Improvisation 12/22

I feel that this piece more or less represents my current approach to solo piano improvisation.

End of Semester Recap

I went through a lot of artistic change during my first semester at Oberlin. I couldn't even say what the net result of it is. If anything, I may have returned to where I started at the beginning of the semester. But if I have no more answers than I had in the fall, I sincerely believe that one can achieve meaningful personal growth through the process of asking and exploring the questions. Here is a summary of some of my important experiences and thoughts from the first semester.

Listening: My musical tastes have gotten all over the map, both literally and figuratively. A couple of the recordings that have had the most impact on me lately:

Zia Mohiuddin Dagar: Marwa and Bageshree

A recording of the great vina player live in Seattle, accompanied by two tampboura players. Dagar eschews dazzling virtuosity for a very slow, drifting, spiritual type of music. His sustained tones and long, beautiful glissandi are entrancing and deeply evocative. The music moves at an almost imperceptible pace, but when it reaches its peak, you'll feel it.

Paul Bley: Open, to Love

Bought this solo piano record a year or two ago, but never listened to it that much until recently. I've been deeply affected by the way Bley uses space in his music, letting a single note or chord hold out against nothingness and silence for what can be almost and excruciating interval of time. I've really taken to heart the way he combines subtle abstraction with poignant, melodicism.

Koachiro Miyata: Shakuhachi-The Japanese Flute

A release of solo shakuhachi music form Nonesuch record's excellent explorer series. Although it is in a very foreign musical language from mine, I found that this music really adhered to the same aesthetic that I was trying to follow, of simplicity and directness of emotion. This is beautiful and unpretentious music.

Thoughts on music:

-Anything can be an influence on you as an artist if you will let it. This does not always have to take the form of concrete musical ideas that one learns from listening to music, it can be merely an aesthetic or mood that inspires you to create art.

-Sometimes there is value to simply trying to do something different from everyone else. It is more important, though, to be yourself. If you let your art be an honest reflection of your natural self, then you will have a product that is original and different from anything else.

I should also mention again my work with the experimental music collective (a name we are considering changing, but it'll do for now.) Functioning in this group demands listening on a level beyond any other music I had previously played. Trying to fit in to the pure sound focus of the improvisations has forced me to develop many new extended techniques on the piano. The group had its first performance several weeks ago. Hopefully there will be more in the future.

I'll be spending the month of January in Oberlin (there are no classes that month.) I'll be playing my original jazz compositions with a trio featuring Zach Hobin on Bass and Zaire Dearden on drums. I'm very excited to be working with these two excellent musicians. I also hope for a lot of collaboration and experimentation with whichever other musicians will be around. It should be an extremely interesting month.