Neil O’Loghlen, Han-earl Park, Justin Yang and Paul Dowling (photo: © 2009 Julia Healy)

A big thanks to our guest artist Justin Yang for making the journey down to Cork to perform with us.

Kudos to the Stet Lab (ir)regulars who performed on the night (Paul Dowling, Susan Geaney, Marian Murray, Neil O’Loghlen, Han-earl Park, Kevin Terry and Veronica Tadman) and to newcomer Scott Wade, and thanks again to Julia Healy (assisted by Cian Ó Beacháin) for the photography  [see the photographs (new window)…].

Last but not least, thanks to all who came to support this event. We hope to see you again next year!

As with all the recordings since December 2008, this month’s recordings are covered under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. [More info…]

According to the director of the gallery, Fiona Kearney:

As a result of the unprecedented flooding in Cork city on Thursday evening, 19 November 2009, the Lewis Glucksman Gallery has suffered extensive flood damage to its basement. The flooding poses a severe problem for the gallery, as the basement area housed the art stores, a major plant area and the kitchens….

The Glucksman Gallery is grateful for all the support it has received to date which has allowed the gallery to respond to this unprecedented situation with maximum effect. The gallery now faces a major financial challenge to reinstate the award-winning building for public use, and to restore damaged works in the collection.

[Read the rest…]

See also the Glucksman’s facebook page.

Thanks to everyone who, despite the conspiracy of noise (sirens from across the road, electrical hums and buzzes, thumping bass from downstairs, and the fire department), played on: Síofra Fitzgerald, Francis Heery, Juniper Hill, Piaras Hoban, Áine Mangaoang, Neil O’Loghlen, Han-earl Park, Veronica Tadman and Kevin Terry.

As always, special thanks to all who came to listen on the night, and a very special thanks to all who supported us through the year. See you in October!

As with all the recordings since December 2008, this month’s recordings are covered under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. [More info…]

I’m happy and honored for a performance at Stet Lab to be included on a collection that also features Alexander Hawkins, Dominic Lash, Ilia Belorukov, Styles Kauphmann, Skarabee, The Improvising Clarinet Ensemble, Anthony Whiteford, David Curington, Graham Mackeachen, and The Cambridge Free Improvisation Society.

Now go download, read, listen and contribute.

Below, for example, are John Hough’s photos (© 2009 John Hough) of the February 2009 Lab with Andrea Bonino, Paul Dowling, Paul Dunmall, Neil O’Loghlen, Katie O’Looney, Han-earl Park, Mark Sanders, Jamie Smith, Owen Sutton, Veronica Tadman and Kevin Terry:

The diary has now been updated with links to the corresponding photo slideshows. Currently, the events with photo galleries are January and February 2009, March, June and December 2008, and November 2007.

All images copyright their corresponding photographer (currently, these are John Downes for November 2007, John Hough for the others).

If you object to your image being used in this manner, please contact me.

During a chat with Murray Campbell after the January Stet Lab we discovered we both had worked with Menlo Macfarlane, a Canadian artist/performer now based in Nevada County. I remember Menlo talking about writer’s block, and saying something like: “if you sit at your desk and you assume the writer’s posture, then The Writer will come through you… things to write will pop up in your mind, connect to each other and so on….”

While this might explain why this could become a looooong post (you can blame The Writer), it actually says a lot about the way I think about my approach to musical improvisation… in my experience I have encountered improvisation first as an outcome of African heritage, and always felt some sort of connection with possession rituals and the practice of collective improvisation.

In the best moments when music really works, I still have the impression that music is coming through the musicians, and the musicians receive it and transmit it more or less like a radio set… think about that weird and beautiful sound that came out of your instrument almost by accident, and that you are trying to recreate with no success and you get the picture.

In musical practice this translates as not trusting my intellect to take too much hold on my performance, not trusting it to make decisions or devising strategies on its own.

Nerve endings that report external temperature and humidity percentage, and my sense of smell have probably as much input in what I’m playing as information that my ears report to my brain.

Finally getting to February 2009 Stet Lab, I must say that there was a great energy all night and the music felt powerful and engaging from the very first minute and throughout all performances. I was honored to have to chance to sit-in with Paul Dunmall, Mark Sanders, Neil O’Loghlen and Katie O’Looney for the first piece, and also Han-earl Park, Jamie Smith and Paul Dowling for the final jam… I loved it, and got the feeling the audience enjoyed it too.

I brought my lapsteel, which is becoming less of a tool for sliding than a source of interesting sounds, and went straight into scratchy mode, looking to explore the highest possible pitches I can get from it and the in-between-pickups zone… I find that not knowing what I’m going to do generally helps… that’s probably why I like to engage in different instruments, and get the freshness/sense of wonder at the sounds that only a beginner can get from an instrument… I generally get bored and not happy with myself when I realize my performance relies too much on tricks and material that I know well… I guess my strategy could be summed up as: Risks First.

I thank everyone that worked towards organizing this Stet Lab and run it as smooth as possible, and thank especially Jamie and Katie for pushing the limits and bringing in some rock’n’roll.

A very warm thank you to Paul Dunmall, Mark Sanders and Jamie Smith for their generosity of spirit and their remarkable musicianship. Thanks also to Katie O’Looney who demonstrated something you just can’t do on stage anymore, to all the Stet Lab (ir)regulars who performed—Andrea Bonino, Han-earl Park, Paul Dowling, Neil O’Loghlen, Owen Sutton, Veronica Tadman and Kevin Terry—and to the photographer, John Hough.

Last but not least, thanks to all who came to support this event. Hope to see y’all next month!

As with all the recordings since December 2008, this month’s recordings are covered under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. [More info…]

The Lab will also feature appearances by visiting performers, drummer Mark Sanders and guitarist Jamie Smith, and Stet Lab (ir)regulars including Andrea Bonino, Han-earl Park, Paul Dowling, Neil O’Loghlen, Owen Sutton, Veronica Tadman and Kevin Terry.

This may turn out to be the most exciting Lab thus far. Please come along to witness, hear and support music in progress, in process, in performance and in play.

…And, as a sampler, here’s a clip of Dunmall with Tony Marsh and Nick Stephens:

Dunmall, Park, Sanders and Smith will also be performing at the Lewis Glucksman Gallery, UCC, Cork on Wednesday, February 11th 2009 at 1:10 pm as part of the UCC Concert Series.

Performers who want to sit-in, if possible, please contact us in advance of the event. There are a number of performers this month, and this is likely to be one of the most complex Labs logistically. As we’ve stated elsewhere, although we’d like to give as many people an opportunity to perform, in practice, this may not be feasible. Get in touch, and we’ll do our best.

Stet Lab with saxophonist-improviser Paul Dunmall

Tuesday, February 10th 2009

9:00 pm (doors: 8:45 pm)

Upstairs @ The Roundy [map…]
Castle Street
Cork, Ireland

€10 (€5)

Cork’s monthly improvised music event, Stet Lab, presents an extraordinary musical encounter between veteran improviser-saxophonist Paul Dunmall, Cork-based improvisers, and special guests. This musical meeting and performance takes place upstairs at The Roundy, Castle Street, on Tuesday, 10th February 2009 at 9:00 pm.

A virtuoso saxophonist, Dunmall has been described as a “robust and heavy-hitting performer who has gone on to concentrate largely on free improvisation without sacrificing a rigorous melodic logic, a sparing lyricism and the technique to drop in on bebop occasionally” (John Fordham, The Guardian). He is a groundbreaking innovator within the international jazz and improvised music traditions, and “a musician who can wail convincingly without abandoning his intellect” (All Music Guide).

A sensitive and endlessly inventive collaborator, with a career spanning thirty years, Dunmall has performed with many musicians including Alice Coltrane, Barry Guy, Tony Levin, Paul Rogers, Danny Thompson, Keith Tippett and Johnny Guitar Watson, and as part of ensembles such as Mujician, London Jazz Composers Orchestra and the Elton Dean’s ensembles.

“I’m very, very excited to have Paul performing with us,” says Stet Lab curator and founder Han-earl Park. “I don’t think anyone will disagree that Paul is our highest profile guest to date, and I have no doubt that this encounter will have a lasting impact on all our musics—a transformation!” He adds, “this is the kind of event that Stet Lab has been preparing for over the last fifteen months—a meeting between an international saxophone colossus and local improvising musicians—and I think we’re ready.”

Performing with Dunmall will be a gathering of local improvisers including vocalist Veronica Tadman, guitarist Kevin Terry, and a trio of two very different bass players—Paul Dowling Tony O’Connor and Neil O’Loghlen. The evening will open with a duet between visiting English guitarist Jamie Smith and the Cork-based guitarist Han-earl Park.

The event will begin at 9:00 pm (doors open at 8:45 pm) and entry is €10 (€5).

Stet Lab will return in March with more left-field, real-time musical interactions.

Paul Dunmall will also be performing at the Lewis Glucksman Gallery, UCC, Cork on Wednesday, 11th of February 2009 at 1:10 pm. As part of the UCC Concert Series, that event will feature Dunmall with guitarists Han-earl Park and Jamie Smith, and drummer Mark Sanders.

updates:

02-01-09 Tony O’Connor has other engagements and will not be performing at this event.

It’s an issue that popped up before (I briefly touched on this last month, Bruce Coates talked about with the Risk Managers in November ’07, and Chick Lyall in February ’08), but it came to the fore after talking with members of OPKA the day after the Lab. It strikes me that, as good as OPKA’s performance was this month (and there was some fine playing), there’s perhaps a danger that this is as good as it’s going to get; that OPKA is getting a little too comfortable with the current mode of interaction and their roles within the OPKA micro-society.

avoiding chamber music

As both an improviser and a sometimes orchestral double-reedist, Murray contrasted the (useful? successful?) mode of operation in improvised music with what he called the “chamber music mentality”. In chamber music, every part is essential—there is no string quartet without a viola, you cannot have SATB without the alto. Additionally, in every section (and to some extent, between parts), ‘blending’ is the primary criteria for being a good ensemble player. And these parts, these musical roles (viola, alto, second oboe, etc.), are predefined; every player inherits this role and, to some extent, is subsumed into it.

Let’s call this the chamber music criteria…

• every part is essential
• ‘blending’ is the primary goal
• every role/part is externally defined

…and keep this in mind in the subsequent discussion.

meanwhile, in improvised music…

Murray told me that growing familiarity, in performing with Randy McKean in recent years for example, actually leads to a move away from the comfort zone. Murray told me that the duo with Randy really took off with the realization that, whatever Murray did, it would not ‘break’ Randy. Additionally, the acceptance that Murray was ‘dispensable’ (this isn’t exactly the right word, but Murray and I struggled to find the word that encapsulated this idea): if Murray stopped, the performance would go on just fine without him.

In other words, whatever Murray did, Randy would handle it.

I’ve been prone to sports metaphors in the past, but Murray came up with a new one: table tennis. A great game of table tennis is not one that you score points, but in which all your resources—your body, your mind, your training—tells you one thing, but circumstances outwit you. You reach for the ball, but it ball heads in a completely different direction. You loose a point, but you go wow, how did that happen?

On the other hand, a boring table tennis game, from both the players’ and the spectators’ points of view, is one in which the players know exactly what’s going to happen. Lob, lob, lob, lob…. Table tennis ain’t chamber music; we can’t all be reactive, we need to inject left-field choices into the mix.

Thus, going back to our chamber music criteria, Murray posits that not only are these, at best, peripheral issues in group improvisation, they can become liabilities.

So, let’s put together an alternative list:

• every one is ‘dispensable’/‘inessential’
• it’s important to add something unexpected/incongruous/different
• you have the possibility, and the responsibility to, (re)define you role

random observations and questions

Performing in a virus fueled haze…

As I was battling through a cold, my recollections of the whats, whens, hows and whys of this month’s Lab are a bit hazier than normal. (That, incidentally, is why I’ve concentrated on more general points in this report, though I plan to return to a more focused agenda next month….)

The duos with Murray (who was also suffering from a cold) were not, I think, up to our usual standards (we did, for example, much better in June). But I’d be less than honest if I said I wasn’t disappointed…. (And, yet again, I do that tired, lazy whump at the 1:31 mark on ‘the one that almost got away’—yuck, yuck, yuck.)

However, I’m curious how much did work considering my mind and body seemed to be unable to grasp anything other than the most rudimentary tactical decisions. How did it sound to everyone else?

Trusting your (former) students?

Back in July, I wrote that

…sometimes I seem to be the one holding the group back in performance. Listening back to, for example ‘evening echo’, it’s the guitarist holding the group back. Marian Murray, Neil O’Loghlen and Veronica Tadman do not need me to make concessions. They know how to swim, and I don’t need to provide the floatation device.

And that’s my problem during my duet with Tony: an unjustified lack of trust in Tony’s [Tony O’Connor’s] abilities. I think I’m still stuck thinking that I’m performing in a classroom context, and not in the big bad world.

The two ditties (the two ‘versions’ of ‘the one that almost got away’) with Murray, myself, Tony O’Connor and Veronica Tadman were, perhaps, the first time when I finally managed to let go of certain issues of trust.

Do you know your improviser-teachers’ moves?

Apropos of nothing to do with Stet Lab, but one thing I noticed during the recent performance by FURT was how much I could anticipate Richard Barrett’s gestures. Now, Richard was my teacher, and I also noticed something similar with another of my (former) teachers, Chick Lyall, when he performed last year. So my question: do you know your improviser-teachers’ moves? Can you anticipate, with unexpected, above average accuracy, their gestures? Do you share their timing—their rhythm?

I ask partly because I got the feeling that, during this month’s Lab, Tony and I were sometimes spookily locked together.