Category: Music

In this performance review,Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society: Steve Reich @ The Whitney, 15 Oct 2006 (Alarm Will Sound, So Percussion, etc), Darcy exhibits how deeply he gets it.

…at the time Reich first started presenting his music, few classically trained players were capable of dealing with its demands. It’s not that the music is flashy and virtuosic — just the opposite. But it requires (and I’m sorry to keep harping on this, but it’s important) rhythmic authority. Rhythmic authority isn’t just the ability to play rhythms precisely, although unfortunately, many classical players aren’t even equipped for that. Reich’s music is only playable if everyone has a rock-solid internal click track going, as well as the ability to both lock in with the ensemble and — when necessary — slip off the grid while still maintaining rigorous control over your own tempo. And that’s just to get through the music on a basic level. For the pieces to come alive, for the music to draw the listeners in instead of just sitting there, flat and sterile, you need to have an emotional connection to rhythm. You need to understand viscerally, in your gut, what a short note on the “and” of one means, and how it’s different from the same note in a different part of the bar. You need to have an intuitive sense of how tiny differences in emphasis and placement can drastically affect the character of a syncopated or repeated figure. In other words, you must be able to groove.

Why do we feel the need to put all music into it’s own little stylistic box? Last night after my gig I stopped by dba to hear the Robert Walter Trio. I hadn’t really heard him live, eventhough he has lived in New Orleans for some time now. I must admit my expectations were low, but some friends were playing with him, so I stopped to check it out.

I was expecting some sort of bland jam, and the first bits I heard didn’t completely convince me otherwise in terms of the tunes, but the groove was happening and the energy was good. As I opened myself to listening I realized that the improvisations were all honest and interesting. As the night continued, tunes like Juju and Monk’s Dream made their way into the set, and I really enjoyed the music.

I left feeling good about what I had heard, and wondering how many nights of good music I had missed, because the catergory or box that Robert Walter is usually put in doesn’t usually get me to listen open mindedly. I realize that it is my responsibility to listen openly always, and I also realize that there is only so much time to explore, so we tend to start with things that have been categorized in ways that appeal to us.

I just wonder how much good music we are missing because we look at the category instead of listen to the music?

Sometime ago Ray Moore and I were disussing multi-instrumentalists. I was saying how awed I was by Hermeto Pascoal and his band, that they all play multiple instruments, and sound great. Unrelated stuff like piano, flute, and euphonium…all on a level to make great music. We decided that some of it was the idea that they think less about the instrument and more about the music.

Today I was reading an article on Joe McPhee in the Fall 2005 issue of Signal to Noise. Joe McPhee says:

People say to me, “How can you switch between instruments?” It’s because I don’t make a distinction. I don’t think “saxophone”, I think “music.” …It doesn’t matter to me what instrument it is. The instrument is simply a tool.

Get the right tool for the job, eh?