Re: Javanese music

[improv@peak.org (Dave Trenkel)]

>There are some definite connections between that sort of music and
>looping, I'd say, particularly since most of the Javanese music I played
>consisted of what could be described in Western terms as one or two
>(occasionally more) eight or sixteen-bar cycles repeated for a looooong
>time.  Fifteen to twenty minutes was the average length of time for a lot
>of the pieces we played.  It's one thing to hear an electronic loop
>spinning that long, but it's another thing to actually have to manually
>play it over and over while sitting cross-legged on the floor.  (Ouch).
>
Gamelan was always a big inspiration to me too. In a similar vein, I spent
3 years playing traditional Zimbabwean marimba music in a band called
Balafon, with 6-8 people playing interlocking marimba parts and usually 3-4
percussionists. When you get those long 3 against 4 or 2 against 3 parts
really locked up, it can send you to heaven. Even though the stuff I do now
is sonically a million miles away from that stuff, it has influenced the
how I play in a very deep way, especially when locking up with a drummer.


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Dave Trenkel, NEW EMAIL ADDRESS: improv@peak.org
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