Thursday, February 24, 2022

Improvisation and Meditation


Great writing about improvisation, from Taylor Ho Bynum's excellent essay on the new Cecil Taylor release from 1973. The context is Cecil, but the notion is universal:

There is an element of improvisation, especially when so expertly realized, that is akin to meditation. You are aware of all the thoughts floating through your head but continually letting them go to connect to the present moment, as a performer and a listener. Thoughts, fears, anxieties all inevitably arise—the brain does work at a furious pace—and by welcoming them, accepting them, articulating them, we can let them go. We can work out the puzzles of our own minds, embrace the unknowable together until it’s transformed into a creativity that needs no definition. (Taylor Ho Bynum, "Forty-Four Thoughts for Cecil Taylor," The Baffler (2022-02-22)

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