My thanks also to all the guest artists who have shared the stage with us, generously contributing to, and transforming, this practice. There’s too many names to mention, but I’d like to thank, in particular, two club-runners, Bruce Coates (who with Sarah O’Halloran and I kicked-off Stet Lab in November ’07) and Mike Hurley for their advice, cautionary tales and encouragement; to Murray Campbell, Franziska Schroeder and John Godfrey who took time out of their busy schedules, and stepped-up when others would/could not; and to Corey Mwamba, Ian Smith, Justin Yang and Alex Hawkins for encouraging words, and an unwavering belief in grass-roots music organizations. Special thanks to Paul Dunmall, Mark Sanders and Don Malone; heavy-hitters who believed in the Lab enough to participate with neophyte improvisers in what must be, by their standards, a low-key event.

Kudos to Jesse Ronneau for supporting improvised music, and the aims of the Lab in particular, during his time in Cork. I apologize for the many whose name I’ve not listed, but y’all have my warmest thanks, and my sincerest admiration for your contributions—we are a better space for it!

Of course, the biggest thanks go to everyone who participated as listener (and I am thinking in particular of the regulars who come every month!), and to those brave ones who jump-in the deep-end!

Signing-off as curator: Thanks, thanks, thanks and thanks to y’all!

BTW, some of my observations about running this space around the half-way point of my tenure as curator are at ‘Lab report 2007-2009: how to run an improvised music club’.

Stet Lab featuring Stephen Davis
with Han-earl Park plus Helena Reilly, Kevin Terry and Dan Walsh

Monday, 7 February 2011

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, is thrilled to be presenting the Cork debut of Belfast-based drummer, improviser and composer Stephen Davis on Monday, 7 February 2011, upstairs at The Roundy, Castle Street, Cork, Ireland.

Hailed by Jazzwise magazine as “a very empathetic performer with a strong percussive voice”, Stephen Davis is a composer, performer, and a rising star of the younger generation of alt. jazzers. Davis is best know as a member of Bourne/Davis/Kane (with Matthew Bourne, Dave Kane) whose records The Money Notes (FogHorn Records) was given four out of five stars, and described as “an intelligent set, in which familiar trio materials are cherished, polished and pared down” by John Fordham in The Guardian. His other records include Moment To Moment (Slam Productions) with Paul Dunmall, and Faint (Creative Sources Recordings) with Franziska Schroeder and Pedro Rebelo.

Davis has performed with some of the best known names in jazz and improvised music including Evan Parker, Joe Morris, Django Bates, Brian Irvine, Reggie Washington, Tom Arthurs, Julian Seigal, Mike Walker, Norma Winston, Rufus Reid and Mark Ribot. He has toured extensively in Europe, America, Russia and elsewhere, and has written music film, dance and theatre. In 2010 Davis helped to instigate the Evan Parker-led 20-piece improvising ensemble as part of the Sonorities Festival (Belfast), and in 2009 Davis was commission to write an original work for the Belfast Festival.

Davis will be joined by Cork-based improvisers including guitarist, and founder of Stet Lab and Mathilde 253, Han-earl Park. The event will open with a performance by a trio of up-and-coming Cork-based improvisers, The Real-Time Company (for the Ad-Hoc Association) Of, consisting of vocalist Helena Reilly, guitarist Kevin Terry and drummer Dan Walsh.

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 2011 for more real-time, on-stage musical meetings!

the performers

Stephen Davis is a drummer mainly but also composes music. Over the years he has had the opportunity to play music professionally with Evan Parker, Joe Morris, Matthew Bourne, Dave Kane, Django Bates, Brian Irvine, Reggie Washington, Tom Arthurs, Julian Seigal, Paul Dunmall, Mike Walker, Norma Winston, Rufus Reid, Mark Ribot…. and the list goes on. He has toured all over Europe, America, Russia and many other countries with different ensembles.

He has music published on Edition Records with ‘Bourne/Davis/Kane’, on Creative Sources Recordings with ‘Faint,’ and on Slam Records with Paul Dunmall.
As a composer he has written music for various projects including film, dance and theatre as well as his own various ensembles. In October 2009 Stephen was commission to write an original work for the Belfast Festival for a large group.

“A very empathetic performer with a strong percussive voice.”

(Jazzwise)

Improviser, guitarist and constructor Han-earl Park works from/within/around traditions of fuzzily idiomatic, on occasion experimental, mostly open improvised musics, sometimes engineering theater, sometimes inventing ritual. He feels the gravitational pull of collaborative, multi-authored contexts, and has performed in clubs, theaters, art galleries and concert halls in Europe and America.

He is involved in collaborations with Bruce Coates, Franziska Schroeder, Alex Fiennes and Murray Campbell, and is part of Mathilde 253 with Charles Hayward and Ian Smith. Recent performances include Mathilde 253 with Lol Coxhill; duo concerts with Paul Dunmall, and with Richard Barrett; trios with Matana Robers and Mark Sanders, with Kato Hideki and Katie O’Looney, and with Thomas Buckner and Jesse Ronneau; as part of the Evan Parker led 20-piece improvising ensemble; and the performance of Pauline Oliveros’ ‘Droniphonia’ alongside the composer. His recordings have been released by labels including Slam Productions, and DUNS Limited Edition. He has appeared at festivals including Sonic Acts (Amsterdam), the Center for Experiments in Art, Information and Technology Festival (California), dialogues festival (Edinburgh), Sonorities (Belfast) and VAIN Live Art (Oxford).

Park founded and curates Stet Lab and teaches improvisation at the UCC School of Music.

Dan Walsh is a Cork-based drummer studying for a BMus degree at UCC, working within a variety of contexts though specialising in jazz. Having begun playing at the somewhat late age of 16 Dan has already had the privilege of playing with some of the country’s top jazz musicians such as Richie Buckley, Myles Drennan and Micheal Buckley. Currently providing the beat for The Roaring Forties as well as running a monthly Blue Note jazz night, Dan continues to play in as many varying situations as possible in order to continue developing musically.

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.

[I’m typing this up in Cork several days later, however….]

My initial idea for this report, fueled by my less-than-wonderful playing with Paul Dunmall (Paul, of course, is never less than fantastic) [info on this performance…], was to write about the tightrope balancing act between playing something—crafting something—‘musically’ satisfactory (however you gauge ‘musicality’) versus taking what Steve Lacy called ‘the Leap’ (Bailey, 1992, pp. 57–58). Playing with Paul, it seemed a shame that I didn’t throw in the kitchen sink; after all, there’d be nothing I could do that Paul (with those extra two decades or so experience) wouldn’t have been able to handle. I’m not going to be too hard on myself (I did have a pretty bad cold on the day of that performance), but a lost opportunity is a lost opportunity however you cut it.

Witnessing Filippo Giuffrè’s playing at the November Lab, I thought I heard a… familiar voice; someone with a sound (in that Afrological sense—an approach to musical construction and to the instrument) (Lewis, 2002, pp. 241-242) that I could parse with… ease. Every little gesture, I could almost hear the footnotes: yes, I know that technique, I know that lick, I know that gesture. And though there were elements that are part of Filippo that are not part of me (the shadow of Rowe and touch of Reichel), and probably vice versa (not much sign of Frisell in Filippo’s playing on that night), there was a significant overlap between us. And any exclusion zones (the Rowes, the Reichels) were nonetheless familiar to me (as a listener, if not a practitioner).

Like I said, I could almost hear the footnotes.

Okay, my reaction may have not been a million miles away from that ‘I can do that too’ reaction when Mike Hurley performed at the July ’08 Lab, but the effect was different. Perhaps that difference stemmed from my hoped that being in a crowded space with Filippo would slingshot us into new socio-musical spaces.

In the event, that didn’t happen. As enjoyable and as invigorating as that on-stage encounter may have been (and it’s a shame that it failed to be recorded), we seemed to occupy the same space. ‘Musically,’ I think it worked, but I, for one, failed to take ‘the Leap.’

Anyway, like I said, I’m sitting in London writing this, and another issue is on my mind.

I’ve heard act-after-act, musician-after-musician, each competent, at times with impressive technical proficiency.

And, unlike the lazy magazine critic, I don’t mean that patronizingly; certainly not as an insult. I know that technique is important, and that, in navigating that cyborg (non-)boundary between instrument and instrumentalist, that there is, perhaps, no such thing as ‘empty virtuosity.’

But there are so many performers who sound like countless others; and I ask why I should listen to one as opposed to another.

Yet, thinking of another performance (this one a little while back in Cork), it isn’t enough just to have a niche; not for me, if you are technically incompetent.

I suppose what I am saying is this: I want, at bare minimum, to be able to play—to have a relationship with the guitar that is technically accomplished—but I also want to want to be heard—that listeners/audiences would seek out my playing and my performances. Ambitious? yes. Cocky? probably. But I owe, if not myself, my elders and my tradition nothing less. (I’ll happily take accusations arrogance since the alternative would be insulting to the music—its history, its practitioners, its audience, its community—I’ve chosen to be part of.)

Vijay Iyer’s talk at the Southbank Centre:

Iyer talks of creating “opposites” in performance; of a need for someone or something to be a “foil”. He talks about a dialog with history, with the instrument, with the audience. He talks of “improvising an identity” powered by, and as a result of, social history.

references

Bailey, Derek (1992), Improvisation: Its Nature and Practice in Music (London: British Library National Sound Archive).

Lewis, George E. (2002), ‘Improvised Music after 1950: Afrological and Eurological Perspectives’, Black Music Research Journal, Supplement: Best of BMRJ (Vol. 22), pp. 215-246.

In addition, The Real-Time Company (for the Ad-Hoc Association) of… guitarists Han-earl Park and Kevin Terry will open the event.

It’ll be an exciting evening of real-time mutations and hybrids. Stet Lab would like to thank all who participated (performers, audience and behind-the-scenes helpers) over the last two years. Hope to see you over the next coming months!

about Stet Lab Year Three

Stet Lab (Cork’s monthly improvised music event) enters its third year (details below)!

To be informed of future events, please join Stet Lab – announce, or subscribe to the web feed (news only or all blog posts). [More info…]

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Upstairs @ The Roundy, Castle Street, Cork, Ireland
9:00 pm (doors: 8:45 pm)
Admission: €10/5.

Stet Lab’s third birthday! Featuring Filario Farinoppo: Dario Fariello (saxophones, viola, electronics and little instruments), Filippo Giuffrè (guitar and electronics) and Antonio D’Intino (bass, electronics and little instruments), plus The Real-Time Company (for the Ad-Hoc Association) of… Han-earl Park and Kevin Terry (guitars).

Monday, December 7, 2009

Upstairs @ The Roundy
9:00 pm (doors: 8:45 pm)
Admission: €10/5.

Me, Bailey; You, Parker: Justin Yang (saxophones) with Han-earl Park (guitar), plus The Real-Time Company (for the Ad-Hoc Association) of… Susan Geaney (flute), Marian Murray (violin) and Veronica Tadman (voice).

Monday, January 11, 2010

Upstairs @ The Roundy (TBC)
9:00 pm

Featuring Korhan Erel (electronics). Details to follow….

Monday, February 8, 2010

Upstairs @ The Roundy (TBC)
9:00 pm

Featuring Evan Dorrian (drums). Details to follow….

Monday, March 8, 2010

Upstairs @ The Roundy (TBC)
9:00 pm

Featuring Paul Stapleton (new musical instruments / sound sculptures). Details to follow….

about Stet Lab

Since November 2007, Stet Lab has successfully brought together improvising musicians with varied experiences and from far afield. Cork, Ireland’s monthly improvised music event, Stet Lab is a space in which improvisers (novice, veteran; student, teacher; part- or full-time; amateur, professional; local or visitor) can meet, play and learn from one another.

about Stet Lab: Year Two

Looking back at the 2008/9 season, Stet Lab founder and curator, Han-earl Park says, “Stet Lab’s second year has been a triumph. We’ve been privileged to have hosted such a variety of improvising musicians: veteran of the international improvisation scene, Paul Dunmall, heavy-hitters such as Mark Sanders, the extraordinary Franziska Schroeder, the dramatic Katie O’Looney, the virtuoso Jamie Smith, and the… indescribable Jonny Marks. It’s also been a time to renew musical relationships with the mutant fiddle-playing of Murray Campbell, and the Cornelius-Cardew-meets-Joe-Harriott sound world of Bruce Coates.

“And we’ve witnessed the real burgeoning of young, local improvisers. The year has been a success beyond what we could have hoped for when we entered year two back in November [2008], and I look forward to musical interactions above-and-beyond.”

what to expect: Stet Lab Year Three

The 2009/2010 season promises to expand and diversify the improvisative geo-politics of Stet Lab. November will see the Lab welcome Filario Farinoppo—a trio of improvisers from Bologna, Italy—and the December event features the Californian composer-performer Justin Yang. Through 2010, the Lab will host visits by improvisers including Paul Stapleton (N. Ireland), Alexander Hawkins (England), Korhan Erel (Turkey) and Evan Dorrian (Australia).

I don’t subscribe to a silly ideology of some impossibly impartial, neutral, transcendental performance, free of tradition, history, identity. I’m not necessarily saying any one performance is going to be better than another (although I won’t strongly dispute such a claim), but some are, for me, more (for lack of better word) worthwhile than others; they were worth doing, and worth participating in, for reasons of demonstrating promising avenues of future research, or for putting into motion the results of such research. And I hope that the worthwhile performances / tactics / relationships / modes-of-interaction outweigh the others, or that the others lead, eventually, to worthwhile performances / tactics / relationships / modes-of-interaction.

I don’t want to confuse this sense of lack-of-‘worth’ with misfires that nonetheless do point to avenues of future research. Sometimes the less than satisfactory improvisations bring into relief approaches or contexts that you are not able (yet) to deal with (e.g. my playing with Franziska Schroeder at November ’08 Lab [read my report…]), or a performer highlights your relative lack of inventiveness or skill (e.g. Paul Dunmall blowing just about all of us off stage in February [read my report…]). Even if these are musically less than successful (whatever that means), all these are valuable and are worth participating in as a performer and as a listener. (An example of a performance that I wouldn’t have been entirely happy with as a listener would perhaps be the the duet with Bruce Coates in November ’07.)

Does that make any sense?

Okay, what does this have to do with the June Lab? As much as audience feedback was to the contrary, from my POV at least, my playing at that Lab felt like a retread. As much as the Stet Lab audience, prior to June, may not have heard Han-earl Park, the modal player, Han-earl Park, the practitioner of prepared guitar, or Han-earl Park, the deployer of imitative tactics, these all had a sense of, for me, been-there-done-that.

Also it didn’t offer (again, for me) enough in terms of complex relationships. As I wrote in regards to the previous month’s Lab:

I want the listening experience to be rich and interesting. If you’re sharp, you’d have caught it, made connections, and patted yourself on the back for being a clever listener; if not, well, no biggie, hopefully there’s enough complexity to provide ear-candy and (unintended) connections.

verbatim imitation

One thing I did during the June Lab that I haven’t been doing in a long time was (more or less) verbatim imitation.

I did have fun, but I think I also realized (remembered?) why I’d been avoiding this particular mode of interaction. It’s too easy; the choices are the most obvious. It’s like movies that, uncertain of the intelligence of their audience, get loaded with too much exposition. Hey, didn’tcha catch that? No problem, pal, I’ll tell ya again….

And again, as much as the post-performance feedback was positive, I would have liked the performance (the world onstage) to ask more of the audience. I would prefer to have the audience work to make connections and construct, I don’t care what you call it, ‘significance’ / ‘meaning’ / (projected) ‘intent.’ If I were a member of the audience, I’d want the connections to be more… oblique.

the prepared guitar

Yeah, yeah, yeah, the guitarist / banjo player sticks a couple of chop-sticks into the strings, woo-hoo. Yeah? boring. What’s the point?

I’m not dissing Frith or Rowe, but, seriously, who do I think I am. Am I able to get anything interesting out of this (beyond simple-minded novelty)? Who am I kidding?

And isn’t appealing to “simple-minded novelty” again like that movie that pitches at a less-than-intelligent audience?

audience participation

This was something that I’d wanted to see more of. I’d attempted to stage audience participation at the Lab with mixed results in the past, but it was great to have Juniper Hill’s more direct approach.

…but perhaps the chamber music vibe of the evening (established by Piaras Hoban, Veronica Tadman, et al.) conspired against a riotous on/off-stage engagement from really taking off.

…and I can’t play the banjo

Now that may have been the single most striking impulse to deploying a single tactic. Not having much of a repertoire on the banjo meant that, well, I had a pretty narrow line to walk. Do this, then that, uh, what do I have left, okay, that, that, and, finally, this. Not sure there’s much milage available for Han-earl Park, the banjo player, and necessity ain’t always the mother of invention, but that was, in terms of my playing, the most interesting tactic for the evening.

Stet Lab’s final event of the 2008/9 season

Monday, June 8th 2009

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

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

€10 (€5)

Stet Lab’s final event of the 2008/9 season takes place on the 8th June 2009 at 9:00 pm, upstairs at The Roundy, Castle Street, Cork. Stet Lab again welcomes both regular and newcomers to the stage, bringing the familiar and unfamiliar together in a special season finale.

Curator and founder of Stet Lab, Han-earl Park (guitar) will perform with the exciting navigator of multiple improvisative traditions, Juniper Hill (voice and small instruments). Park has been described by the Computer Music Journal as “innovative” and by BBC – Collective as an “electro weirdo”, and has performed in Denmark, England, Ireland, The Netherlands, Scotland and the USA. Juniper Hill is a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist from Los Angeles and currently based in Cork. An ethnomusicologist who studies contemporary folk music, and the creativity and pedagogy of improvisation, Hill has been involved in free jazz and experimental music for many years and is especially interested in the use of voice in these mediums.

Newcomer to the Lab, Síofra Fitzgerald (flute) and Stet Lab regular, Kevin Terry (guitar) make up the other duo of the evening. With pre-composed parts written by Terry (with nods to sources as diverse as Anthony Braxton and Takemitsu Tōru), the performance will entail a clash of musical approaches—that of the classical-interpreter and that of the improviser—which does not resolve to a single whole but further shatters, fragments and divides.

Veronica Tadman (voice), another vocalist based in Cork, has been privileged to have performed alongside artists such as Paul Dunmall and Don Malone. She has guest curated Stet Lab, and this has given her the opportunity to perform with innovative new talent from Cork. This month, Veronica is collaborating with composer and member of the R.E.A.L. Ensemble, Piaras Hoban (laptop) who recently premiered his piece for soprano and electronics at the Sonic Arts Research Centre in Belfast. Hoban and Tadman will be joined by composer and the R.E.A.L. Ensemble founder, Francis Heery (electronics), and performer-theorist Áine Mangaoang (violin).

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

Stet Lab will return in October for more real-time, musical mutations and hybrids.

Looking back at the 2008/9 season…

…Stet Lab founder and curator, Han-earl Park says, “Stet Lab’s second year has been a triumph. We’ve been privileged to have hosted such a variety of improvising musicians: veteran of the international improvisation scene, Paul Dunmall, heavy-hitters such as Mark Sanders, the extraordinary Franziska Schroeder, the dramatic Katie O’Looney, the virtuoso Jamie Smith, and the… indescribable Jonny Marks. It’s also been a time to renew musical relationships with the mutant fiddle-playing of Murray Campbell, and the Cornelius-Cardew-meets-Joe-Harriott sound world of Bruce Coates.

“And we’ve witnessed the real burgeoning of young, local improvisers. The year has been a success beyond what we could have hoped for when we entered year two back in November, and I look forward to musical interactions above-and-beyond when we return in October.”

Stet Lab featuring Bruce Coates and Jonny Marks

Monday, May 11th 2009

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

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

€10 (€5)

This month’s Stet Lab, Cork’s improvised music event, will take place at 9:00 pm on Monday, May 11th 2009, upstairs at The Roundy, Castle Street, Cork, Ireland. The event will feature saxophonist Bruce Coates (UK) and vocalist Jonny Marks (UK/New Zealand via China), plus Cork-based improvisers, Han-earl Park (guitar), Owen Sutton (drums), Paul Dowling (bass), Vicky Langan (electronics) and James O’Gorman (guitar).

May’s Stet Lab will see a bold mix of familiar and unfamiliar faces. Returning will be Birmingham-based Bruce Coates, founder of FrImp and the Birmingham Improvisers’ Orchestra, and a saxophonist with a sound both daring and inviting. Having worked with musicians as diverse as Christian Wolff, Lol Coxhill, Tony Oxley, John Edwards, Chris Hobbs, and previous Stet Lab guests Paul Dunmall, Mark Sanders and Mike Hurley, Coates regularly negotiates the intersection between avant jazz, free improvisation and post-Cardew experimentalism. A Stet Lab veteran, he performed twice before at the Lab—in November 2007 and December 2008.

Making his Irish debut at this event will be Jonny Marks from New Zealand via Mongolia and the UK. Marks is an experimental vocalist and throat singer who has worked with Damo Suzuki, Thomas Lehn and Takashi Harada, and with bands such as The Verlaines and Thrashing Marlin. He has appeared at the Wellington International Jazz Festival and the Melbourne International Jazz Festival.

Joining Coates and Marks will be Cork-based improvisers, guitarist Han-earl Park, and the young, up-and-coming drummer Owen Sutton.

The evening will be opened by a trio comprising bassist Paul Dowling, Vicky Langan on electronics, and newcomer to the Stet Lab stage, guitarist James O’Gorman. This eclectic ensemble will showcase three radically divergent approaches to improvisation.

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

Stet Lab will return in June with more real-time, musical mutations and hybrids.

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 go anywhere: no changes (abrupt or otherwise) in dynamics, velocities, densities, complexities, (ir)regularities, etc. Pretty run-of-the-mill stuff. In that conversation with Melanie L Marshall, Paul Dunmall compared a successful improvisation to a string under tension: you want to increase the tension almost to breaking point without actually breaking it. In those terms, this ditty had no tension—no tug, no pull. Is that failure?

Does ‘choose your own adventure’ really work any better than ‘oxleygrass…’? Perhaps more successful (certainly more listenable) as music, but the results are a little too familiar from the performer’s point of view (that would be mine). No surprises, all hackneyed stuff.

So that raises an interesting question: not withstanding the desirability of both, is it better to fail as a piece of music, yet leap into the unknown, or is it better to craft a listenable piece of music, but remain in a safe space? [More discussion about safety and comfort…]

…nets

The lack of the volume pedal (a component of this cyborg guitarist that I’ve been questioning for some time) probably contributed to the nerves as (undesirable?) surprises awaited me as a result.

There’s a logic to the (controlled?) abandonment of safety nets. Their absence can reveal who you are (and might be) without those prothesis. In engineering terms, by removing a component, you can test out the behavior of the rest of the (cyborgian) system. (Franziska Schroeder recently introduced me to another derogatory term by Komposers for real-time interactive musicians—‘naked improvisers’. In that sense, does the lack of volume pedal makes me more naked?) What I discovered wasn’t exactly wonderful.

I’ve worried that my ‘phrases’ (defined rather broadly) tended to be uniform, and hypothesized that this was due to the minimum/maximum cycle of the leg-foot-pedal complex. What I discovered by taking the volume pedal out of the chain was that I hardly phrase at all without it, and, during those few moments when the gestures did delineate a phrase, its articulation was indistinct and had even less variation.

As I struggled with this, the tactician took a back seat, leaving larger term variation untouched. It’s only several minutes into the performance (at about the 4:50 mark) when I think to do something about it.

Where to go from here?

Melanie was surprised that I decided to abandon the volume pedal at the start of the gig (see ‘clichés: getting all the crap out of the way’ below). I agree that it was a risky strategy, and not very successful in this instance. I would, however, like to try such opening gambits again; they have the smell of potentially being dramatic for me (and perhaps for the audience).

negotiating risk

The duo with Ros Steer (‘it’s double bass night tonight at Stet Lab’) went better, even if (or because of) the logic of that improvisation was oblique. A disaster, perhaps, according to some formalist criteria, but that doesn’t bother me (I did, after all, give up being a Komposer a long time ago).

Even as I’m aware that she’s a newcomer to the Lab’s stage (and, I’m guessing, also a relative novice to this practice), I’m testing out the network: how does Ros deal with contrasting elements, with being left alone, with gestures that don’t (seemingly) relate to hers.

In contrast, during the closing quartet (‘siren’), the high-volume trio of Owen Sutton, Kevin Terry and myself threaten to overrun the quieter voice, Méadhbh Boyd. We give her space, but she doesn’t take it. The trio of familiar improvisers and a newcomer makes for a hazardous combination. Is that failure on the trio’s part?

clichés: getting all the crap out of the way

Han-earl Park: “I think I’ve run out of ideas.”
Veryan Weston: “That’s when the creative stuff happens.”

Recently, I’ve got into the habit (if that’s the word for it) of ‘getting all the crap out of the way’: starting the gig by throwing in (out) all my clichés, habits and standard tropes. I did that recently in a duo with Mark Sanders, and, to some degree, with Franziska this month. This requires you to trust yourself to still find stuff—that your creativity can still find expression—beyond what you already know you are capable of; that your craftiness isn’t bound by your history (even as it is based on, bounces-off of, and is perhaps defined by it).

I never went through that moment on March 10th, and perhaps that frustration finds expression during that last quartet. Now, is that failure?

Having said all that, these atoms—clichés or otherwise—inform me (and perhaps audiences and my fellow performers) about who I am—my history, my lineage, my identity. As I’ve said before I can trace almost everything I do to my musical ancestors.

the fourth wall: or maybe I should listen to my own advice

Last year I actually did something (near-direct quotation during an improvisation) that I warned my students against as too risky, and I did something similar this month (breaking the fourth wall). I managed to pull it off last time, but I don’t think the results were worth the gamble this time.

During this month’s event, I though it’d be an amusing, humorous gambit to start with a restart. (It was also an attempt to explode the improvisative practice.)

I also decided to do the same with the closing quartet. Though I think Kevin and Owen got the joke, in retrospect, perhaps it was an alienating moment for Méadhbh. (It also maybe came across as an assertion of leadership, though Kevin admirably seemed to take it as a call to rebellion.)

The breaking of the fourth wall can work sometimes (it did that time), but apparently not under these conditions, and not this particular way. If a significant aspect of the art of improvisation is the art of persuasion, I lost the trust of the audience (and my fellow performers) at that point. …And it felt like it put a spanner in the works for the rest of the event (and not in a good way).

(This was doubly problematic as curator, and that’s part of the reason for delegating the task of refereeing to Kevin. I’ve said that curating Stet Lab is “an art, not a science”, and I’m still learning on the job.)

aiming for greatness?

I think Owen found the last quartet a disappointing experience. I told Owen that it wasn’t going to be great every time. It can’t be. We aim for greatness (however you define that) perhaps (I know I do), but we often fail.

I told Owen that, regardless of the success or otherwise of the performance, he has at least the right attitude for this way of musicking. An attitude that encompasses a personal (or shared) understanding that some outcomes are more desirable (however you gauge that) than others. Add to that a sense of how to improve (evolve, mutate and adapt)—a creative intelligence—that makes the next one likely better than the last, and you have the model improviser. Aren’t we, to borrow a term from Mark Dresser, involved in a personal pedagogy? (Dresser (2000), ‘A Personal Pedagogy’ in John Zorn (ed.) Arcana: Musicians on Music (New York: Granary Books), pp. 250–261.)

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.