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INTERVALS #4
March 2006
THE COMPOSITIONAL PROCESS
It has been awhile since I spent several consecutive days composing, in this case as a result of coinciding projects. It is always refreshing to go back to the equivalent of an old friend, a familiar feeling that you know and enjoy from the past-sitting at the piano deliberating between this or that note; returning a few hours later or the next day to revise and refine. I don't use a sequencer or computer, just the piano with pencil and paper. Of course, like any other skill, you do get better as you grow into it. Your way of hearing and thinking comes back while at the same time one takes note of small signs of change and progress along the way, most apparent when revising a tune from years ago. I can only dream of what it must be like to be a bona fide (meaning salaried!!) composer where your everyday job is to imagine and write, letting the ear and mind go to wherever it wants while constantly fine tuning the process. It is surely one of the most intense exercises in self awareness that we have in music-you are really looking in the mirror getting to know yourself better. Of course, one's aesthetical core pretty much stays the same over a lifetime, but there are subtle changes which occur and give one hope that indeed things don't stay (to put it into an expression) creatively stuck in the same rut forever.
CHROMATIC MASTER CLASS
Just a reminder if you are interested in the Chromatic Approach to Jazz Harmony and Melody Master Class that I will be doing in late July at East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania, you must get a tape of your composition to me asap as I am filling up. All the pertinent info is on my site under Saxophone/Chromatic Master Class.
WE THREE NEW CD-THREE FOR ALL
Last year, a group with two of my oldest friends toured Europe and recorded for Challenge Records (Netherlands), titled "Three For All." We call the trio "We Three" which includes bassist Steve Swallow and drummer Adam Nussbaum. Steve was the first heavyweight bass player I worked with in the late 60's as part of Pete LaRoca's group featuring a young Chick Corea. He also was the bassist in the first formal group I was part of which was also a trio with Bob Moses named "Open Sky." We made two records which are available through my site.) At that time Steve was still playing upright bass and was one of the most working jazz musicians in New York. After a hiatus for some years to learn the electric bass on which he is undoubtedly one of its historically undisputed individualists, he became as active as prior. Steve is one of the warmest people I know with a truly sweet heart and soul. It is so nice to be playing with him again. His compositions are like Bach fugues as are his solos; everything is perfect and seamless.
Adam was a young teenager hanging around Elvin Jones' Group when I was a member and then "Lookout Farm," even sitting in with us on occasion. He became part of the Dave Liebman Quintet which I had together for a few years in the late 70's featuring John Scofield, Ron McClure and Terumasa Hino. We have recorded a lot of records together. Adam is one of the smoothest and most swinging drummers you can play with. He definitely descends from Elvin with his own twist. This group is as relaxed as it gets for me with re-arranged standards and wonderful compositions of course from the three of us and especially Steve, surely one of the greatest composers in jazz. The recording was done at bassist Jay Anderson's studio and has a really warm sound. We are out on European tour in April. www.allegro-music.com
ITINERARY FOR WE THREE EUROPEAN TOUR
01.04.06 UMBERTIDE/Italy Teatro dei Riuniti
02.04.06 ALGHERO/Sardinia Pocoloco
03.04.06 MAROSTICA/Italy Panic Jazz Club
04.04.06 PONTASSIEVE(FI)/Italy TEATRO ACCADEMIA
05.04.06 ROMA/Italy CASA DEL JAZZ
06.04.06 PIACENZA/Italy Teatro Verdi
07.04.06 TOURS/France Le Petit Faucheux
08.04.06 VOSS/Norway Kulturhuset Fraktgodsen
09.04.06 COPENHAGEN/Denmark Jazz House Copenhagen
10.04.06 travel to Paris/France
11.04.06 PARIS/France New Morning
12.04.06 FRIBOURG/Switzerland La Spirale
13.04.06 ROTTENBURG a.Neckar/Germany Kulturzentrum Zehntscheuer
DIFFERENT BUT THE SAME
This is the group that I recorded with on Hat Hut (same title) and toured Europe with a year ago. It features Ellery Eskelin and myself on tenors (exclusively) with Tony Marino on bass and Jim Black on drums. We did two nights in March at the 55 Bar in New York, this time with the wonderful Nasheet Waites filling in for Jim. Nasheet is an incredible drummer in any idiom with a flow and facility of the highest order. I believe he is taking drumming to another place, particularly in the free realm. So called "free jazz" has really become commonplace in a way like be bop was in the 50's and 60's; refined, formatted and actually communicative to the listener. Playing with another tenor player brings me back to the days with Steve Grossman in the Elvin Jones Group of the early 70s. There is nothing like playing with a great musician on the same instrument. There is an article on my site under "Educational Articles" which talks about this special relationship ("Playing With Your Brother"). By the way a complete transcription of the classic "Live at the Lighthouse" recording from 1972 with that group is available through my site under Available Publications: www.davidliebman.com/lieb
A STUDENT ASKS(SEARCHING QUESTIONS)
Student-Here are the questions plus many more that I asked you earlier on today. I truly appreciate your response and hope that it will bring some clarity to some questions that I've had for some time.(My answers are purposely very brief.)
S-Percussion: Grooves vs. Atmospheres? (thoughts)
Lieb: It is the diff between ambiance and mood -waist up stuff; and getting down on the ground-below the waist in all ways (if you get my drift).
S: How do you know when to stop adding things/parts?
L:Experience and of course utmost sensitivity-but more is expected of a young cat-you can always cut down.
S: How to go about tapping into the cosmos(i.e. direct connection, spiritual connection) Pesonal feelings or experience? How do we get "in touch?"
L: You are in touch; just "being there" in the moment (which is a trained skill) is being in touch.
S: What initially took you to India? Why? (or where ever you went searching)
L:(Went in 75 and 76)The deepest musical culture ion the world that doesn't use harmony(India)-the meaning of the music (for life events, seasons, etc) and the way they milk a melody(raga)-not to mention the unbelievable swing and rhythmic sophistication.
S: Looking back what did you gain/take away from that experience?
L: Heavy is heavy-don't matter where or who or what.
S: How do the different cultures of your own study influence your life?
L: Direct musical ideas obviously-but more important different ways of experiencing life(through rhythm mainly).
S: What is improvisation?
L: Having a fountain of ideas at the ready that have been tested (practiced), which inevitably leads to being brave and confident enough to try them, and searching, searching, searching!!
S: What is art? Must we follow initially in order to lead later down our life path?
L: Imitation-stylisation-innovation-IN THAT ORDER!!
S: Do you think studying so strictly in a tradition (other than our own, i.e. Indian music, afro-cuban music) hinders our ability to tap our inner voice? If we always follow a set path, will we ever find our own?
L: There is a time and place to leave what you love the most behind in order to gain-if we follow a "set path" for too long, it becomes the easy way out.
S: "Jack of all trades, master of none." Should we all put our energy (as music school curriculum says we should) in reaching certain levels of proficiency in so many styles/genres or does that go against the idea of music as art?
L: School time which includes the first ten to fifteen years of learning an art form should be about what was(imitation)--then you move on to stylization which means the music of the day-then you are on your own and maybe into innovation.
S: School Curriculum: Does it help or hinder our search of inner voice? With all the bombardment of musts, tests, grades; do we really need to know all these things?
L: Not "all these things"--but you won't know that till way after-there is no time after school-take advantage.
S: What is truly important?
L: Being good to people-giving out positive shit to the world-being true to yourself.
S: The world (especially large urban areas) seems to be turning into a big cultural mash all over the world. From your travel experience what do you think about this?
L: We are in deep shit-it is a cycle-has happened before, but will work its way out in some ways-in others, the shit is going to get worse.
Good luck
Lieb
MIKE BRECKER
I am thrilled to report that Mike is doing much better and is home recovering his strength from this terrible year. And in fact it was exactly a year ago as I write (end of March) that he last performed, with the Saxophone Summit at Birdland in New York Though he is not fully cured of the problem, he is cancer free and even playing a bit. In fact, what he is doing on the EWI is astounding. This is GOOD NEWS!!
ANDREW HILL
I got a chance to see Andrew's group at Birdland in March which was really nice. With Charles Tolliver, John Hebert on bass, Eric Mcpherson on drums and a great Greg Tardy on reeds, the music had that trademark sound of Andrew's from the classic 60's Blue Note recordings. Loose, but organized; organic but structured. I really enjoyed it and also an article that appeared around the same time in the New York Times. Critic Ben Ratcliff runs a series where he listens with great players to recordings and elicits comments from them. I love what Andrew said about Charlie Parker:
"His first choice of music to listen to during my visit was Charlie Parker's most famous blues, "Now's the Time," from 1945. He calls it "the perfect record."
Mr. Hill understood Parker's comment about melody as rhythm as a refutation of the "Eurocentric" music education he had grown up with where melody is paramount, harmony accompanies it and rhythm is the last part to worry about. "It opened my mind up to many possibilities," he said. "If everything is rhythm, then you just have these rhythms on top of each other. But they're not polyrhythms or pyramids of rhythm: they're crossing rhythms."
"Now's the Time" is driven by a short, syncopated melody with a strong rhythm, putting down a bounce in almost every beat. "In that period, one could pretend that one could hear," Mr. Hill said. "You didn't have to read it to understand it. It was all around you. And I guess because it had a blues sensibility, it was inclusive of more people."
I said that given his interest in this idea of melody as rhythm, I thought he would have suggested a bebop tune with a more complicatedly rhythmic line, like Miles Davis's "Donna Lee."
"There was something lovely about hearing those fast tempos," he replied, "like 'Donna Lee' or '52nd Street Theme.' But with the blues, one doesn't have to be a space scientist to get the harmony. 'Donna Lee' has more changes bringing you in more than letting you out."
"And then there are the parts between the drums and the saxophones," he said as an afterthought. "Through the years, I've always said to myself that when the drums and the saxophone play together, that's a dance, which is an aspect of melody as rhythm."
COMMENT
THE 1/3 DEAL
I was thinking about something that I tell the graduate students on my last meeting with them before they conclude and receive their Masters Degree. Not withstanding that they have just more or less finished twenty plus years of school, constituting most of their life at this point, I urge them to look upon the next years as a time when they should do what they, personally want to do. In other words, they have fulfilled the understood requirements of a young, intelligent, privileged person in our time, dutifully getting a degree and so forth. They should now see the glass half full, rather than half empty, pursuing what they do best and not be concerned with things that may (and probably do exist in the conditional tense since there is always more to do). By that I mean references to what they "should've" or "could've" or "would've" done, musically or personally. It is time for them to take a stand and pursue their own path. This lead me to thinking that assuming a normal life span, say 75 years, I propose that the following generalization may be more or less accurate. We spend the first 1/3 living up to other people's expectations, the next 1/3 hopefully living up to ours and the final 1/3 returning to do what is expected and necessary from us, due to age, health and in some cases lifelong obligations. Something to consider!!
THE WORLD-DARFUR
Feeling the same as the person below, I too do not usually go in for these kind of mailings, but what is going on in Darfur is just too much. Something has to change in this world, somehow.
"Below is a letter designed for mass mailing. I am not accustomed to doing this sort of thing, but the situation in Darfur demands individual action. The genocide can be stopped only by massive international pressure. If the United States doesn't take the lead to apply that pressure, who will? Our nation will act in this matter only if people force action. Despite its recognition that genocide is happening in Darfur and despite its pledges to do something about it ("Not on my watch"--George Bush), the administration will not take action unless pressure comes from the folks. Please go to http://www.savedarfur.org/ and send a message to the president."
THE IASJ MEETING IN POLAND BY NAT HENTOFF (April Jazz Times):
Jazz is an International Language
Long ago, between sets by the Modern Jazz Quartet, John Lewis and I were speculating about the future of jazz. Like whould be (if anyone would be) the next Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker or John Coltrane. We agreed that jazz would keep on being the sound of surprise anyway, without a new colossus.
But then John surprised me. "If there is a next one," he said, "he could be a sideman taking a chorus as we speak in a club somewhere in Romania.I'd heard impressive players from abroad who might not have been able to speak English but where fluent in this international language. For instance, on a recording, a joyous big band in Siberia that could have warmed up its remotest hamlets.
It was with sudden force, however, that the memory of John's vision resonated for me when I opened the December 2005 issue of the International Association of schools of Jazz Newsletter (David Liebman, Artistic Director). Located in The Hague (servicebureau@iasj.com) the Association, formed in 1990, held its 15th Annual IASJ meeting last July in Krakow, Poland.
What struck me about the review of the concert was not only that 36 schools of jazz from more than 25 countries were represented, but also the inclusion in the music of the textures and rhythms of the various indigenous cultures.
Toshiko Akiyoshi, of course, has done this very evocatively in her writings and orchestral performances; and Duke Ellington's global travels often resulted in expanding his singular musical language with the timbres and subtle pulsations of the music he heard reverberating as he passed through.
In Krakow between July 3 and 9 last year, alto saxophonist Zbigniew Namyslowski, already with some international renown, expanded his jazz quartet to encompass Gorale, a folk group. As reporting in the IASJ Newsletter:
"After an opening piece played by the jazz quartet, the folk group came on stage, singing, and took their places. The two groups then played separately, in turns and at times, together. The songs from the mountains were reworked into jazz compositions on which the jazz quartet improvised." There was also a lecture by Namyslowski on how folk melodies from the mountain people in central Europe can nurture jazz.
I await the recordings of the concerts; and if I ever get to Poland, I anticipate nights in Krakow where there are many jazz clubs, two of them where jam session took place every evening are located in beautiful cellars with typically arched ceilings providing excellent acoustics. In ever well attended jam session, the students had the opportunity to play in endless styles and grooves.
From these cross-cultural experiences will come jazz musicians who have not only absorbed the blues and other fundamental elements of American jazz roots themselves part of what Alan Lomax called "the rainbow of American music" but will also help further create, from their own traditions, a musical rainbow circling the globe.
All I knew of Krakow before learning of the IASJ 2005 meeting there was that it is again a center of Klezmer music. I said "again" because the Nazi's, while exterminating Polish Jews and their deeply rich culture, sent, I'm sure, many klezmorim to the crematoriums. Before Hitler's almost final solution, in Jewish shtetls (ghettos) throughout Eastern and Central Europe, local musicians made an uncertain living traveling across different countries trying to avoid being caught in pogroms and absorbing the music they heard between their gigs.
Many of these improvising musicians were part of the Jewish emigration, along with my parents, to America, where, being adaptable, they played in many different contexts, including Broadway pit bands and in the then flourishing Yiddish theater on New York's Second Avenue where tragic dramas were interspersed with jubilant musical comedies.
The first music I ever heard that made me run to hear more, almost as soon as I could walk, was a klezmer band at a wedding at a synagogue near my home in Boston that had an adjoining community hall. My mother would often run after me for fear I'd be hit by a car or by some of the young anti-Semitic hooligans that occasionally went on Jew-bashing expeditions in the neighborhood.
Although the klezmorim who so entranced me played Yiddish songs and also added their own flavors to popular standards of the time, they remained essentially improvisers. In the front line, crackling trumpet players interwove with strutting, jocular clarinetists, and with the rhythm sections transformed the wedding parties into Jewish versions of the dancers I later saw in Harlem clubs.
By the time I was also immersed in jazz, I still kept going, uninvited, to those weddings down the block. As a fledgling clarinetist, I got to talk to a klezmer master of that challenging instrument; and one afternoon, after he finished an ecstatic solo on a freilach (a swinging up tempo number) recorded for posterity by trumpeter Ziggy Elman on Benny Goodman's "And the Angels Sing," I expressed my great, envious pleasure at hearing the clarinet extended far beyond my strivings.
"Well," said this jaunty member of the klezmer combo, "where do you think Benny Goodman came from?"
Reading of the commingling of cultures in Krakow last year, I noted that a Klezmer band was part of the proceedings. It occurred to me that the very first music I was drawn to, the excitement of which led me to jazz was already demonstrating that the international language of music crossed all boundaries.
For more on the IASJ go to my site and click on that area in the main menu:www.davidliebman.com/lieb
Question from Jazz Magazine (Paris): What is your favorite solo by John Coltrane and why?
(My reply)There is the monumental "One Up, One Down" from the Half Note, which is finally released and is the ultimate as far as burning jazz goes portraying one of the best examples of what it was like to see the group live during the 60's. However, for me, it is "Crescent" which combines everything that Trane and the quartet could do. The rhythmic buoyancy and sense of floating time could only happen through Elvin's touch and feel at that tempo combined with Jimmy's anchoring; the clarity and lightness of the voicings represents McCoy at his most lyrical; and Trane's solo could've been written out beforehand -it is so perfect. Though the harmonies represent common chord change cycles, John's choice of notes, incredible mixtures of rhythms and tonal nuance raises the art of playing changes to unbelievable heights. And most of all, the passion, sincerity and beauty of the music sparkles. Top of the mountain for me!!
HABIT( a poem to someone we all know)
I am your constant companion. I am your greatest helper or heaviest burden. I will push you onward or drag you down to failure. I am completely at your command. Half the things you do might as well turn over to me. And I will be able to do them quickly and correctly. I am easily managed, you must merely be firm with me. Show me exactly how you want something done, and after a few lessons, I will do it automatically. I am the servant of all great men and alas of all failures. Those who are great I have made great. Those who are failures I have made failures. I am not a machine, though I work with all the precision of a machine plus the intelligence of a man. You may run me for profit or run me for a ruin. It makes no difference-take me, train me, be firm with me, and I will place the world at your feet. Be easy with me and I will destroy you. Who am I? I AM HABIT!!
Peace
Lieb