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Improvisation

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The Universal Mind of Bill Evans: Advice on Learning to Play Jazz & The Creative Process. Bill Evans was one of the greatest jazz pianists of the second half of the 20th century. His playing on Miles Davis’s landmark 1959 record, Kind of Blue, and as leader of the Bill Evans Trio was a major influence on players like Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett and Chick Corea. “Bill’s value can’t be measured in any kind of terms,” Corea once said. “He’s one of the great, great artists of this century.” Evans’s approach to music was a process of analysis followed by intuition. He would study a problem deliberately, working on it over and over until the solution became second nature.

“You use your intellect to take apart the materials,” Evans said in 1969. “But, actually, it takes years and years of playing to develop the facility so that you can forget all of that and just relax, and just play.” Evans crafted his improvisations with exacting deliberation. Evans discusses his creative process in a fascinating 1966 documentary, The Universal Mind of Bill Evans. Related content: Ideas. The improvisational flights of jazz greats like Louis Armstrong and John Coltrane are so transporting that they can seem almost otherworldly — especially when the listener is aware that these musicians weren’t following any score, but were making up their riffs in the moment.

New research on what happens in the brain when we improvise, however, is showing that it is very much an earthbound activity, grounded in the same neural processes at play in every one of us when we engage in spontaneous self-expression, like a conversation with a friend. “Creativity is far from a magical event of unexpected random inspiration,” wrote researchers Charles Limb and Mónica López-González in an article published in the journal Cerebrum last month. “Instead, it is a mental occurrence that results from the application of ordinary cognitive processes.”

(MORE: Paul: Why Morning Routines Are Creativity Killers) (MORE: Paul: Speaking Thark: What Invented Languages Can Teach Us) MORE: Forgetful? Jazz Legend Jaco Pastorius Gives a 90 Minute Bass Lesson and Plays Live in Montreal (1982) Of the above video—an hour and a half long bass lesson and interview with the late, great jazz bassist Jaco Pastorius—one youtube commenter writes, “this isn’t a bass lesson… this is a bass humiliation!”

It’s an apt description—for the aspiring player of any instrument, watching Pastorius at work is a humbling experience. Even Jerry Jemmott, no slouch on the instrument, seems a little overwhelmed as he interviews Jaco. But the articulate—and personally troubled—bassist was a humble guy, more than willing to share his skills and knowledge. As a player, composer, and producer, Pastorius towered over other progressive jazz players in the 70s and 80s, accompanying names like Pat Metheny and Wayne Shorter. While bass players get too little recognition in rock, in jazz, the instrument has always commanded a degree of respect. Pastorius, who suffered from bipolar disorder, died of wounds sustained in a bar fight on September 21st, 1987.

Advice From the Master: Thelonious Monk Scribbles a List of Tips for Playing a Gig. We’re fascinated by lists. Other people’s lists. Even the ones left behind in shopping carts are interesting (Jarlsburg, Gruyere and Swiss? Must be making fondue.) But it’s the lists made by famous people that are the really good stuff. It’s fun to peek into the private musings of people we admire.

Most of the site’s best lists are in the “memo to self” category, some with tongue in cheek and others in earnest. Some highlights: “Don’t play the piano part. Monk himself was famous for his eccentricity—some say he was mentally ill and others blame bad psychiatric medications. “Don’t play everything (or every time); let some things go by.

Monk was evidently a stickler for band protocol. What should players wear to a gig? Kate Rix is an Oakland-based freelancer. Teaching Music - Story. Review of a new book on Group Improvisation in Music. Many years ago, when I was studying in York, I had the good fortune to be able to attend a session on improvisation led by Lee Higgins who at the time was a lecturer on LIPA’s Community Music Course. So when I heard that he was writing a book on improvisation, I was naturally very interested. For this book, he has teamed up with Dalcroze Specialist, Patricia Shehan Campbell – a professor at the University of Washington. The contents of this well laid out handbook are organised into three sections – Orientation, Events and Connectives.

The Orientation section is important to help teachers move away from perhaps a more formal way of teaching and “break with some of the music material conventions and to enable familiar concepts to be viewed in a new light. . ” • Event – closely linked to the word invention and the inventive process, which looks forward to a future that is unknown and unpredictable • ‘Building Blocks’.

David Ashworth.