Tim Garland Ive Found You Again
Thoughts from a Generation Ten
Slipping into the category of Generation 10 (rather than that of Infant-Boomer) by two years makes me experience kinda youthful when I reflect on it. Many of my musical colleagues are Generation X- types having been born before the 1980's.
They are all teeming with life and creativity, we are contemporaries even if there are thirteen years or and so between us.
I had this thought when reading that I had won 1 of the prestigious Paul Hamlyn Foundation Awards For Composers. Brilliant News indeed! I had showtime read of this foundation years earlier and the business to support artists throughout their career and not exclusively focussing help on those at the beginning of their journeying.
The truth is that the rocky road, one time yous are into mortgages, kids, and an established presence, bears more responsibleness and gravity than during the early years, it does not discount you of ever needing support . Jokes abound when one works alongside artists finally doing well in some of the worlds finest venues, such as "nice job, – I'll meet yous again on the fashion down!".
There is that earthy observance of transitory success, fortune and recognition, and similar the rest of life, musicians find great means of laughing about information technology, Not that this joke has to be truthful, its just a fashion of keeping your equilibrium during the highs every bit well every bit the lows.
Most of u.s. have seen lows recently that take tested our every atom of positivity. It has been so great, therefore, to come across some of my friends getting serious attention recently, sharing in the excitement of Abel Selaocoe having his own prom for example. For me the performing and limerick are like my ii easily,
then when I'grand asked which ane I adopt, well, I demand both basically! The performance "mitt" is vibrantly social, the other filled with solitude, and for me thats where I can trip up and get over introvert, obsessive and need to accept faith as the ideas slowly form with the upmost fragility.
This is why the composition award I accept just been told almost has got me writing this blog, as it is a very tangible sign that others have organized religion in you lot, through the highs AND the lows, I'm profoundly encouraged to remember that.
Looking at these two pictures makes me wonder most the two halves of ones brain. I write only with my left hand, but in every other respect I am either right handed, or slightly ambidextrous. I wonder if my left handed side is my introverted, composerly side?
My way of dealing with that apocalyptic feeling nosotros got that fateful March was to arrange a series of studio Encounters; 45 min On Need video concerts of jazz musicians who don't regularly work together but grade a band for the afternoon. No one was working live then it was a contribution toward ensemble jazz that did non involve iphones as a way of recording the outcome! (The one we did with Abel Selaocoe used seven cameras and 13 microphones).
I became involved in the Ivors University meetings hosted past Orphy Robinson OBE, which seeks to put jazz in the broader context, interfacing with others who have seen ( as we take now all seen) how revenue streams for artists, due to the streaming company business models, are geared only to the global popular elite.
My Encounters Series will hopefully continue but again, landing some business model with any kind of longevity makes playing Behemothic Steps in all keys look pretty easy! Please check out the series …..
So this honour comes at a time when myself, like many artists, reemerge to blink in the light and try to pursue the all-time New Normal nosotros dare dream of. I am filled with gratitude for this honour, and what my 2 easily volition be doing amongst other things is:
The functioning hand
DUOLOGY – a new set with my oldest musical companion Jason Rebello. The ii live gigs this summer are
The Undercover Garden , S London https://secretgardenconcerts.com/14th-baronial-two/
The Yard, Manchester 16th August
( on both of those dates I'll incude a slice on the SOPRANINO SAXOPHONE. Yup its really small!)
and in that location is likewise a quintet engagement at the 606 club on the 28th August where guitarist Ant Law joins me on front line even though he's too young to be in the Generation Ten club!
The composing paw
The Forever Seed – a new and evolving orchestral work for strings with the amazing Thom Gould as soloist. It also involves the Cimbalom, heard of that instrument? Very cool. There'll be word on this later on merely the primary torso of the work was recorded in the iconic studio ane, Abbey Road.
Isn't it true that on so many occasions, everything seems to be competing for our attending? On the internet every outstretched hand of friendship is merely at that place because the other hand is set to sign you up for something!
With music online and piped into public spaces 24/7, wehear a great deal more we actuallylisten to. With so much talk nearly our mental health, with the ease of lockdown being so dull and not at all in some parts of the world, the quality of our attention can exist said to be central to our well-being. In my feel that's true when listening to or playing music. I find it takes a conscious try to switch from only passive hearing to active listening, requiring a narrowing of focus.
One thing that has actually helped keep me listening over the final few months is the regular gatherings of musicians at my studio, some of whom are meeting for the outset time. What they inspire in each other is invariably fun, engaging and honest. It started months agone with Wintertime Encounters, and at present we are half way through Spring Encounters (with large thanks to the Arts Council for invaluable support).
Amongst the line-ups are all kinds of ages and backgrounds, and the hope is that the brevity of the meeting encourages something more than precious because it has been fleeting. These are "unplugged" sessions, and although they are beautifully edited and mixed, at the core they are glorified jam sessions that can unexpectedly motility y'all to tears or make you express mirth.
I see different aspects emerge in my own playing as I endeavour to add something purposeful to the grouping. No element, information technology seems, remains unaffected by its counterparts, and if that were not the example it would hateful we weren't truly listening to each other's music-making.
While Leap Encounters is about presenting music equally a quality product during the pandemic, it is also a celebration of how to mind.
The kickoff 3 sessions (featuring singers Norma Winstone, Liane Carroll and Ayanna Witter-Johnson) are all withal available on ViewStub and of course through my website. Moving frontwards, the Spring Encounters catalogue continues to grow with Vimeo as its home.
An unexpected triple neb happens on Sunday 2d May, when the planets align and the Cheltenham Jazz Festival stream the duet myself and Jason Rebello were requested to make hither at the studio:
https://www.cheltenhamfestivals.com/jazz/whats-on/grid
Follow the link higher up for tickets. Tune in around 7pm for a 20 infinitesimal tribute to Chick Corea.
A wonderful series of environmental talks on the same day culminates in an online concert I was deputed to record / moving-picture show for them. To support that worthy cause go to
https://www.maydayc4.com/.
Our concert starts shortly after 7.30. The talks are all leading upwardly to the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow and again, it seems, to hear the calls for action are not enough, we take to really listen!
And finally, by chance, another Leap Encounter is released at 9pm the same evening:
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/springencounters3.
Your ticket will be valid for three months with this.
After the concert there is a live Q&A – with myself, Cleveland Watkiss, John Turville, Asaf Sirkis and Orlando LeFleming. That might be a skilful time to ask me directly about any of that music you may have defenseless before in the evening. All of this was not by design – talk almost competing for attention!
Until we can all come across up again at our favourite venues, delight join us for one or all of these things on Sun 2nd May!
Tim Garland writes : For twenty-ane years I was lucky plenty to telephone callChick Corea both my mentor and my friend. His clamorous appetite for live music and, crucially, its communication, was infectious, inspiring those around him to produce their very best, nigh heartfelt music.
His incredibly full schedule was of course a event of his huge popularity. Some of the promoters we shared postal service-gig meals with would seem like his oldest friends, harking back to concerts from the tardily sixties on!
As a ring leader Chick's experience seemed unparalleled, and there are precious few who toured to the extent that he did.
In equal mensurate he was super-disciplined and playfully artless.
His discipline showed up in his respect for the efficiency of those around him: During those inevitable "rise and shine", early forenoon, hotel-antechamber-to-airdrome calls, he would prepare a neat example of skilful-natured punctuality. His hotel room was always equipped with a total-sized keyboard for regular exercise earlier, and oftentimes later on, a concert. Leaving a venue we'd sometimes have to wait as Chick would be up on stage again practising Mozart while the cleaners swept their brooms around the phase!
Early on, Chick was patient when at that place were things the states newbies needed to acquire and apace forgiving of errors of judgement. He taught u.s. how to communicate on larger stages and how to minimise barriers between yourself and the music, as well equally the music and the audience.
On one of my kickoff performances with him he beamed at me equally I walked past the piano later taking a solo, and shouted over "That's the shit Tim!" I was and then pleased to have heard the word "the" in there!
As if a foil to Chick's sense of subject field was his sense of playfulness. He was playful in his sense of mischief and countless inventiveness on phase. I can't think of one concert when he wouldn't have played some phrase that would produce a kind of joyful laughter from his sidemen, something so hip and fresh, so individual and then locked-in with the groove. I remember after my commencement gig with him at The Stables, Wavendon (when information technology WAS withal actually a converted stable!), nosotros were discussing how it felt to be "locked-in" rhythmically, his groove was then visceral, crisp and decisive that it pulled y'all into its orbit. In his company, one was made aware of how to identify notes and phrases, how to be truly playing as part of the band and never simply over information technology.
On our many long bus rides he'd be talking to one or other of the band. The subject affair was e'er fascinating, Chick's attitude and ear always open up and questioning. He was eager to share his experience and to learn new things. He was still stretching his wings and growing along with the balance of us.
Chick had a passion for the drums being a drummer himself, his talks withMarcus [Gilmore] would carry the impression of two music students sharing experiences and digging what they love. Forget the 45 years that lay betwixt them, it certainly had no place in that chat! He gave exceptional regard to his drummers, they were "the Loftier Priests" of the music, and he sometimes referred to the piano keyboard, for obvious reasons, as an extended drum kit.
With me Chick might talk most orchestration, composition, and approaches to getting the very best out of everyone on stage. He also gave exceptional respect to composers, and my groovy buddy, the composerBaton Childs who first introduced me to Chick was quick to remind me of how he often spoke of us in the aforementioned sentence. What a blessing.
In these personal moments with Chick I was deeply honoured to hear and then many stories of musical heroes first paw, like when Miles' band members all swapped instruments on stage before he came out. "You guys are crazy" was the raspy reaction he gave when they played him on! Chick's playfulness was there dorsum and then and it stayed. He got fed up at one point during a tour of Europe; playing in these lavish halls threatened to make the listening experience stuffy and over-polite, so he tried to pause out by having united states all actually fix our gear at the beginning of the gig in forepart of the audience, cases everywhere, whilst he sat at the piano improvising his way into the first piece of the set!
Sometimes he'd surprise an unsuspecting band member, of a sudden inviting them to introduce the adjacent song, or he might just leave the piano, pick up a percussion instrument and start an impromptu rhythmic party. He got the audition involved too, inviting them to sing, to come on stage, to call out suggestions…… no wonder thousands of music-lovers felt they knew him beyond only his music.
His five decades of musical cosmos and risk-taking that did not diminish with age, has led to fans from 75 to 25 united in grief at his departing. I remember occasions at Vigil band rehearsals when Chick would walk in clutching sheet music for brand new compositions, throwing it up on our stands with such maverick enthusiasm.
To call back of the scope of the music that came from him, could there be whatsoever jazz composer that hasn't assimilated a part of Chick into the very marrow of their bones? And such diverseness! Call back of well-known pieces similarLitha,La Fiesta orHumpty Dumpty, the knotty mischief of his orchestral pieces such equallyThe Continents or the episodic romping fusion themes of the Render To Forever band!
Chick's eclecticism was truly unparalleled and in this I am reminded past my buddyKris Campbell, our road warrior bout director and unsung backstage hero, that "Everyone has their own volume they can write virtually Chick".
As often the just one travelling in from Europe on a tour or project, my jet lag was the opposite of the others'. One fourth dimension I was nodding off in the hotel after a long-booty flight and at nearly 2am local fourth dimension Chick calls up and says "I'k having a steak downstairs, they kept the kitchen open up, see y'all in 5?!" – and one had to weigh up problems of personal health regarding slumber, against hanging out in deep conversation with the Chickster, talking aboutHenri Dutilleux orArt Tatum or how in that location was non enough skillful humour in contemporary music!
Humor was fundamental, he'd ofttimes quote the comedians he'd grown up watching, as well as Monty Python, and erstwhile jokes of Ronnie Scott'due south. Just I remember a fourth dimension when I tried to get him into Alan Partridge (a smash of self-deprecating Brit humour!) – THAT went downwardly like a atomic number 82 balloon!! Why so? Chick had limited time to identify with the humour of self-compassion or self-destructive behaviour. His central modus operandi was appreciation . He was totally attuned to lifting everyone'due south feeling of self-worth through his attentive appreciation. Just look at the corporeality of people sharing their selfies with him, and at how often he's pointing at THEM, the fans, acknowledging THEIR importance, encouraging united states of america all to feel inspired in our own endeavours.
Chick not only believed in united states equally his beau artists, but genuinely relished the input we could offer and with that came the possibility that we might take a chance of our ain that he didn't actually dig, and you'd realise later that his interest was centred importantly around the band , and that within run a risk-taking in that location had to be dialogue. Music for him was Advice.
His investment in the talents of others meant he never ran out of things to say as a musician with such a long career. I remember sitting adjacent to him on a flight to Tokyo and mentioning, "this is my fourth time at present", his answer being that he'd been at least twice a twelvemonth since 1966 (the year I was born)!
In Chick'due south later years he was still incredibly resilient. During a potentially violent uprising in Argentine republic, we were forced to leave our hotel in the dead of night driving off in a rickety bus headed for our next venue xiv hours away. At that place were rumours of buses being forcibly boarded by strikers in Buenos Aires. We took a heavily bumpy ride through the outbacks of the country. Chick diameter the lack of condolement with such resilience that I didn't cartel make whatever complaint myself.
He always asked after Amanda, my wife, and my kids Rosa and Joe and we, of grade, got to know Gayle. The last fourth dimension I played at the Blue Annotation, Gayle took Mandy for a surreal 1am Chinese foot-massage just over the route "while the boys did their thing" sort of thing!
How very New York and how very Gayle!
Chick, yous accept left a gaping pigsty that nosotros are all left staring into. Nosotros never imagined a world without Chick Corea in it, without him sending songs with Gayle singing equally Christmas gifts, or releasing project afterwards project (I was merely in about four but that was life-changing enough) or sharing his life's wisdom. Thank you for lifting the spirits of millions of us and reminding us of what is possible. Thank you for showing such fearlessness in a globe so wracked with fright, and my humble thanks for believing in me, a lad from Kent who was every bit hooked on music as yous and who was privileged to share just a fraction of your experience. You lot have been the most inspirational man I am ever likely to encounter and our global musical family both within and across the earth of jazz has been stunned into silence. However I can hear your voice saying that yous have merely Returned to Forever, and there y'all are just pointing at our instruments saying, "C'monday man! permit's hear what you're working on NOW!"
Sending much much love to Gayle and the family
Tim
…"DO Information technology!"
Dates had been booked, with Norma Winstone and Kit Downes due to come over to my studio mid November. And then a 2nd lockdown was announced, and Norma was soon to reply to my panic bulletin "Lets DO IT!".
So within twenty-four hours they were hither, initiating the first of what I hope will turn out to be a serial of "Encounters At Oak Gable Studio".
Plans to hone a prepare with a song of mine and some other new material were put to i side, as the necessity of creating something on the spot took over.
Keeping the format to trios, distancing is no problem. We had no monitors, no headphones, and agreed there'd be no overdubs. This would be a concert, information technology'due south but that the audience were yet to arrive.
What resulted was more than moving than I could have imagined; melodies that I have known for thirty years or more, were at present being sung a few steps away direct to me or so it felt, with that serenity authority that Norma possesses.
It felt similar doing "In Tune" that radio 3 live music slot where you and Sean Rafferty are stuck in a basement, no audition in sight, yet mysteriously the world is dialling in.
Kit is a fantastic accompanist and followed Norma'southward delicate phrasing as if they'd just been on tour together. It is also worth mentioning the loving debt we owe John Taylor, whose influence runs so deep in many of us, whether nosotros be pianists or composers.
After feeling and so starved of ensemble playing, this quickly assembled appointment was a deep joy, and perhaps had an added sense of renewed love for the power to truly create together. Our option of well loved tunes only seemed to add to this emotional gravity in the studio that afternoon.
Another swiftly arranged pre-lockdown session happened the side by side day when Kit returned, this time with Rob Luft. His stereo soundscapes helped create a especially nocturnal fix suitable for the Christmas vacation functioning slot that information technology's being planned for.
Even more than axiomatic in this session, was the fact that this is an Come across, rather than a Ring: People with similar sensibilities, putting themselves on the line and relishing the freshness of committing something to record, in some cases never having played it before.
Several more sessions are planned. All being well there will be "Spring Encounters" and the other seasons will follow. My heartfelt hope is that they all volition embody the aforementioned passion, interconnectedness and, well, dearest, that these beginning ii have.
The ability to finesse the audio, and of course to have the whole affair beautifully filmed, means these online concerts are not live, but the plan is to follow the 45 min concert with a live Q&A , where y'all can shoot over your questions to those you've merely seen and heard bare their souls, and they can talk right back to you from their boudoirs via Zoom!
My son Joe Garland is a big part of the tech success of this, having already created the new-look world wide web.timgarland.com site. Cheque it out.
Delight accept a look as there are quite a few videos, sound clips of what I get up to at Oak Gable Studio, Masterchord, and Abbey Route, and importantly, details of performance dates and ticket info.
Take a look at this short video
Wintertime Encounter no.one
Tim is joined by Norma Winstone and Kit Downes
If we are lucky enough, life may have given united states of america an opportunity to apply some newfound time to develop our musicality, and I believe the fashion to deepen this is to develop our power of concentration. That role of usa that seeks purposefulness and satisfaction through creating, is oftentimes frustrated and malnourished. This isn't always because of lack of time in which to attune ourselves to a artistic headspace- information technology is often because we remain underdeveloped in our staying power when there IS an opportunity.
It's quite possible we are likewise difficult on ourselves when improvement is not speedily apparent, and we may only rarely sink deep enough into the music to have a proper "delve" or feel whatsoever authentic marriage with the musical instrument. Nosotros are ALL busy people!
If yous are in a situation where that extra time with an instrument might become possible, and yous desire to Savour information technology, endeavor my "Third Hour Of The Tertiary Twenty-four hours" rule:
Don't expect whatever item comeback until the third sequent day of do, and not until the 3rd hour.
So you take committed to three hours a day for three days. That'southward the stuff of full fourth dimension higher students and not older folks with mortgages and kids, right? Well, try and fashion a claiming equally close to this as y'all can, the important part being that you are playing for a adept deal of time WITHOUT whatsoever expectation of comeback. You are just playing, "playing" like a child plays.
Eventually get your phone out and tape yourself maybe, a lilliputian fleck of self created tension. You may cringe a bit at hearing yourself if you're not used to information technology, simply yous'll no incertitude appreciate SOME comeback, so brand sure to heartily enjoy and admit the feelings and don't dwell on the criticism. Involve the whole body, in my instance as a blower of a adequately large instrument I need to proceed up a good energy, but not so it is strained. I don't expect very much when I first start out and am just grateful for the time lone with the instrument, actually it is almost a "cocky-compassion" where not-judgment presides. My time now, I tell myself, is to connect with the highest function of myself and all worldly problems for this time, have to be put aside. You could even say that for this time, you are non "of the world" anyhow, perhaps you are "of the earth". Every bit such you do non need Facebook or chocolate or any, you just need concentration in the task at hand.
A couple of days ago I realised I needed to record a solo on a new album. The challenge I set myself was to be content with a recorded solo that had admittedly no editing in it, as if information technology were a live gig. The piece "Ambleside Nights" is pretty tricky actually. At the beginning of the 3rd day I filmed a couple of the solos and I've made one available online, merely for your interest.
I like the fact that I was able to surprise myself a couple of times in the solo, as well as follow a fragment of melody which helped mucilage information technology together. I besides liked the fact that although I wasn't able to interact with the live band the way I really similar to (in the same room at the aforementioned time!) nothing jars. Enough of things I'd played upwards til then seemed then sporadic and un-flowing, I REALLY had to use some empathetic non-judgement.
Improvisation is the countless art of perfecting imperfection. If you can't practise without both concentration and a playful, patient mind, you might not enjoy information technology, and right now an extra few hours might exist the gift something in you is longing for. Let's ensure that music remains a source of joy for us, and that the rewards of truly applying yourself are non all at the end of a rainbow just tin be in the journey itself, an enriching of life when the troubled listen can take a back seat and music can practice the driving.
"There'south goose egg quite like Tim Garland'due south music…Everything fits with such perfection…His soundscapes certainly nowadays u.s. with atmospheres and images subtler than any picture…..some superb jazz soloists, notably Garland himself"
Dave Gelly THE GUARDIAN 4 STARS
"..it'due south clear that this is no ordinary bedchamber jazz….Taking his inspiration from the scenic magic of England's Lake District, saxophonist and composer Tim Garland has translated the natural beauty of the landscape into an equally scenic suite".
ALL ABOUT JAZZ 5 STARS
"A mini-masterpiece" EVENING STANDARD
'impressively cinematic soundscape….
The wide-ranging score draws on modernist dissonance and adds folk balladry and the irksome-burns of fusion jazz.'
4 STARS Financial TIMES
"A gorgeous and vivid sense of place" Jazz FM
Try thinking of the music y'all heed to in one of two means:
Either the experience volition be primarily a journey, or primarily a place.
Music that relies on a strong sense of narrative, would exist the former type.
Turn on a recording half way through, if it is a piece that relies heavily upon narrative you lot'll potentially experience the lack of something, just as you lot would if you were to showtime a picture show half an hour in.
The narrative content of a piece of music demands our attending, it relies on us engaging with the linear story being told.
Whether it be the structure of a Beethoven sonata, a (seemingly) less structured Coltrane solo (from a later album) or the unfolding of the wearisome motility of the Ravel pianoforte concerto, you can appreciate the momentum and engagement of neat narrative music. Also a great improvisation over a standard tune; to actually hear simply how the soloist is manipulating and superimposing over the melody's structure, it helps to have heard that melody, its exposition, and to have enough attention invested in what'south going on to recollect some of its contours.
Music equally a place:
To write music as aplace is to meditate upon a motion picture in one's mind, or to use an actual photo perhaps, and somehow distil the essence, or emotional "meta-data" that resonates within you equally yous translate your feelings to music.
It cannot actually be static as information technology is still, of course, in time, but It is a gradual deepening or focussing of the emotion, that represents the development of the slice, even if it is characterised by a lot of repetition.
Mind to Steve Reich's Desert Music, or one of the very vampy recordings past Keith Jarrett, including his best selling Köln Concert. From early plainchant to Louis Andriesson and his "De Tijd" ("Time"), any music which summons a sense of identify, over it's sense of journey, can be appreciated as securely immersive.
Information technology is besides more possible to listen in on a piece like this later on information technology has started. Often the emphasis on texture, production or repetition will exist so prominent, every bit to pull you right in from any point you lot start to heed.
These examples are a starting point only, but it is worth pointing out that the influence of movie music has had a greater impact upon our appreciation ofidentifymusic, and has not washed so much for our power to get engrossed in longer, through-developed music, whatever its genre.
I have long been totally in love with "mod" harmony, which I sometimes refer to as The Beauty In The Racket. Music with a lot of harmony or activeforeground melodic lines, actually does crave your foreground attending and a certain corporeality of willingness for the twists and turns of the genre to go familiar. There is no singularplace this music is describing, it is more a journeybetwixt places. It doesn't make good background music, and tin be difficult to appreciate without putting your phone down for the whole elapsing, counting out millions of potential listeners so it would seem.
I am not saying thatmusic-equally-a-identify is in whatever way inferior. These two approaches are, more truthfully, entirely intertwined. I am only criticising an unwillingness to develop attending, and that goes far beyond the subject area of music.
Cheque out Arvo Pärt's "Cantus In Memorium Benjamin Britten", this summons an amazing sense ofplace.Information technology is non concerned with the journeyas I've been defining it,simply it most certainly deserves one's whole-hearted, sustained attending.
ThePlace v. Journey arroyo has been on my listen a lot as I am on the eve of releasing my new anthology Weather Walker, which blends these ii approaches in equal measure more than anything I've tried before.
I am incredibly proud to take had the opportunity during this projection to tape the English language Session Orchestra string section in studio one at Abbey Road, plus eight soloists in studio three, to create my own series of "pictures" of the Lake District.
It is within these places, that the narrative element is added by the magic of pianists Jason Rebello and Pablo Held, and bassist Yuri Goloubev. These plus my ain playing of course, on soprano and tenor saxes, (overdubbed as I was conducting the orchestra) create the balance of narrative to place.
So does the characterisation of music in this fashion add up to anything more than than a mental game, given that you can't really accept one element without the other being present anyway?
It is the rest of these two approaches, forever changing, that keeps creative music endlessly varied. Whether you are notating your feelings into compositions, or improvising direct to an audience, observations which help you maintain an overall view of your fine art, are much more than a mental game.
In Weather Walker, you could imagine the string orchestra as the landscape, and the soloists as those that witness the wonder of information technology. Their spontaneous performances inject the homo narrative, the emotional response and the sense of journey, which is at once personal to them equally players, but created to be shared.
Heed to a rails, or pre-society here
Hi folks,
I was told some years agone past a senior record label that unless you could sum up what your recording was in i short sentence, it wouldn't sell. The question, "Who ARE yous?!" had to be answered in the briefest of ways.
The search for new sub-genre, quick-handle terms has been a abiding throughout my career. Often the incoming artist gets pinned to a more famous name – "The new Bill Evans, the new Michael Brecker, the new Miles" – and so the audience has a quick handle on their style.
Every bit audiences, we all demand references. I've been toying with the post-obit idea:
The whole development of our artistic culture has rested on promoting something new until information technology is something familiar. The whole civilisation of developing artists is to turn something familiar into something new.
It seems to stand up. I don't know of an creative person who didn't start with familiar base textile, no affair what they have gone on to practice. Conversely, the promotion of the same artist volition oft rely on referencing dorsum to these aforementioned familiar origins, increasingly in the language of a quick hash tag.
The word "New" volition exist used in any event. This isn't cynicism, this is just how we roll.
1 artist I've wanted to talk nigh is drummer Paul Motian, whose trio team with Joe Lovano and Nib Frisell rocked my world throughout the 1980's. Here was a band which most definitely made stiff references to familiar music of the past whilst existence breathtakingly original. I'd write more but Liam Noble has done it so beautifully in his web log already – please check out 'Brother Face':
https://liamnoble68.wordpress.com
Motian was difficult to "package" apace. I was grateful for that.
With its 'built in rebellion button,' the creative jazz scene does non lend itself to the creation of a unified vocalisation which speaks up for its importance every bit a genre today.
Sometimes I go the feeling that it is rather doughnut shaped, with a hole in the centre where that central, nurturing, reliable hub should exist.
Within instruction, funding and jazz media nosotros already accept some swell people nurturing the bigger picture. Our music so oftentimes speaks of us all being branches of the same tree; maybe we should dare tend to its trunk a petty more than.
I've been totally loving two musicians' work this week, which is what started me on this whole railroad train of idea. Both I take followed from the kickoff of their careers.
Kit Downes and his release Obsidian: I LOVE it. Church building organ improv, texturally fascinating, daring and beautiful. The sense of place it brings to bear is at times profound. The reworking of the Berio folk song arrangement was a joy to hear. Thank y'all Kit.
Many would likewise take heard Kit play in an urban / club setting too. This is just ane side of the artist (Cheque out Enemy). We can do the stand up up venues AND the sit downward ones, despite these quick-handle boxes nosotros are put in. Such labels float on the elevation of deep rivers.
In a like style, Shabaka is now trail-blazing an amazingly high-energy trip the light fantastic toe club based music, totally plugged in to a broader philosophy and bulletin – but I heard him (sitting down) in church too. Check out this link, with Shabaka on bass clarinet joined by Leaf Cutter John, and Cara Stacey. Bright.
https://soundcloud.com/shabakahutchings/life-bicycle-live-at-stjohns-bethnal-light-green-church
Who wants to try and sum up their work equally an creative person in i curt sentence?
Nosotros can, however, do our best to define each projection we do, equally best we can for a public swamped with content.
It is no secret that support for our music and its venues is precious and meagre, certainly hither in the UK (just look at the funding opera gets past comparing , for case).
I'd encourage even the nearly idealist, separatist, anarchic young creatives not to altitude themselves from our broader community. Across our need to printing our rebellion buttons and get it alone, is a deeper unity that will actually determine our survival.
"The longest journey begins with a single step" Y'all've probably heard this quote that originated from Lao Tzu whose name (I recall) ways "Old Human" in English.
Developing yourself as a musician should mean keeping a dynamic balance between the large moving picture and the seemingly little things you exercise, the micro and the macro.
Think of it like this:
Every time we do half an hour's practise, we are laying down another piece of track for our "railroad train" to run on, and then to speak. What is the ultimate direction of your railroad train? Is what you are laying down correct now, pointed in the correct direction? Lao Tzu was a wise geezer.
Musically, whilst focusing on particulars such as our sound, or sense of time for example, it will help to accept besides developed a clear long term aim. Why are so many of usa tiresome to put our Big Picture into concise language?
Are we afraid to share the question of what it means to exist creative, or of being judged as an un-spontaneous intellectual or a new-historic period dreamer, or are we merely a chip lazy?
Creative souls such as jazz musicians tend to follow their impulses and practise not tend to get in for things that are already clearly defined. Writing downwards a listing of personal aims for your future may well feel like over-defining things, against your nature.
How many people know that the origin of the word define means to "bring to an end" ? Musicians know that "fine" will hateful the stop of the slice, I guess that'due south a clue.
To define is to create a boundary, it is to make credible that point where i thing becomes another: your garden, his garden. The lick you invented, the lick he says you stole from him etc.
Something becomes defined, say, a musical genre, through having a repeated experience of information technology. As soon as information technology becomes readily recognisable, familiar, we can stick a characterization on it, (and probably try and sell information technology).
Creatives are doomed to be at odds with this to some extent. They will take peachy pleasance in choosing a piece of existing cloth, say a still-life model or a piece of music, breaking it up and recomposing it and then that the original definition is bravely challenged.
I was at Ronnie Scotts a few weeks back and saw TRIO HLK open up for Chris Potter'southward gig. Travelling by tube I passed an advert for a new Tate Modern Picasso exhibition, with the wonderfully distorted picture of the seated daughter (The Dream).
I continued the 2 experiences half fashion through the trio'due south set. Inventiveness is to redefine. There can be beauty, humour and something rejuvenating in having the defined things in our experience twisted most, in fact we demand this in our lives.
I have just finished my latest anthology, and needed a proper noun, and artwork. From the hirsuite edges of creative play had to come something very defined, I shiver to use the word "product" but that is substantially what "Atmospheric condition Walker" is of grade.
And then how do nosotros join together our need to stay loose, adaptable and spontaneous with the disciplined visualisation of a predetermined programme?
Lao Tzu too spoke of the "deject of unknowing" where trust is necessary. Fog patches come and go and are actually a vital ingredient and a sign that you lot are moving forward.
If your train track stretched from America'southward west coast all the mode to New York, you wouldn't spend the whole journeying looking around exclaiming, "well that's not New York, and that's non New York!". It is understood that the experience of the journey itself with it's changing mural, is what makes your destination the prize that it is.
Put into practise, that would mean that the next time you set half an hr aside to work, it is as worthy a "life moment" as the goal, the final indicate, itself.
The very style nosotros are processing information these days is brusque-term, rapacious, impatient and often unconnected to the body, like a brain on two restless sticks.
To be in that "final point" as you settle into practise means to cede the Urge To Splurge. (Delight read my before bluster on smartphones).
Here is the pay-off: You lot will come to know whether your train is running on the very best rail for you much more clearly this way. Then to go the Big Picture, increase the quality of the Little Ane.
RADIO three SUNDAY 11th March – special live interview featuring brand new material
[mentioned in blog 1].
Howdy folks,
Try Googling upward the word Belonging in whatsoever kind of creative or sociological context and you'll be treated to several PhD's and a clutch of cool famous quotes to adorn your refrigerator door. ToBelong is indeed a key need, and a major motivator of our work as artists and performers.
A brilliant CD comprehend is Keith Jarrett's "Belonging" from 1974. I learned to sing along with 
every solo on th at CD past the manner. The strange gravity of those party-balloons on the cover is poignant:
Our playfulness is grounding, information technology is our life-blood. Our music-making, fleeting and beautifully imperfect, represents something fundamental in u.s.a. which but finds expression with boyfriend souls.
I remember flight from Heathrow to play one xc minute concert with Chick Corea in Charleston South Carolina.
During the first couple of years of touring with Chick a very odd thing had started to happen, I was getting more than and more nervous about flying. It was something that but adult, isn't that the contrary of what'south meant to happen?
It had much to do with having a expert imagination, and being on my own. I'll practice a split up blog nigh this and how I made friends with fear, as we are a nomadic profession, it might be of involvement!
Anyhow, this gig was three flights there and three back:
A deep sense of alienation took concur on the trip out, what with delays and tight connections and about losing all my instruments during a transfer.
I remember finally,finally getting onto that stage and hearing Chick open up, freely improvising his way into the start piece. He might not tell you what it was going to be, but you'd option information technology upwardly from the little themes and motifs he'd start to throw in.
That moment of his piano resounding through the concert hall, the freedom and the joy of exploring was a home-coming, a welcoming back into the fold and an invitation to co-create. I belonged there, I was abode.
Inside hours I was back at the airport, on that intensely anonymous journey that Joni Mitchell says "Scrambles time and seasons". Did the physical home I arrived dorsum to, feel whatever more existent than the musical one I'd just experienced thousands of miles away? Not really really.
This Sunday I'll be interviewed at Radio 3'southward Free Thinking Festival.
"The Ane And The Many" is the theme, looking into the differing roles some of u.s.a. juggle as composers, performers sidemen and leaders.
I'one thousand not sure what I'yard going to exist asked so in instance I don't say this on air, (find out by tuning in!) I'll say now that these musical hats we wear are informed constantly by our relationship to a grouping. They are part of a broader unity, for me anyhow. This broader sense of unity, a Belonging with capital B, is so important to me that I'll travel the whole world to experience it.
I'm addicted of the definition of the wordplay that children are familiar with. To play music without much goal orientation, centred in the moment, is something we don't speak nigh that much. Music instruction is, for better or worse, largely goal orientated, but isn't playful assimilation simply the best feeling?!
To find kindred spirits that share this view is wonderful, it is family.
I used to watch the Paul Motion Trio and note that Paul'southward drumming had a knack of taking very serious things with humour, and taking all the humorous $.25 very seriously.
I heard this approach merely the other dark when I joined some musical "family members" Joe Locke and Gwilym Simcock who were deep in duet luminescence at the 606 club. What a privilege to have this musical family unit, it is a heart that beats meaning and honey into our piece of work and our world.
Source: https://www.timgarland.com/blog/
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