I may have had an epiphany this week. Or maybe two. Or maybe none, after having had a healthy Jameson's on an empty stomach.... ;-)

First, using voice and feet as adjunct to total sound: I've been exploring this for awhile... have had an interest in vocal simulation of instruments ever since first hearing the Mills Brothers in 1976 (their "Caravan" is still fantastic)... I've been trying to integrate this with percussion work without followthrough... this week I had a "duh!" moment when I realized that hip-hop "human beatbox" work is actually vocal simulation of drums, and sure enough there's a www.humanbeatbox.com site with lots of background (although their forum comments are singularly moronic). These guys are great at simulating a drum set, although they're a little different from what I'm aiming at... when playing percussion I want to add additional voices (kick drum, particularly) while blending with actual acoustic sounds... they've got a successive linear sequence, all going through the mouth, not integration of mouth/hands/feet. But just *knowing* that these guys were doing what they're doing (I mean, realizing it, not just cognitively being aware that someone did it) was sort of a jumpstart to my own work. Hell yeah I can use my mouth to buttress what my hands are doing, and it doesn't just have to be a Johnny Gimble or Slam Stewart double of the melody... if I can get my independence going I can vocally create a supporting and complementary part, emulating the tonality and rhythmic function of a dedicated percussion player. I've got lots of work to do here, but knowing what I want to do is the first step..... ;-)

Second potential epiphany is more equivocal and fuzzy, about being someone who says something through music, rather than just playing a role of being a musician. I was reading a musicstore catalog a little bit ago and saw a list of "Learn from the Stars!" books they carry and said "hey I don't hear anything when I listen to these guys" (Paul Simon and AC/DC!?), but made an exception for Carlos Santana because my gut tells me he stands for something... looking back, though, I always see him locked in a role... I can't tell how he responds to situations, only know how he fulfills the role that has been defined for him. Last weekend at a get-together I was struck by how a bunch of fiddletunes folks *did* have a communication... they were whales talking... even though I felt that the form of the communication was highly constrained and artificial (no surprise... "this is the tune, and the style, and we will speak within these bounds"... no surprise there). Last night I was reading Nat Hentoff and was struck by how he described Jo Jones as looking at each musician, listening, regarding them, responding. Not sure where I'm going here, but I keep gnawing this contrast between fulfilling a role and actually attending to the moment, and responding appropriately and humanly. (Okay, that's the Jameson's.... ;-)

I began itemizing some of the different ways to provide meaning... there's the textual way, where the words of a song mean something, and where we can illuminate the potential meanings to different degrees... the melody, tonality and rhythm of the sung lyric can convey a complementary or contrasting meaning, that's a second level... the rhythm of the overall sound of all instruments (that's tempo, accenting, intranote timing, the rest) has something... playing within a tradition or crossing traditions, evoking the past is another layer... of course, there's the choice of tunes, which is a meta-message... the creation of meaning occurs on multiple levels at once. No wonder it's so hard.... ;-)

iPod is up to almost 6000 tunes. Most of the time I'm listening to unrated and unplayed material, continuing to set up my structure. I realize I can create an on-the-go playlist to practice specific tunes, cool. The ability to listen *across* my collection is invaluable... to listen to something, figure out what it is, figure out how I know it is what it is... great eartraining. I'm also whistling and vocal-percussion (and subtle hand-percussion) against tunes too, because the music shifts across genres so rapidly. I'm listening a lot more than before I got the iPod... 6-8 hours a day, compared to 2-3 before.

I'm also leaning towards not attending any music camps this summer. I need to find my own way, rather than get trapped in common group structures. It's hard. But this summer I'm finally starting to move towards incorporating tango into klezmer-ragtime-musette-jazz-choro-westernswing-country-yaddayadda... I know there's something special here I can reach, but I need to work hard to bring it about. This year I need to follow this path and can't follow someone else's guide, sorry.

posted by macromed5 at 8:48 PM

Disappointing weekend, but instructive. At the Farmers Market I did a 75-minute set, but wasn't quite on, and had no interaction... was doing it more because of the momentum. I did go to the SF folk festival both days, and kept at it, but it was difficult because others didn't listen while playing... couldn't lead my own stuff, so the fallback position was to try to best support their stuff, but it just wasn't happening regardless.

The instructive part? I have to find my own way. I have to work at the music I find of value, and work at presenting it until others find it of interest too.

Increasingly I'm attracted to the music of this area, particularly up through the time the Beatles showed the corruption of the system. Not necessarily music that was invented here, but stuff that people here during that time found of value. I'm interested in other parts of the world too, particularly as this can illuminate some of the music found important by the many people who migrated here. Paying respect to everything that melted together here can help me find the path beyond that.

iPod is up to over 5000 tunes. I recorded the Carter Family through 1934, then deleted 2/3rds of it after review.


posted by macromed5 at 7:39 PM