite enjoy the recording process; but it is a definitely different.
10.Several pieces on your Winter Music CD were improvised. How did you go about creating these particular pieces?
That project had very little direct preparation. Out of the five pieces on the CD, only one was composed "Hope Song". I composed that piece some time ago, and I simply presented Michael (Occhipinti, guitarist on "winter music") with the main melody line and its harmony (chords). The actual written portion of the piece is only a few bars, (30 seconds worth of music in "real time"), but the performance is over 7 minutes in length. That was, essentially, a highly structured improv; we maintained a formal structure that repeated, and improvised continuously atop it. The improvisation itself is framed by the statement of the composed melody at the beginning of the piece (repeated twice), and then its return at the end of the piece.
The other four selections were entirely improvised in that I had prepared no musical material in advance to present to Michael and myself. What I had prepared were a series of cues: emotional, contextual, and sonic. In certain instances we established the sonic characteristic of what we would play, but what we would play by way of themes, motifs, tempi. etc. Others were very programmatic (the theme of "winter", times of day, etc.), whereupon I asked that we imagine ourselves to be in a certain space or time, and allow that to inform our performance.
A copy of a record I did back at the beginning of 2003 arrived in the mail today. It's a gospel/folk album by Mark Curtis (www.fathermarkcurtis.com) called "Bend My Heart". I played percussion and drumset on about half the record (the other half is more "acoustic" i.e drum-less). It's always nice to get this stuff, when you do sessions it's not always a given you'll get a copy, let alone even hear how the record sounds finished. Apparently they are hoping for a Juno nomination for this disc, so that'd be kinda cool...
Arwyn and I and the DV camera rehearsed yesterday, and found some very cool stuff. For me, I am trying to play organically. I found that I was, at times, just dropping into a groove or a beat, and really with no justification for how I got there musically (which means it's likely I just played something because I knew how, not because the moment required it). I am also getting a better idea of what sounds are going to speak well in this piece. I tried a 10x10 SONOR Signature Lite tom tom as a floor tom, which I liked. I think smaller drums and cymbals will be better, so that they might speak their fullest quicker, and requiring less velocity. When you're working with dance, I find it's easy to neglect the importance of breath (the dancers' and yours). The big drums and cymbals can sometimes cover over everything, and as such, don't really absorb or interact with the subtleties.I want to try some tiny hihats (like 10" PAISTE signatur micro hats), but the budget for new toys may not be available for this project. We'll see...
Arwyn and I and the DV camera rehearsed yesterday, and found some very cool stuff. For me, I am trying to play organically. I found that I was, at times, just dropping into a groove or a beat, and really with no justification for how I got there musically (which means it's likely I just played something because I knew how, not because the moment required it). I am also getting a better idea of what sounds are going to speak well in this piece. I tried a 10x10 SONOR Signature Lite tom tom as a floor tom, which I liked. I think smaller drums and cymbals will be better, so that they might speak their fullest quicker, and requiring less velocity. When you're working with dance, I find it's easy to neglect the importance of breath (the dancers' and yours). The big drums and cymbals can sometimes cover over everything, and as such, don't really absorb or interact with the subtleties.I want to try some tiny hihats (like 10" PAISTE signatur micro hats), but the budget for new toys may not be available for this project. We'll see...
Friday, February 06, 2004
we've been hit with a big pile o' snow again this morning (of course it always snows in Canada, but this seems a little excessive), so weather-permitting I'll be heading out to record some piano tracks with Erik Geddis for move2 at his house this afternoon, on his quite fine baby grand piano...
I'm also working on a discography page for the website. It'll be visual, with the album covers and all, but I also want to work in the composition works (for dance, etc.). I've been surfing the web to find the .jpgs of some session work I've done and found some interesting stuff:
-a promo video featuring myself working with a singer/songwriter
-a Russian fan website for a band I used to work for, that includes pictures of me onstage
I'm almost scared to Google myself now... :)
I'm also working on a discography page for the website. It'll be visual, with the album covers and all, but I also want to work in the composition works (for dance, etc.). I've been surfing the web to find the .jpgs of some session work I've done and found some interesting stuff:
-a promo video featuring myself working with a singer/songwriter
-a Russian fan website for a band I used to work for, that includes pictures of me onstage
I'm almost scared to Google myself now... :)
Wednesday, February 04, 2004
We had a great rehearsal on Monday night, things are starting to take shape. Our next meeting is Monday, this time in a real dance studio, so there will lots of space (physical and aural) to work. This will also be the first rehearsal that we record on DV. The plan is to record a series of improvisations, and then watch them and distill the parts that really work out of that....
In other news, I've been toying with the idea of putting on a concert, possibly a duo concert with MO, supporting the "winter music" disc (go to chriscawthray.com/wintermusic.html to hear it and buy it). The problem in Toronto right now is a lack of great space to do such a show. There's tons of bars/clubs, but in my personal opinion, that scene is pretty incongruous with what this music is about. (essentially, it doesn't sell booze, which is why (and I have no issue with this) bars exist. They don't (fundamentally) exist to serve music. So, certains musics work well with the aims of a bar/club, and others don't. The duo with MO is the latter, I think. We haven't actually done it in that setting, but I know from experience that putting this somewhat gentle music in that setting would not work. So, yeah, where to do it. Well, there's tons of galleries, dance studios, etc. but not many that are centrally located (i.e. people would actually make the effort to come to the gig). So, one hurdle in planning the concert would be finding a suitable venue (centrally located, cheap to procure, and hopefully reasonably acoustically satisfying). Luckily, this duo doesn't need a PA, so we do have some flexibility there.
Anyway, stay tuned, or better yet go to my site and send me your email address and I'll let you know...
In other news, I've been toying with the idea of putting on a concert, possibly a duo concert with MO, supporting the "winter music" disc (go to chriscawthray.com/wintermusic.html to hear it and buy it). The problem in Toronto right now is a lack of great space to do such a show. There's tons of bars/clubs, but in my personal opinion, that scene is pretty incongruous with what this music is about. (essentially, it doesn't sell booze, which is why (and I have no issue with this) bars exist. They don't (fundamentally) exist to serve music. So, certains musics work well with the aims of a bar/club, and others don't. The duo with MO is the latter, I think. We haven't actually done it in that setting, but I know from experience that putting this somewhat gentle music in that setting would not work. So, yeah, where to do it. Well, there's tons of galleries, dance studios, etc. but not many that are centrally located (i.e. people would actually make the effort to come to the gig). So, one hurdle in planning the concert would be finding a suitable venue (centrally located, cheap to procure, and hopefully reasonably acoustically satisfying). Luckily, this duo doesn't need a PA, so we do have some flexibility there.
Anyway, stay tuned, or better yet go to my site and send me your email address and I'll let you know...
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