Boult to Busking... eclecticism gone mad...

I have never really analysed why I have such promiscuous listening habits... from a very early age I was fascinated by music and have an almost encyclopedic memory for the cluster of early sounds that soundtracked my childhood – theme tunes and songs from old radio shows, my cousin Sandra's rock and roll records, songs sung to me by my mother(in Afrikaans) and my grandfather (old songs from his army days and the only folk song I remember from that time: 'Jim the Carter's Lad.'). Yet my family were not particularly musical. Why I rapidly progressed in my teens to an engagement with the expanded sound-worlds of avant-garde jazz and later western art music I have no idea - maybe it's more fun to retain the mystery. But ongoing musical eclecticism gave me a healthy dislike of purists – in any idiom.
This week I have been busy preparing for a brief solo performance at the occasional club I run – the aptly-named Club Sporadic - and decided to attempt a dj set mixing up a weird collection of tracks – at the same time as stumbling across Pliable's majestic music web blog which led me off into a wild journey in the worlds of classical music – as mentioned in an earlier post. So I spent last night assembling an experimental mix taking in Lee Renaldo's solo work away from Sonic Youth, a load of hip-hop and odd rockish tunes, Groucho Marx singing 'Doctor Hackenbush,' an old recording of the great American piano player James P Johnson and some of my own arcane electronic ramblings – you get the eclectic (should that that read 'messy?') idea... This morning, after I played it all back, I had a quick look at Pliable's blog and noticed his listing for the Proms and some Arvo Part/choral music from last night – which of course can be accessed on here. Which I am listening to now and is absolutely beautiful... (It struck me that even though I don't find this abrupt shift from the profane to the sacred odd, unfortunately others do. Many of the musicians I know are only at home in fairly sharply delineated areas). Another reason to be grateful for the Internet which has rejuvenated radio. The BBC, an organisation that I find to be more and more irritating in other areas, has to be congratulated with its Internet radio presence. And the playback facility is what makes it so flexible. Certain programs that I used to listen to every week I can now catch at times which are convenient for me. Early morning especially I find is a good listening zone. And generally Radio Three – the new music and jazz shows usually and over the last few weeks, the Proms, sporadically.

To ramble on further...

This particular replay from last night's Prom provoked a strange memory – when I was fifteen I sang briefly in the school choir – one of the few experiences from the establishment I reluctantly attended which I recollect with pleasure! This culminated in becoming one of a motley crew taken from local schools to sing in the aggregated choir at the De Montfort Hall in Leicester with the County Youth Orchestra at a memorial concert to a local educational benefactor. Under the baton of Sir Adrian Boult, no less! (We sang 'Let us now praise famous men' if I remember correctly). This then stimulated another memory from a few years later of participating in the Don Partridge Buskers' Concert/Happening whatever at the Royal Albert Hall in 1969. A bizarre experience which merits a longer piece at some future stage – I performed with a banjo player in a duo called African Jack and the Matabele Uprising and also accompanying a male tap-dancer called Jumping Jack who decided to do the show in drag.

I figure that these two events and my obscure involvement with them gives a neat paradigm for musical eclecticism (or whoredom!).

From Boult to Busking.

And some there be who have no memorial... well, maybe not, in the days of the Internet and blogging...

(The photo is of Don Partridge performing in Loughborough Market Place a couple of years back).

Riding the electric highway... up to an overgrown path...

When I was a kid and just starting to expand my sound world I used to listen to our old radio and spend hours flipping the dial across the bands to find the european stations(forget the BBC in those days!) that might have something worthwhile to listen to - Luxemburg for pop, of course but also the Voice of America Jazz Hour - with Willis Conover, the other American Forces Network stations in Stuttgart - was it Frankfurt as well, can't remember - and many German and Dutch stations it seems that played jazz. Being a junior fanatic, I also used to write down the details of the tracks that I could figure out. This wasn't always easy, due to crackling signals fading in and out and not being able to understand the various languages - apart from French to a certain extent. The book it was all written in is long gone -which is a shame. It would be interesting to look back at what I was listening to then. Now I sit surfing the net and suddenly realised when I stumbled across a new music blog/site that has loads of links to mainly classical music that this is very similar - except that when I was young it was more difficult and you had to hunt the music down relentlessly and then not always get anything remotely resembling clean reception. The hiss and the crackle were part of the game...

How it all has changed. Within twenty minutes or so of clicking on this particular blog, I had surfed off to several other sites, bookmarked a few pages (to add to the absurdly expanding list which I keep promising to organise but never do) and started to listen to some disparate stuff - everything from Conlon Noncarrow to Schoenberg to Henry Billings! I love the internet! I have long periods where I just take it for granted - then on a random cruise bump into new treasure.

The blog in question is here and called 'On an Overgrown Path.' Thanks to Pliable for some great links and an interesting blog...

Strangely enough - the last time I can remember using one of those old radios (on the cusp of FM coming in) was down in Hastings at a friend's house in 1967 - the day John Coltrane died. I was moving the dial across Europe and station after station was playing his music in tribute. An eery experience, track after track of Coltrane as the night went on.

Nothing on the BBC though...

Another Tuesday... aftermath of cricket!

Another Tuesday - spent far too much time watching the cricket over the weekend and yesterday so only getting back to working schedule this morning! Above is a photo of Murray and myself that I discovered in some old posts by David, the third participant in the Plexus collective. Taken a while back...
A photo of Murray and David can be found here

I am doing a solo set on Saturday at the Sporadic this coming Saturday 10th Sept - and I suddenly realised that I hadn't prepared anything and would like to try something new. So feverish activity will be the order of the day and night for the next whatever. Murray wants to try something out on our festival in September where we will be collaborating with some multi-media artists. He wants me to supply voice samples over his instrumental laptop stuff. Usually we don't delineate improvisational areas much in advance but this looks promising as I enjoy playing with cut-up voices, choirs, poets etc and it will give us both a chance to sharpen our focus in performance. Often things get very dense as sound piles up on sound. Which has its place but sometimes it is interesting to lay back a bit. Also, the visual aspect should add a new dimension to our set and one that will require a different level of concentration.
So maybe this week's solo performance might contain a few seeds for September...

Strange wednesday... NY Memories...

I have been at home all day, doing various things and just messing about in general. A combination of chillout and busy... One of the tasks was to send an overdue mail to an old friend of mine and I enclosed the above photo of my trying not to look too terrified on top of the Empire State Building during our visit in May to New York. My daughter was hell-bent on going up to the top so I felt obligated to go with her. Trouble is - for some reason, possibly related to the operations I've had in the last year, I've developed vertigo and a mild balance problem. A nightmare... But I did it, even though I break out in a cold sweat at the thought! Strange - not so long ago, it wouldn't have bothered me...

I was hoping to get back to New York on my own in September but that is looking unlikely now for various reasons. Just have to wait till next spring. With my daughter in May we did mainly tourist things and shopping but I managed to get to John Zorn's Stone Club to see Misha Mengeldorf. Looking forward to spending a week there next time, getting out to see more music and exploring the art galleries. Although I managed to achieve an old ambition and see the Pollocks in the Museum of Modern Art. I also found my notes today for the trip, which I may get round to publishing - when I finish all my other current projects. But I did manage to write a review of the Stone Club and Jackson Pollock at Moma - strictly fan stuff but here on the Plexus web site - Stone Club
and
Pollock...

Staying in all day on my own takes me into a strange zone - but I managed to do some overdue things like finish my track on the cassette that David, one of our Plexus collaborators sent me. David and I are doing some old school tape swaps - one lays down some tracks, sends it to the other and so on... an interesting exercise. Also did a lot of editing on my book which is almost finished. And listened to the mixes that Murray sent me - the two latest cds that Plexus is planning to get out in time for our festival in September. ANd reading. And listening to music. And working on a review of the Odd Nosdam album, 'Burner.' Which I think is brilliant.
Going back to the straight job in October - which I may have to do for a while - is going to be a drag! Convalescing has weirdly enough given me the space that I craved to do all the things I want to re music and writing. And travel. On the down side - fatigue... and drinking a wee bit too much!

Plexus... and the beat goes on...

I've been working on a piece about free improvisation - a bit of an overview followed by a description of my own journey into the wild and wacky world of improvising free from the constraints of conventional music (whatever that is any more...) which leads into an examination of the technical issues involved - theoretically and in the practice of my own work - solo and with the group of musicians I am currently playing with. But it's going to take a while longer to complete as it seems to keep looping back on itself even more than my written work does usually... patience... plus I've been busy with various other problems and situations. A busy week...

So to keep the ball rolling onwards - and because I haven't posted for a few days (but who's counting?) -a quick piece about the recent night we played at the Club Sporadic - my bastard creation which I love and hate in equal measure!

The format was simple enough - we are three at the moment - and have been for a while since David joined the lineup of Murray and myself and took us in new directions. I would start, solo, then David and finally Murray would do their own solo sets. A break - then we would come together as a trio. I did not feel very focused and was glad to play first - to get it over with, on one level, but also because I was looking forward to listening to the solo works of my collaborators as we haven't been meeting up regularly due to a variety of reasons. When we play together I am trying to concentrate on what I can contribute and also listening hard to the other two - and we play long sets that ebb and flow all over the place. So it was a rare treat to just sit back and be in the audience for a change.

I played two pieces just on laptop - did not feel like using a guitar-one using Audio Mulch and some loops that finally evolved into a crackly recording I'd made mixing some of the soundtrack from Derek Jarman's film 'The Last of England' with a tape of part of the recent commemorations of VJ Day. Audio Mulch is an amazing software program for electronic music... The second was played in FL Studio which I have been messing around with quite extensively, using it in both a structured and an improvised way, using a ready made rough drum track intercut with improvisation. I wasn't really happy with either piece - found my concentration wandering due to being tired - and having other things on my mind. Which is deadly - a musician should be ruthless and cut off from the usual pressures of daily life when playing. But I did what I did - and got out the other side ok...

David performed then - and had a few problems synchronising his instruments which led to a bit of stopping and starting. When he got into his stride, however, it came together. Odd bits of guitar, harmonica, drum machine and other sound sources... Good stuff...

Murray went up next and was a revelation. Using prepared electric guitar he cut out a large chunk of evening for himself. I was impressed with the combination of freedom and control - he had obviously been working out some new directions on his battered old electric, played through various treatments on his laptop.

Then we all came together and played a couple of long pieces. I get lost(pleasantly) in these performances and lose track of time - we used a couple of the Brian Eno cards each that David gave us - Zen koans almost for oblique directional strategies. I was working with a fairly stripped sound set of patches - synthesizer, some drum sounds and keyboard stuff, all played off the laptop keyboard which can be limiting sometimes but I felt it worked this evening. Yet at the end, I had the impression that although everyone had enjoyed playing, no one was quite sure where it had all gone. Which leads on to the point - how do you measure the success and failure of these performances without conventional markers? This music is not new. But each performance will throw up its own set of problems and solutions. I felt that I had played less than usual - but that fatigue had caused this - and it wasn't a bad thing as - because I was a solo player for so long, I suppose - I have a tendency to play too much. For once I was letting it breath a little more than usual.

So. Another legendary gig at the Club Sporadic...

Yet... despite all the above comments - when I received a recording from David of the performances, I was pleasantly surprised. My own pieces seemed to have more coherence than I realised. All the solo pieces came across well - and Murray's sounded completely different to the way I remembered it - but just a s good. Which only goes to show... Positioning is all, maybe. Sitting at a lap top and playing at high volumes, you're not aware of what you sound like from, say, ten metres away. Or more or less. And in the group pieces, we seemed yet again to have created something new from some of our familar gambits, materials and timbres. When I listen to recordings we have made over the last two years it always surprises me how far we have travelled. This particular cd was a pleasant reminder that we may be creating some original work in an crowded field where there seems to be an amazing explosion going on across the world, fuelled by cheap technology and spreading awareness of the history, the present contexts and future potentials of the music.
Long may this state of affairs remain...