You know, the rain is gonna come...

Well it's been a busy week!

After a wonderfully relaxing vacation in Chicago/Northwest Indiana I'm back at work with two new classes.  My role this term is much more administrative (yuck) than pedagogical and I am dealing with that shift with varying degrees of success.

Going back to work, as with many musicians who teach, always brings my thoughts to priorities; where do I focus..on my art or on the teaching?  I read something that brings that question into very specific relief a few days ago.  Over at Bottomless Cup, D0nna Tr0y has written so eloquently about this dichotomy that I feel I can add nothing but kudos on articulating a very complex set of concerns.  I also must congratulate her on her very brave decision to focus on her art full time.  Read the entire piece here. 

I have just completed a few arrangements for various people and ensembles, but my own writing seems to always get pushed aside in favor of other projects.  If any writers out there have any wisdom to share on this point, I'd love to hear it.  I have a composition that has been sitting on my piano for several months now!  I hate to sound like I'm complaining because I am truly happy and grateful for the work, but it is a true dilemma of balance.

This past Wednesday I played a very "sustaining" gig.  I have a standing trio that I do occasional work with.  We have a "semi-steady" hit at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk VA.  This past Wednesday was especially rewarding.  The communication and energy was great and I felt myself playing in a much less self-conscious way.  Self-consciousness is something I have been dealing with in my playing a lot lately.  It seems that the more I deal with vocabulary, the more aware I am of it NOT being present at certain critical times.  Of course, upon listening back, it is often more coherent than I think but the point is that I am not as in the moment as I'd like when I'm playing.  This past Wednesday was a breath of fresh air if for no other reason than I was able to play and detach from what I played in a very quiet and calm way.  It feels nice to get back to that again.

This next week I'm presenting a recital in honor of Trane's Birthday.  We'll be performing material from all three of the big periods and I'm looking forward to exploring this material in a much deeper way over the next few months.  The challenge for me in presenting something like this goes back to the idea of self-consciousness I wrote about a bit ago.  When I'm playing standards or tunes in general, I feel that I bring a good bit of who I am to them.  When ever I approach Trane's material, the history and archetype is SO strong in my mind's ear that I begin to think about how I SHOULD be playing over these tunes instead of what the music is doing now.  As Lovano says:  "The tune is playing you"!  As I work through this recital my goal is to present the music in a way that not only highlights Trane's music but also his aesthetic of individual expression through the music.

Finally, we're waiting for Hanna to pass over.  We're expecting a tropical storm by the time it gets here...nothing too serious, I hope.  I will say this, my friend Jackie is right!  Kenny Wheeler is wonderful music to listen to while watching rain!!

Lazy Afternoon - well really lazy several weeks, but that is not nearly as poetic...

I have been criminally negligent in the care and feeding of this blog as of late.  It was brought home for me as I was having lunch with a friend and we were talking about blogs - I asked him if he reads any and he said, "well I read yours this morning...".  All I could think was:  how embarrassing - nothing for almost a month.  I have no reason.  No big project to detract me, no hordes of students yipping at my heels.  I have just been feeling very uninspired in general and nothing seemed worth writing about.  

Now, before anyone sends free samples of Zoloft, I am coming around. 

First, some horn talk...

I have been going through a period of extreme naval gazing with regards to almost every aspect of my playing.  I have been unhappy with:

1.  My sound

2. My vocabulary

3. My technical control

4. EVERYTHING about my soprano playing

Something I know about myself is that when I am going through a valley with regards to my playing, my first inclination is to step back from the horn and let the magic of not playing work out all of my kinks - I think we all know how well that works.  I was listening back to some tapes of recent gigs and while I can objectively say that some things sound good, there is a higher percentage of stuff that I am not happy with (see list above...)

Tonight I took the "first step out of hell" and did some very rudimental work.  Overtones, long tones, basic technique (scales and 9th chords).  No transcription, no tunes, no "free association improvisational etudes" but basic nuts and bolts saxophone work.  I feel that I need to focus in this area for a while - I have been so into just playing tunes gigs that some of my foundation has really suffered.  I know better than this and I can not believe I have let it get to the point that it has but this is where I am and it is time to move on.  Have any of you struggled with bouts like this?  How did you deal with it?

My writing - 

NOTHING to report here.  I have a couple of project in mind but with no firm deadline I am having a tough time coalescing ideas.  They are both big band projects:

1.  A re-constructionist approach to "Epistrophy"

2. A transcription and subsequent arrangement of "Respiration" by Ben Allison

There is some exciting news on the horizon...I'll be going to Jamey Aebersold's Jazz Workshop in a few weeks.  I am looking forward to getting a good buzz from this.  Secondly, I have been talking by email with Michael Blake and have some tentative plans for a lesson this fall.  I LOVE his playing and writing so this is a bit of a dream come true for me.

If you've stuck around and still read this blog - I thank you.  I'll try to do better...

PS - This just in...I saw this as I was linking to Ben Allison's site...Man Size Safe featured on WNYC's Soundcheck.  Listen to the audio on Ben's site...

Whither Improvisation?

I mentioned in a previous post that I was wondering when exactly improvisation ceased being a common skill in music.

In days of yore, the ability to realize figured bass was a common skill among keyboard players. Today, it is only a specialist that can do this spontaneously.  I will often draw the comparisons between a harpsichordist realizing a continuo part to what a piano player in a quartet is doing behind a soloist.  This always seems to make things clearer for students who aren't versed in the performance practices of modern jazz but to me it begs the question "why does improvisation have to either belong to jazz today or baroque then?"  Of course this is a big generalization and exceptions abound, but how many everyday students of music have improvisation as a part of their daily experience?  I am so encouraged in speaking to many music educators today who are:

a.  Not afraid of improvisation, themselves.

b.  Making improvisation something that all of their students can experience.

My son is a cello player and his experience in his school orchestra is typical of of most music education programs.  A VERY GOOD experience, but very traditionally based.  He is lucky that his private instructor (and his dad, too...) encourages improvisation and composition based on some of the things he is studying (scales, arpeggios etc...).  I have noticed that the material he improvises on becomes much more internalized than material that he just reads.  Of course, for many of us, this is no news at all but when I see how much more fun he has while improvising I can't imagine why it is not a part of all music curriculums.

I know I am being very naive and I further know and utterly respect the tireless work of elementary and secondary music educators.  I give thanks every day that people like Dan Pritchett (my old high school band director) continue to do what they do everyday.  I very humbly pose these questions to any music educator who may be reading:

1.  How can we integrate improvisation into the mainstream of music education for all musicians in all styles?  

2.  How can those of us not directly involved in middle/high school music education help?

3.  Not a question, but:  Thank you for everything you do to bring music to the future...