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Looper's Delight
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>Hmmm....Miko hinted at this too I think. I've been pondering this idea of >"re-inventing" yourself musically. Is it responsible or proper for an >artist to take his or her rough sketches out on the road to present it to >his/her audience? Or is it more responsible to refine the work and >present >it as a finished product? A good point, though in music performance the audience (and indeed the performer) my want to introduce an element of risk; "classical" concerts are all about presenting a previously accomplished work, but I suspect that improvised music turns the performance into half-recital, half-bullfight (will our hero survive?). This can potentially kill some musics as far as I'm concerned; whilst I often enjoy jazz I find that a great many players are too busy trying to find new and ingenious scales to fit over a particular change to worry about the audience or the melody. Which is why I prefer pre-bop jazz; there's less worrying about how clever one appears and more (god help us) fun. (I can tell I'm going to be in trouble after that one) >As humans, I know that part of the experience >and joy of reaching a new level or obtaining a goal is the journey >itself....but...don't you feel cheated when someone presents you with >something that is less than you know they are capable of producing? >Hmmm..... Possibly, and I think that most "improvising" musicians should know enough stuff to provide a safety net for the off days. However, I also hear of times when musicians playing live present the audience with something MORE than they know they are capable of producing. >> >>structure in my looping compositions. I'm tired of improvised >> >>guitar-drones that go nowhere, are lifeless and dead, and brandish the >> >>"Recorded live with no overdubs/Completely improvised" tag. >>>BOOORRRRING. I don't think that's necessarily fair - some of the best music I know of is improvised loop stuff. I don't think the format is necessarily dead just because it's still in it's "novelty" phase. Stereo is probably a good example - I'm sure that by the early 70s all those wild uses of stereo were boring the pants off people (Guitar hard left! Drums hard right! Singer gets to play with Pan knob!). But used effectively it can still impress. There will always be a future for COMPETENT live looping improvisors. But due to the novelty of the gear, there seems to be a market at the moment for ALL live looping improvisors. >I've been experimenting with juxtaposing ambient loops with more melodic >sections...something with a hook or rhythm. I haven't really stumbled >upon >anything that "works" but I certainly have cut and pasted a bunch of loops >together in my computer!! Honestly, I don't know what I'm looking >for...but I'm fairly certain that I will know when I find it. Hopefully. > I know that ultimately I'd want to compose, really compose, live looped pieces the way Ed Alleyne Johnson (whose praises I regularly sing around here!) does with looped electric violin. However, I'm too busy/lazy (delete as appropriate) to do so.... Michael