KEEPING THE FLAME

[march]

I think what I meant was partly covered in the topics above. I have been thinking lately about how much I assume when I sit down at the piano to improvise or compose or whatever.
Classic piano assumptions are: I must play more than one note, My chords must contain the 3rd and the 7th of the underlying harmony, if it's a two handed voicing they occur in the left hand, 4ths are cool, when i play a note towards the bottom of the piano it must be the root or fifth, linear melodies never contain more than an octave jump etc etc. These are not particularly good examples. These sorts of parameters make practice hard, and therfore can lead you on to things you wouldn't normally come across.

[stanleydodds]

March, I agree. Getting through and beyond assumpions, and the trappings of muscle/ligament memory on your instument is a challenging procedure. I find that sometimes the raw exitement of listening to a great player, live or recorded, on any instrument, and walking away with that fresh imprint of their creativity, translates into your own playing . Like the next time you perform, practice or write, you are aware of certain possibilities, on an abstract leval, and your playing is tainted by that.

[ironguts]

I'm looking at the smily's or what ever they are and fuck they shit me, I mean what the fuck is this language?
Slow. Go slow if you want to control. We are all a lot less smart than we think, well Im not cause I know Im an idiot.
If memory is a problem, get it out of the equation. Remove memory. Go slow. Going fast you have to rely on what you dont want. Maybe.

[tuggsey]

You are talking of demons IG.Most of the musicians I know have at least one. When your doubts meet your resolve in the practice room there also has to be humility and acceptance.There is a difference between testing and punishing... the former accepts the process may be eternal.The latter can result in pain and damage....And sometimes its hard to hear your own wisdom.

[Kenny]

This was posted at AAJ.

Satchmo in His Prime

by Gary Shapiro
New York Sun, February 23, 2006

"Has Louis Armstrong become un-hip in the musical world? The answer is no, but I'm beginning to wonder," said Ricky Riccardi, speaking recently on Louis Armstrong's later music at Rutgers University's Jazz Research Roundtable.

"He doesn't seem to be as prominent as he once was in the overall jazz landscape. I don't know the last time I
saw a big article on Armstrong in a major jazz magazine. Miles, Monk, Mingus, and Coltrane are on the covers every other month."

"I find the last 25 years of Armstrong's life to be the most interesting," said Mr. Riccardi, who graduated last year from Rutgers's master's program in jazz history and research.

That evening, he made the argument for re-examining the last 2 1/2 decades of Armstrong's career, in which he achieved his greatest popularity with recordings such as "Blueberry Hill" and "Hello Dolly," recorded
work with Ella Fitzgerald, Dave Brubeck, and others, toured with the All Stars (which included well-known names such as Earl Hines and Jack Teagarden), and became known as "Ambassador Satch."

Mr. Riccardi stressed that he was not saying Armstrong's late recordings were more important than his early ones; rather, he said he was frustrated the
later recordings don't often get mentioned in contemporary discussion.

Mr. Riccardi cited Lawrence Bergreen's "Louis Armstrong: An Extravagant Life" (1997), which devoted 424 pages to Armstrong up to the year 1943, leaving only 70 pages for the last 28 years of Armstrong's life. "He glossed over so much, it was almost embarrassing" he said.

Mr. Riccardi lamented various critics and their "unending critical barbs that Armstrong played the same set every night, didn't improvise, and was too busy being a comedian to be a serious jazz musician."

He cited another biographer, James Lincoln Collier, who
wrote of Armstrong, "I cannot think of another American artist who so failed his own talent."

Mr. Riccardi then read from Gunther Schuller's second volume of jazz history, "The Swing Era," which
described Armstrong as a "good-natured buffoon singing 'Blueberry Hill' and 'What a Wonderful World' night after night."

"A good-natured buffoon?" Mr. Riccardi repeated. "I still read these comments with disbelief."

Mr. Riccardi praised such authors as Gary Giddins and Michael Cogswell for careful scholarship and for not, like others, just repeating old myths. He cited an assertion in Eric Nisenson's "Blue: The Murder of Jazz" (2000) that Armstrong had "unquestionably made a decision to be a showman rather than a creative jazzman."

Mr. Riccardi retorted, "Does he think Armstrong woke up one morning and said, 'I've had enough of being a serious artist, I'm going to tell some bawdy jokes'?"

To rebut the view of Mr. Collier and others that the band book of the All Stars was limited and that Armstrong tended to repeat himself, Mr. Riccardi gave the audience a 12-page handout, showing that the
All Stars's repertory was much larger than critics have claimed.

Mr. Riccardi said the October 1957 album "Louis Armstrong Meets Oscar Peterson" was Armstrong's most underrated. He also played a song by
Armstrong that admittedly was "not one for the pantheon." Recorded in 1966, it was
called "Cheesecake."

Mr. Riccardi summed up by saying that because so many people just study his work from the 1920s, they are "missing some of his most emotional, challenging, joyous, and, let's face it, popular works."

He quoted Mahalia Jackson, who said at Newport Jazz Festival in 1970 of Armstrong: "If you don't love him, then I don't think you know how to love."

Mr. Riccardi added, "I think he is the most modern musician we have ever produced, and I don't think we have caught up with his sense of time."

The speaker brought three free copies of "Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy" (1954) to give out, saying, to audience laughter, "It should be sold with every home." He also brought samples of "Swiss Kriss," a laxative Armstrong famously promoted.

The evening brought out perhaps the largest crowd since the Jazz Research Roundtable began, said Institute of Jazz Studies director Dan Morgenstern. Among those in the audience were jazz historians
Phil Schaap and Lewis Porter, as well as trumpeter Randy Sandke.

Mr. Morgenstern said Armstrong's influence went well beyond jazz: "It's too bad. I would like to see what Louis could do with
rap."

[Hezza]

This is a great thread.

I found after the challenges of even being allowed to pursue music in a country school, that uni (a "Classical" music degree) offered me nothing but denigration with no recognition of separating musical abilities from self esteem. I somewhat understood the amount of work ahead of me and battled on regardless (crazy? definitely). Diverting my creativity to other areas helped (and alcohol) then. Changing to Improvising and another instrument (!) was something I needed for several years to renew my perspective. I searched in other artforms for find inspiration and meaningful artistic expression. It have always found it consoling and inspirational to find out how much people and all artforms can and do offer the world.

I'm definitely not saying change genre and instrument to others - (it's too much work!) it was what I needed to learn to love my first instrument again. Exploring other creative areas is a great way to build energy and collect ideas that only you will collate and (hopefully then) express in a particular way.
I am also trying the exercise, good food thing. I've never liked sleep and find when I'm too well rested and chipper all I want to do is play and enjoy life outside - not do music! Do others find varying states of unhappiness help their creativity? It's too damn sunny and beautiful in Australia! Thankfully skincancer means the middle of the day is a no-outside-go.