Default Material

Joe Morris on improvisation:

Free music musicians do have default musical material that they rely on. In a group of improvising musicians, those default solutions can vary and those variables require adjustment and negotiation for a good collective result. Having the skills to accommodate those variables makes a player more versatile, which opens more possibilities for new music to happen. (Perpetual Frontier, 2012, p. 25)

Playlist, Week of 2015-05-24

Still absorbing the recording of the gig in Nashville. Very intense! Also, Rodger just sent me files for the 100+ minutes of studio recordings we did before the show; looking forward to digging into that!

Playlist 2015-05-25:

*Derek Bailey and Eddie Prevost: 2002-08-20 London (CDR)
*Ornette Coleman: The Great London Concert (side 1)
*Rodger Coleman and Sam Byrd: 2015-05-15 Centennial Park Black Box Theater, Nashville (mp3)
*John Coltrane: The Prestige Recordings (discs 10, 11, 12, 13)
*Whit Dickey: Coalescence
*Ronald Shannon Jackson and the Decoding Society: Barbeque Dog
*Last Exit: Iron Path
*Ingrid Laubrock Anti-House: 2011-08-06 Lisbon (CDR)
*Ingrid Laubrock/Dan Peck/Tom Rainey: 2012-05-11 Moers (CDR)
*Ingrid Laubrock Anti-House: 2014-09-16 Koln, Germany (CDR)
*Plymouth: Plymouth
*Plymouth: 2015-03-06 Amsterdam (CDR)
*Wayne Shorter: Schizophrenia (side 1)
*Wayne Shorter: Odyssey of Iska
*Animal Collective: 2008-07-19 Pitchfork Music Festival (CDR)
*Beatles: Help! (2009 mono remaster)
*Can: The Lost Tapes (disc 1)
*Cassiber: Beauty & the Beast (side 2)
*Deerhoof: Green Cosmos
*Deerhoof: 2014-03-09 De Kreun, Belgium (youtube > mp3)
*Deerhoof: La Isla Bonita
*Gentle Giant: Free Hand
*High Llamas: Buzzle Bee
*Daniel Ponce: New York Now!
*Various artists: Zombies/Ra/Trip Misc. (cassette compilation)

Reading List, Week of 2015-05-24

I am going to be reading this one for a while. In the meanwhile, only the last third left of The Crippled God!

Reading List 2015-05-25:

*Erikson, Steven. The Crippled God (reread/in progress)
*Schmidt, Michael. The Novel: A Biography (in progress)

Free Improvisation

Free improvisation is not a style of music. It is a process used to make music. (Joe Morris, Perpetual Frontier, 2012, p. 48)

Photos and Video of Nashville Gig

Chris DeLine
The show at the Centennial Park Black Box Theater went really well! Really nice crowd, surreal projected live drawing behind us. After a nice opening set from Matt Endahl (solo Fender Rhodes) and the resolving of a few technical difficulties, we tore things up for 50 minutes, building to a great crescendo that left me breathless (literally....for some dumb reason I forgot to have water handy and I was breathing really hard when it was over!). Rodger's take on the show is here. Some nice photos are here, and they also did a nice video of the first 7 minutes or so...it cuts off just as we were getting warmed up! Overall, it was an overwhelming evening, and Rodger sounded stupendous. We kept it going, and it went by like a flash.

Playlist, Week of 2015-05-17

Great music for driving through the back roads of Tennessee late at night.

Playlist 2015-05-18:

*John Coltrane: The Prestige Recordings (disc 9)
*Miles Davis: 1970-08-29 Isle of Wight, UK
*David Murray: Lovers
*Tom Rainey Trio: 2013-10-19 Brooklyn NY (CDR)
*Sonny Rollins: Sonny Rollins, Vol. 2 (Blue Note)
*Sonny Rollins: The Best of the Complete RCA Victor Recordings
*Sonny Rollins: The Impulse Story
*Slobber Pup: Black Aces
*Cecil Taylor Feel Trio: Two Ts for a Lovely T (disc 3)
*Animal Collective: Centipede Hz
*Arctic Monkeys: Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not
*At the Drive-In: Relationship of Command
*Clash: The Singles (disc 2)
*Daft Punk: Discovery
*D’Angelo and the Vanguard: Black Messiah (selections)
*Deerhoof: La Isla Bonita
*Earth Wind & Fire: Faces (selections)
*Earth Wind & Fire: Raise! (selections)
*Bob Marley and the Wailers: Easy Skanking in Boston ‘78
*Yani Martinelli: Bubble Station
*Marvelettes: Deliver: The Singles 1961 - 1971
*Modest Mouse: The Fruit That Ate Itself (selections)
*Carla Thomas: Sweet Sweetheart: The American Studios Sessions and More
*Various artists: Brill & Broadway: 75 Hits from the Original Home of Songwriting (discs 1, 2)
*Various artists: Bollywood "Music From the Third Floor" (CDR compilation) (disc 14)
*Various artists: The Sock Hop Collection (discs 1, 2, 6, 7)
*Brian Wilson: No Pier Pressure
*Steven Wilson: Hand. Cannot. Erase
*Wire: 154
*WSAM: 2008 (CDR compilation)
*Yes: Time and a Word

Reading List, Week of 2015-05-17

Reading List 2015-05-18:

*Reading Mystery Science Theater 3000. Shelley S. Rees, ed. (finished)
*Erikson, Steven. The Crippled God (reread/in progress)
*Schmidt, Michael. The Novel: A Biography (in progress)