I recently read Shea's blog in which he discussed his feelings about rap, and it got me thinking about my own feelings toward hip hop. I remember owning several rap cassette tapes in middle school that I listened to regularly. Tupac, Wu-tang clan, and A tribe called Quest, were a few of the groups I enjoyed. Since then, my taste for rap has diminished severely. Nowadays, I only hear rap when my roomates, or someone else, plays it--which happens occasionally. And I don't enjoy much of what I hear. ("Mike Jones! Mike Jones! Mike Jones!" somehow doesn't do it for me.) Why don't I enjoy rap? It all sounds the same: heavy bass, fake drums, dull lyrics, etc. Thinking about though, all musical catagories have their cliches. I like rock n roll, but there is certainly a sense--especialy to a niave listener--that all rock sounds the same. If there is bad rap, there must be good rap somewhere. I realize "good" is a subjective term, some people enjoy Mike Jones!, but there's gotta be some rap out there that I can listen to, maybe even a rapper who plays an instrument? If you know where it is, please let me know. Maybe I'll revisit my old tapes and see if I can regain any of my old interest.

Arts Night

I thought our performance Tuesday morning went well. The john Fox trio had some electrical problems, but still pulled off an good show. I enjoyed the lawnchair (armchair?) pirates too, I'd never seen 'em before. I thought Ben's conducting was crucial to the success of the group playing, it made it much easier to keep track of who was supposed to be playing when, and how.
I remember someone at the rehersal mentioning that just because we were playing slowly didnt mean we had to play quietly too. It was a good point, when you think "slow" you naturaly think "quiet", but why shouldnt you play slow and loud? Our "speed" ending was a good loud climactic finish. I think we all saw "speed" and our instincts told us to play it loud. (good insticts) It would be interseting, though, if we'd played really fast and really quietly.

Improv is everywhere

As a result of this class, I've been noticing improvisation everywhere. It's wild. We are constantly improvising, in conversation, in writing, sports, etc. Writing is an area that would not seem to lend itself to improvisation, it's an exersize in thinking and composition. But read William Burroughs. He developed what might be called an improvisational writing technique. He would write for awhile and when he was finished, cut up the peice into chunks of a sentence or two. Then he glued them back together randomely. The result is interesting, and suprisingly coherent. He suggested that the reader might start on any page--not necessarily at the begining of his book--and be just as well off.

Here's another place I've noticed improvisation: basketball. I would compare my high-school basketball experience to blues or rock-based improv. We had set plays (chord progressions) that we all knew, but everyone was encouraged to break off when the time was right and go to the hoop (solo). I remember our coach stressing creativity and the ability to improvise. When you are driving to the basket, flying through the air, you are not doing a planned activity, you are reacting instinctively, and it wouldnt surprise me if you used the same part of your brain doing a layup in traffic as improvising a musical solo. I play on an intramural team here at UMF, and our style is a looser, more improvised one than what i experienced in high school. We dont practice set plays, so we are restriced only by the rules of basketball (no traveling, no going out of bounds, etc). As a result we our offense can be hectic at times, and stagnant at others. Idealy, and occasionaly, though, everyone on the court is in sync, setting screens, moving without the basketball, making good passes, and when everyone is on the same page like this, the game is fun to play, exciting to watch, and similar in many ways to an improvised musical performance.

Ali Farka Toure link

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=97549280

This link should go to a myspace page about Ali Farka Toure, a west-african blues guitarist. He's good.

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I didnt go to the group improvisation meeting this past week, the snow was deep, school was canceled, and I wasnt sure if merrill hall was open. I don't know if Adam and Peter have anything planned for the dancers, hopefuly I'll be able to play along with them. It'll be interesting to see what happens when we play for the dance group tomorrow. I can see how the dancers might base their movements on what they hear. I wonder how their dance will influence the musicians?