Andy Champion (bass
guitar); Wesley Stephenson (drums); Zoe Gilby (voice) and others as mentioned
below.
(Review by Ann).
Yet another review
written without the benefit of note-taking, but how can you take notes during
an improvisation session, I ask you?
Just not the done thing. I thoroughly enjoyed this event, but I think it
requires a different mindset, relaxed and open, to get the most from this sort
of thing. It started me thinking about
what music is all about, and I believe there are elements of drama involved
too, and the experience is visual as well.
It helps that the main
organising (not really the right word) musicians mentioned above are very
competent. Andy and Wes began, and were soon joined by a sax playing repeated
riffs. Karen Rann on soprano sax
then joined the duo, with what started off as odd notes but then developed into
something bebopish. The musical conversation
flowed well, with each player listening carefully, the secret of this type of
music. The next piece was quite
beautiful, with Alan Law on piano,
soft gentle wispy sounds. Zoe then
joined the action, extending well beyond her usual scat, with yelps, cries,
whispers, and this was the drama, a writer could construct a story from these
sounds. Or maybe others heard something
different, the listener brings her/his own perceptions. Then came the fun, in the shape of A.N. Other, who had a wonderful array of
3-stringed zither-like instruments which he’d made himself, complete with
amplification. He proceeded to play one
of these as a heavy metal guitar. He
also had long penny whistles, but without the holes, works in progress. I tried one which produced various notes
according to how hard you blew. By the end of the session there were about 10
people who’d played and quite a few in the audience.
We all joined in for the last piece which was a bit of a free-for-all. I
was using my coffee cup and saucer as percussion at the end and it sounded
surprisingly ok.
Try it for yourself, and
be prepared to join in. Sorry about not
knowing the names of everyone who played.
Ann Alex
1 comment :
wow what fun it sounds ! I never knew you were an exponent of the coffee-cup-and-saucer Ann ! :)
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