Re: Question of the Week -- when do you NOT loop?

["Mike Biffle" <mbiffle@svg.com>]

mbiffle@svg.com writes:
<< They're all gigging standards mostly but want to do some real
stretching. >>

> I gig standards too, and when I do, I leave my EDP at home with the
Loud Rig. But previously (on NYPD Blue, I can't resist following that
word with those other ones), 

You mean "and such"? I love the way they do that... can't wait for
the new season to start.

> in our trio, we played standards and incorporated loops.  How? Good
question.  Certainly not during the form of the tune... because over a
12, 16, or 32 bar form, no one could keep such metronomically correct
time (nor would I like them if they could...).  But in other parts of
tunes, over a vamp, sure.  And getting into and out of tunes,
especially the more modal things....  I remeber a version of Marc
Johnson's 'Samurai Hee Haw' that had a good 10 minutes of ambient
loopy space in front of it (in the tonality of c# melodic minor),
making the real entry of the tune (in A major pentatonic/lydian) all
the more... erotic. And I recently made a loop of Steve Swallow's
'Sweeping Up', a 7-bar tune.  Dialed in all the parts (it has simple
chords, and just a moving inside line, no real melody), and then
soloed over it.  

Oh yeah... for intros and outros and free floating stuff... no holds
barred on the loops! It's when another player interjects some entirely
"new" figure which may or may not be in the key / time structure of
the existing playing. It's really a challenge to either change your
loop or migrate to another one without creating a huge dropout.

I've not spent enought time using my looper as accompanist for
woodshedding tunes yet. I just start improvising... I'm sure I could
accelerate my learning of jazz tunes by doing this. Gotta now make it
so!

Miko Biffle                                    "Running scared from
all the usual distractions..."
mbiffle@svg.com