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NEWTHINGS

                                 April, 1995  


So early in 93 I was saying things like:

    But what about improvisation?                       PERFORMANCE
    Isn't there room for spontaneous
    interaction between the audience
    and the band?

    No, not much.  The endless tedium
    of the typical jazz improv that
    sounds just like every other jazz
    improv testifies to this.  Really,
    carefully composed, produced music
    almost always sounds better.

And then late in 94 I was saying things like this

    Improvisation is a necessity, not a virtue.          PROGRAMMED

Since taking a break from doing the radio show,
I've been scrounging around checking out different
music scenes, to see how far off base I was with
what I've been saying....

And lately I've been paying a lot of attention to
the kind of post-jazz stuff that the old SF Weekly
labeled "the New Thing part II", calling it a sequel
to Ornette Coleman.

Sunday nights at the Radio Valencia.
Tuesdays at the Dark Circle Lounge in the Hotel Utah.
Wednesday's at Beanbenders in Berkeley....

And I have to admit that there is *something* about
improvised music that differs from musicians cranking out
something previously performed... Even a "composition" by a
group as accomplished as the Rova Saxaphone Quartet has a
slight touch of dullness to it, compared to the improv from
the folks on the SF scene (Splatter Trio, Ben Goldberg,
Graham Connah, the Manufacturing of Humidifiers and so
on)...

So I've got to back up on this one, I suppose.  I'm
probably going to become another person who babbles
about the immediacy and energy of self-expression in
improvised music...

                                           THISNIGHT


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