Somewhere in Belfast, May 16, 2009 Snippets from a conversation between three musicians: “Man, I should play more free jazz.” “It’s not an idiom at all…” “…a tradition? …a practice?” “Just play all over the keyboard.” “It is so much fun.” “Why don’t I do this all the time?” “There’s nothing better.” “There really isn’t.” [...]
By Han-earl Park
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Tagged bruce coates, fizzle, frimp, han-earl park, idiom, jonny marks, justin yang, lewis glucksman gallery, loopers, may 2009, owen sutton, paul dowling, paul stapleton, pedro rebelo, tradition
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Okay, okay, I’m a somewhat born-again luddite so I can sound a little evangelical and pig-headed, but bear with me… Here’s a little back-story: in my first semi-public attempts as an improvising guitarist, I had my guitar, amp and volume pedal… plus a compressor, a distortion box, a delay pedal and a chorus unit. Eventually, [...]
By Han-earl Park
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Tagged anthony braxton, april 2009, bill frisell, chick lyall, derek bailey, for alto, frank zappa, fred frith, furt, green room, han-earl park, instruments, ishmael wadada leo smith, joey baron, katie o’looney, owen sutton, pedro rebelo, richard barrett, tony oxley
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Number one (the first thing): playing with Han-earl Park Listening back to the recordings I can’t remember what I was playing or what’s coming next, but I can remember what I was thinking as I played. Such thoughts included “That doesn’t sound like what I expected”, “Now What?”, “Ha!”, “That was cool”, “Where’s he going [...]
What is the status of ‘failure’ in improvisative performance? Is the notion of failure relevant to improvised music? If relevant, is it important in the ongoing practice (evolution, mutation or adaptation) of improvisation? safety… For me ‘oxleygrass (Marie’s phone)’ really doesn’t work as music. I think, at best, it’s a technical demonstration. The ditty didn’t [...]
By Han-earl Park
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Tagged a personal pedagogy, arcana: musicians on music, audience, audio recordings, franziska schroeder, han-earl park, john zorn, kevin terry, march 2009, mark dresser, mark sanders, méadhbh boyd, melanie l. marshall, new improvisers, owen sutton, paul dunmall, ros steer, veryan weston
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February 23, 2009 – 2:08 pm
Stet Lab, Cork, February 10, 2009 Before we go on stage, I joke with Jamie Smith that we’re the two guitarists who’re going to be tripping up each other (and that the drummer, Owen Sutton, will have to pick through the carnage). By ‘tripping up’ I’m not implying that the results weren’t going to be [...]
By Han-earl Park
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Tagged aine sheil, audio recordings, bruce coates, cecil taylor, february 2009, franziska schroeder, frimp, han-earl park, jamie smith, january 2009, jesse ronneau, kevin terry, lewis glucksman gallery, mark sanders, melanie l. marshall, murray campbell, october 2008, owen sutton, paul dowling, paul dunmall, tony oxley, veronica tadman
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February 22, 2009 – 4:03 pm
I usually refrain from commenting/report on a performance of mine, for the reason that I cannot see what I could/should add to the music… in fact, I quite agree with Leo Smith when he writes: “a piece of improvisation has been done, and after it’s done, there’s nothing to be said about it because it [...]
By Andrea Bonino
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Tagged andrea bonino, audio recordings, february 2009, han-earl park, ishmael wadada leo smith, jamie smith, january 2009, katie o’looney, mark sanders, menlo macfarlane, murray campbell, neil o’loghlen, paul dowling, paul dunmall
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January 30, 2009 – 3:13 pm
On the eve of our highest profile event, with 13 events behind us, this might be a good time to reflect on the stuff I’ve learned (and am learning) about running a space for improvised music. I’m indebted to those who have told stories of, and given advice on, running no- or low-budget ventures elsewhere. [...]
By Han-earl Park
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Tagged alex fiennes, anne-marie curtin, april 2008, audience, bruce coates, classic anxiety dream, cork music collective, dialogues, eoin callery, fizzle, frakture, franziska schroeder, frimp, grind sight open eye, han-earl park, hugh metcalfe, january 2008, john russell, june 2008, kevin terry, lin zhang, martin parker, mike hurley, mopomoso, nicki ffrench davis, november 2007, paul harrison, phil morton, quiet club, safehouse, stuart revill, the klinker, tony langlois, venue (context), veronica tadman
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January 18, 2009 – 9:06 pm
A couple of days after the January Lab, I was discussing with Murray Campbell how you avoid getting too comfortable in the context of group improvisation, and he said something interesting, that you should have a “healthy disrespect for the comfort zone”. It’s an issue that popped up before (I briefly touched on this last [...]
By Han-earl Park
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Tagged andrea bonino, anthony o’connor, audio recordings, chick lyall, february 2008, furt, han-earl park, january 2009, june 2008, kevin terry, marian murray, murray campbell, neil o’loghlen, november 2007, opka, owen sutton, paul dowling, randy mckean, richard barrett, veronica tadman
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January 18, 2009 – 8:53 pm
So the Sunday before Stet Lab I did a 24 hour detox, it was tough going as I wasn’t allowed to eat carbs or anything and there is only so much fruit and veg you can eat! Anyway what’s this got to do with Stet Lab? Well I found that January’s Lab was easily the [...]
December 16, 2008 – 11:52 pm
We rocked. I think I did some pretty damn good playing on December 9th. Nothing life changing perhaps, but I think it was a reasonable contrast my contribution to October and November’s Labs. But here’s the question: how do I know when I’m getting a little too… complacent is the wrong word—comfortable? Let me clarify [...]
By Han-earl Park
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Tagged audio recordings, bruce coates, december 2008, evan parker, franziska schroeder, george e lewis, györgy ligeti, han-earl park, mats gustafsson, neil o’loghlen, november 2008, october 2008, ornette coleman, sarah o’halloran, the thing
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