History
Some time in the 70′s, probably during one of the Miles Davis marathons played on WKCR, they played the Miles Davis Quintet recording from the Plugged Nickel. Search elsewhere on the web for the history behind these historic recordings. At the time they were unavailable in the US. It was in the middle of the decade I think (there are going to be a lot of “I thinks” in this post because memory is fuzzy) so I was not yet 20 years old. And I’m trying to relate hearing the music to what I understood about jazz, song form, and improvisation. I’d already done a lot of listening, working my way from Tony Williams’ “Emergency”, “Miles Smiles” (played for my class by my high school music teacher-imagine that!) and then forward and backward and taking in current music all at the same time.

If you are new to the music and trying to get educated as a player or a listener, you will go through a similar process. It may be a different artist for you, but then it was Miles. In the early 70′s for a kid into rock and reading the rock press, Miles Davis was the most famous Jazz musician. Bitches Brew, nome sane?

By the time I got into college, the Plugged Nickel recordings were the Holy Grail of modern Jazz among those in the know. All the musicians knew this. Again, not going to go deep-read elsewhere and you will find out if you don’t know why. But needless to say, we we’re trying to teach ourselves the language of the soloists, the chord alterations, the ways to experiment with form and time. Our experiments were rudimentary, but necessary in order to learn.

What You Need To Know
Before I even get into how absolutely thrilling it is too be able to play in this fashion, I want to say quickly that yes, it can help to have just a teeny tiny bit of musical knowledge, say maybe just an understanding of the song form, and anyone can experience the same thrill. But even without this, soloists and improvising bands can still connect with layman listeners-when I was a kid, older folks listened to instrumental music all the time, and it was common for people to testify that this or that player was “really saying’ something” on their instrument-no music degree required.

Politics
Just a brief reflection upon why one gets out of the whole business after feeling like there is little to no opportunity to perform in this manner and make any money. The audience dwindles, a certain kind of conservatism takes over the music, and then seemingly dissolves-apparently the possibility always has existed if one understands how to support one’s habit through other sources of income. Essentially it is my fault – for not understanding how to keep moving, for not listening to my own intuition or believing in my imagination, for listening to other  people and believing what other musicians say about the business too much. Do you understand? I’m simply saying this: greater spirits than myself held their own throughout this time and continued to play the way they wanted to, taking their music to whoever in the world would listen and found ways to support their habit – and, that the me I was is still the me I am and the me I should have stood up for as an artist.

There have been many artists who stuck to their thing through thick and thin. One artist who never sticks to one thing, is however, the guiding light right now for what it means to present improvisational music inn a most uncompromising manner. And that artist is Wayne Shorter. He is so free, that he is not even shackled to the original ideas of his own compositions. And that is an inspiration that has been one of the greatest gifts to me in this life.

“The word “jazz” means to me no category”- Wayne Shorter

The Thrill Itself
When talking about this, when trying to “dance about architecture” as they say, if you haven’t surmised, there arises a lot of “yes but’s” and “not always” kinds of statements and such in my writing here because trying to pin down a fluid situation with language is difficult, like making promises you don’t want to swear to have to keep. Some men fear commitment, even to words…

I have chronicled the events of the past year sort of not really believing that it was happening or possible to happen. I’m still slightly amazed that I’m playing music at all (ten years ago I had no notion that playing music regularly would ever happen again). Most recently, I have spent 6 of the past 7 Saturday evenings playing improvisational music. I choose to call it improvisational music as opposed to jazz, (even though we certainly play most often in the style of jazz and operate that way conceptually) because it is possible to play jazz and not improvise, particularly if it is all written out. Instead, we go to the bandstand specifically to improvise first, and not necessarily to present compositions or specific arrangements, although nothing says this won’t happen. Once we realized what we had going, it became the thing to do-not to play in the style of, not to pay tribute to, not to take requests or please a crowd, but simply to accept the mission-play the music that comes from the song, and from each of the musicians. Once I realized I was doing it in front of an audience, however small, my brain said, “now wait a minute…”.

This particular combination of musicians is not extraordinarily skilled in any special way, in some cases we may be considered underachievers technically (although by no means do we suck-we’re just different, but good different-people who would do fine in any jazz ensemble). But the listening and responding quotient seemed to be instantly higher. And by comparison, others have joined us as subs and have had flavors of their own, but maybe have been surprised by the level of freedom they find themselves in the middle of. Imagine not having to play the leader’s tunes (especially when expecting it to be correct the first time, with no rehearsal), imagine not having to play like a locomotive at 90 mph and 90 decibels, imagine having the space to play something you hear in a song and having the other ears respond, turning it into virtually an on the spot arrangement. People who join us are only too happy to jump in and play once they realize what’s going on.

And although it may appear at first to be a simple acoustic piano trio, you might want to pay particular attention to the percussion, the varieties of pianos and other keyboard instruments layered atop and beside one another, and the simulated spaces we choose to set all this in.

Yeah, it’s been done. But when was the last time you did it, and decided it was how you wanted to play from now on, or at least on a regular basis? And did it with others who feel the same way?

And most importantly, when was the last time you could see such a performance near you on even a remotely regular basis?

Open
I’ll write another post about the need to have a wider variety of musical performance available to be seen by people during something more than the occasional special visit by the important artist of your choice. And let’s just say that if you are a player and have an inkling to create a performance that speaks to your heart and the way you’ve always dreamed of playing, just fucking do it.

The baby needs a name. Something to do with the word open or one of its synonyms is a word or a phrase I need to name the experience. I have not found it yet. I’m taking it on the road one way or another. I’m going to put together a very diverse book of tunes. I will teach other skilled people to play this way if my friends can’t always join me. And I’m coming to a space near you. I’ll ask soon for your name and email, and I hope you’ll join me…