Re: Static Loops, Quantized Sequences and Music that Breathes

["RICK WALKER" <looppool@cruzio.com>]

Per wrote:
" I'd like to chime in and say  that I really liked it the first time I 
heard drummer Charlie Watts
playing at a slightly different tempo then Brian Jones and the boys
in the band."

Bill Wyman was interviewed years ago about the 'sloppy' rhythmic machine 
that the Rolling Stones
are.     He said a fascinating thing (and I'm paraphrasing because I read 
this somewhere 30 years ago).
He said that unlike many other rhythm sections that Keith Richards led the 
rhythm section.
He said the Richards frequently sped up and slowed down the rhythm and 
even, 
occasionally, would completely
lose a beat forcing one odd time measure (though that's not how he 
described 
it).

He said that he listened to an followed Richards religiously and that 
Charlie Watts listened and followed him
religiously.

This is why the Stones have a rhythm section that is really loose and 
swinging (don't forget the Watts was a jazz drummer
before he was a rock drummer) in a way that I've never heard a cover band 
be 
able to cop their rhythmic feel.

And it's true,  you can never get this kind of feel with a static loop (or 
probably not with a slightly drifting loop).

By the same token,   I did a demonstration where I purposefully made a 
very 
lumpy beat box loop at PASIC and then demonstrated
how one , with the judicious use of stretched time and long enveloped 
sounds,  make a very crummy lumpy loop actually have a
really cool musical groove to it.

You can't get this kind of feel with two human 
beings..........................so there's a tradeoff.

Since we are on the subject of live looping (and to me, I agree with 
everything that Andy says in his reply to my initial posting when
looping is not anywhere in the picture),  I think it is really 
advantageous 
to learn how to use our humanness and ability to
warp time by speeding up and slowing down judiciously so that we can make 
the stasis of non-stretched loops actually have
a very human feel to it.

By the way,  Andy,  if you have that post I made about learning how to 
play 
in front, back and right on a click track,  to you mind reposting it for 
me?
I'm not sure I know where it is.


Per also said,
" Another  funny thing I noticed is that whenever he (the morphing reggae 
rhythm guitarist he played with)
smoked grass he completely  lost this his delicate sense of timing 
(although 
himself, he thought
he was playing great then ;-)

Well this is certainly the topic of another fascinating off topic thread 
(Drugs and Live Looping)
but I have to say that I have played with really fantastic musicians who 
were pot smokers all of my life.

I have found almost 100% of the time that when they get high (usually on 
the 
first or second break in a multiple set night)
that there tempi gets very loose.      I agree with Per,   a lot of pot 
smoking musicians think they have good time
when they are high, but I find that marijuana has a strongly debilitating 
effect on the acuteness of rhythmic playing.

Now, frequently,  it's the lead guitarists and horn players who get away 
with it the most because they aren't saddled with
playing really tight rhythmic figures.   If a sax player or singer drifts 
while playing,  it's called expression...............lol.

Fascinatingly,  the premier Reggae rhythm drum and bass section,  Sly and 
Robbie were asked why they had
not been seen smoking ganja the whole time the reporter had followed them 
around for a profile article.
Sly said that they just realized that they couldn't get enough done if 
they 
smoked pot like all the Reggae singers that
they did records and tours for.     He said they played better straight so 
they completely gave it up.
I got to hear that rhythm section backing Black Uhuru's first American 
tour 
("Guess Who's Coming to Dinner"  gets my vote
as the best roots/dub record there is).  Man they were 
murderous................as they would say.................and that's no 
bumba clot, mon!




Per said,
"This thing with "elastic tempo", as in multiple drifting tempi, is
also the reason for my big crush on the OS X modular sequencing
application Numerology. I think I'll stop here before the Off Topic
Intelligence guys come to bring me in..."

Oh, heck, Per,  we've already blown the off topic thing with this thread 
already and all these tools can be used in conjunction
with live looping techniques......................pray continue on about 
why 
you like Numerology so well.

********

By the way, Lots of fun topics and a lot of cool philosophy being thrown 
around...............much ammunition for new thinking.
I'm really loving this list again..........thanks everyone!    And , as 
always,  thanks to Kim Flint for providing this amazing forum for all of 
us.

rick walker