Re: Ideology in looping?

["Steve Lawson" <steve@steve-lawson.co.uk>]

> (the notion that there are boundaries to 'free' improvisation is
> surely a misnomer, no?  though I suspect that the explaination would be 
>that
> adherence to strict western metric rhythmic forms and melodic structures 
>was
> not expressing freedom but rather pedaling the western musical hedgemonic
> paradigm or something... :o)
>
> ** well i agree with you  - - it is a misnomer. i find it tedious when
> people feel the need to lok down on those that might integrate groove or
> tonality into their improvs. though, as a caveat, my opinion is that it
> can't really be only about those things because it becomes more of a "jam
> band" situation . . . semantics to be sure, but my 2 cents.

..but to be truly free it has to have room to morph into a jam band if 
that's where it goes. If the jam band tag becomes a
stricture, or those things start to excert an influence beyond the music, 
the freedom has gone... :o)


> though the only time I've ever seen him live was
> perhaps the most godawful cacophany that I've ever had the misfortune to 
>be
> in the same room as - none of his usual expressive weirdness, just three
> blokes twatting about with a laptop, turntables and a guitar... I 
>thought it
> was just me until the review in the Wire said the same thing, and
> anecdotally I heard that Derek wasn't mad keen on the evening either... 
>:o)
>
> ** this is the nature of free improv, no? there is always the 
>possibility of
> failure. at least that's what i like about it.

Absolutely - hearing him be a bit rubbish didn't in anyway diminish my 
respect for him, it just meant that I was made rather
starkly aware of the suppositions that I'd brought to the gig as a 
listener, and was left wanting... I guess if they'd all
fallen about laughing, said 'sorry, that was crap' and started again, I'd 
have enjoyed it a bit more... :o)

Steve
www.steve-lawson.co.uk