ECM Records Catalog Now Streaming

My music nerd intuition told me that the news I learned of last Friday that the entire ECM Records catalog was now available on streaming services such as Spotify was a big deal. The knowledge registered as important - I had a sense that ECM was "cool" - but I honestly didn't know much at all about the German label until the last few days. Previously, I was probably only familiar with ECM because I knew it was the company for which Bill Frisell made some of his first recordings.

I hadn't really even thought about the fact that ECM wasn't streaming before, but past unsuccessful searches for some Pat Metheny and Vijay Iyer records make more sense now.

Over this past weekend I did some research into the ECM catalog and jumped in with open ears ready for discovery. One thing that quickly became apparent is that the music on ECM isn’t quite what I expected, because I wasn’t expecting it to be so “new agey” and “fusiony”, or maybe so minimalist and atmospheric. I’ve only scratched the surface, checking out about 2.5% of the more than 1,600 ECM titles, but so far it’s more Windham Hill than Tzadik; more Kenny G than Coltrane. That perspective will change I'm sure as I hone in on specific areas of interest.

One of the first albums I listened to was A Cosmic Rhythm With Each Stroke by Vijay Iyer and Wadada Leo Smith because I had already been hoping to hear that one and it turns out that it is on ECM. Bill Frisell's new double album with Thomas Morgan called Small Town is among the many now streaming. I already own a copy of Small Town on vinyl. It's superb! And of course, my life-long neglect of Pat Metheny's Bright Size Life came to a satisfactory end. That one is a headphones jam for the Jaco effect.

Some other things have had my initial attention. A band called Codona featuring Don Cherry is definitely worth a listen. They offer a global music take on free jazz - bird sounds and sitar. Bassist Dave Holland has made a lot of recordings for ECM. His album Conference of the Birds under the name the David Holland Quartet is the first one of his I've been listening to. It features Anthony Braxton in a surprisingly melodic mood. Charles Lloyd is another ECM guy - at the least the latter half of his career. I don't know where to begin there...maybe The Water is Wide. Come to think of it, Charles Lloyd might be a pretty good example of the ECM sound.

This interest in ECM also offered an opportunity to finally listen to the legendary experimental group Art Ensemble of Chicago. I've run through Urban Bushmen and Nice Guys so far. You definitely have to be in the mood for this and already be accustomed to avant-garde music to appreciate, but I really liked Nice Guys on the second listen. It was too much the first time though.

I should have known about him already, but I learned of guitarist John Abercrombie through this ECM discovery. I can't say that I love his stuff so far, but there's a certain wah-wah funkiness to Gateway that's appealing; similar in some ways to the Jerry Garcia/Howard Wales album Hooteroll from that same time period. Oh yeah...it's not on ECM, but becoming aware of Abercrombie led to an early band he was in called Stark Reality that I really like so far! Stark Reality reminds me of a zonked-out take on Zappa style music.

There are some mainstays of ECM Records - people like Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek and Tunisian oud player Anouar Brahem. The early Jan Garbarek stuff, like Afric Pepperbird, has a hip, driving sound. Garbarek's more recent recordings run dangerously close to Kenny G-land, but his keen sense of melody - often from a folk perspective - keeps even these New Age works interesting. In the case of Brahem, it is fascinating to hear his oud in a jazz context but I need more time to develop a better opinion on this type of world fusion music. At times it can sound like a hodge podge.

Other names on the ECM "to do" list include Chick Corea, Eberhard Weber, Paul Motian, Arvo Pärt and Steve Reich.  

Jazz and experimental music is pretty male dominated, but I was reading how ECM is known for featuring female artists. Carla Bley, Meredith Monk and Agnes Buenas Garnas are names that have come up.

I'm glad that ECM has put this music out there, allowing it to be heard by a wider audience. Obtaining vinyl copies of favorite standouts is the next logical step.

Anthony Braxton's Compositions Are Interconnected

It may be easier to appreciate his ideas than than the actual music it stimulates, but I remembered reading or hearing that the works of composer/creative musician Anthony Braxton are all somehow inter-related, so I just now (couldn't sleep) looked into that for clarification and found this manifesto: http://www.restructures.net/texts/Braxton-IntroCatalogWorks.htm

Anthony Braxton 

After quickly reading this, I understand the core of Braxton's musical philosophy to be:

• His compositions connect together.  Shorter pieces can be merged with larger compositions and segments from one work can be mixed and matched or embedded into other works.  Individual sections can be isolated and multiplied (used repeatedly) by itself or with other structures.
• The music can be played by any instrument or instruments.  Solo parts can be interpreted by orchestras, and vice versa.  Compositions can be disrupted and re-sequenced or re-envisioned to suit any combination of musicians.
• Tempos, pacing and volume dynamics are relative. The way something might have been written or recorded is not intended to be the only option.  It can be fast/slow, loud/quiet...every option is open to each performer's interpretation.
• This music can be played too correctly (AKA "wrongly"), as opposed to incorrectly (which is actually "correctly").  This freedom is meant to enhance creativity, not suppress it.  Mistakes are meant to be made with the materials.
• A loose understanding of the materials or structure may be better than lots of rehearsals or advanced preparation.

This is all very interesting.  I've had similar thoughts and inclinations, which is why I've been shifting farther and farther away from music that feels like it requires strict rules by definition.  You certainly couldn't impose Braxton's approach onto traditional Irish music where tunes are typically played at relatively standardized speeds, with specific rhythms, and a common understanding of how many times through they should be played.  A jig is a jig, a hornpipe is a hornpipe, a reel is a reel, on down the line.  That music serves a different purpose, which is fine.

And you really couldn't do it with, say, the music of Phish or the Grateful Dead and still be doing that type of music justice.  As an amateur musician with unexceptional abilities, I can learn certain basic bits like the vocal melody line to Phish's Guyute, but it'll always feel incomplete if interpreted as a bare bones solo piece minus all the intricate sections that go along with it.  For me, I need music that is open to the freedom that a philosophy like Braxton's allows for; music that - with good conscience - can be removed from stylistic barriers without anybody getting too butt hurt about it.

It kind of reminds me of Leaves of Grass, in a way.  In an attempt to continually express his outlook on life, didn't Walt Whitman view Leaves of Grass as an ongoing, life-long work that united all of his poetry into one constantly evolving whole? Now, I don't know if you can chop up the poems in Leaves of Grass and reassemble them in a William S. Burroughs sort of way, but maybe you can.

In Plein Air - Can Visual Art Influence Your Pursuit of Music?

Plein Air is an art term used to describe the act of painting outdoors “in plain air”.  (Plein rhymes with glen).  The gallery near where I live - Gallery Flux - is featuring a ‘Plein Air and Big Skies’ exhibit now through September 27, 2014.  

At the opening reception last week, I was impressed at the variety of different styles and techniques that fall under the plein air umbrella.  Many of the paintings depicted either the countryside or the beach/water, but the way each artist chose to interpret those scenes was unique.  

Gallery Flux Plein Air exhibit, August 2014

There were some in the Impressionist style, some had a Bob Ross kind of thing going on; some were very realistic, some were very abstract.  I suppose the common thread throughout all plein air work – besides the act of painting outside – is an attempt to capture the essence of light and convey the intangible. 

How does this relate back to music?

A painter might have a particular style that is reminiscent of artists that have come before her (much like the fiddler who plays in the style of her favorite oldtime master), but she is still painting her own paintings.  Additionally, the abstract artist whose plein air canvasses almost look like a Rothko still shares a kinship with the artist who paints his outdoors-inspired work in a very detailed way.

Not all of us have the composition skills or creative urge to write the next Mississippi Sawyer or Swallowtail Jig.  Many of us are content to work within the repertoires that have been handed down to us by previous generations.  That doesn't mean that you can't still express yourself through these tunes.  I think of these traditional, centuries-old melodies as palette to work from, but not strictly adhere to.

The most enduring fiddle tunes and folk songs are rubbery enough to respond well to endless interpretation.  If you are inspired to play this music in your kitchen or on your front porch, for your own enjoyment and in your own way, then you still share a kinship with the traditional musicians of old who played for exactly the same reasons, long before the days of session police and oldtime nazis!

Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones - As Applied to Music

During my recent vacation I read Natalie Goldberg's well known book of Zen practice/writing practice entitled Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within.  I mostly interpreted it slightly out of context, inserting the words "playing music" instead of "writing" wherever possible.  For example, consider the following quotes with music-related words substituted for writing-oriented words:

"When I teach a beginning class, it is good. I have to come back to beginner's mind, the first way I thought and felt about (music).  In a sense, that beginner's mind is what we must come back to every time we sit down and (play)."

"You should feel that you have permission to (play) the worst junk in the world and it would be OK."

"Take a (tune) book. Open to any page, grab a (musical phrase, play it) and continue from there.  A friend calls this writing off the page.  If you begin with a great (melody), it helps because you start right off from a lofty place.  Every time you get stuck just rewrite your first (phrase) and keep going."

"If you are not afraid of the voices inside you, you will not fear the critics outside you."

"If you want to know (music), listen to it.  Little by little you will come closer to what you need to say and express it through your voice."

"If you are (playing) from first thoughts - the way your mind first flashes on something before second and third thoughts take over and comment, criticize and evaluate - you don't have to worry.  We can't always stay with first thoughts but it is good to know about them."

"When we know the name of something...it takes the blur out of our mind".

"We always worry that we are copying someone else, that we don't have our own style. Don't worry. (Music making) is a communal act....we are carried on the backs of all the (musicians) who came before us.  We live in the present with all the history, ideas and soda pop of this time.  It all gets mixed up in our (playing)."

"Right from the beginning, know (playing an instrument) is good and pleasant. Don't battle with it.  Make it your friend."

"Don't even worry about (playing) well; just (playing) is heaven."

"Not the why but the what...it's enough to know you want to (play). (Play)."

"If you want to (play) in a certain form, (listen to) a lot of (music) in that form.  When you (listen) a lot in that form, it becomes imprinted inside you, so when you sit down to (compose), you (compose) in that structure.  If you want to write short (tunes), you must digest that form and then exercise in that form."

"When you want to learn something, go to experts who have put in thirty years and learn from them.  Study their belief systems, their mental syntax - the order in which they think - and their physiology, how they stand, breathe, hold their mouth when they do the task they are expert in."

"In order to improve your (music), you have to practice just like any other sport. But don't be dutiful and make it into a blind routine.  Don't just put in your time. That is not enough.  You have to make effort.  Be willing to put your whole life on the line when you sit down for (music) practice. Otherwise you are just mechanically (strumming the pick across the strings) and intermittently looking up at the clock to see if your time is up."

"Learning to (play music) is not a linear process.  There is no logical A-to-B-to-C way to become a (musician).  One neat truth about (music) cannot answer it all.  There are many truths."

Natalie Goldberg

As you can see, some of these quotes didn't require any editing at all, and the ones that did still make perfect sense in a musical context even though they were intended for poets, novelists and other writers.  This process is a bit farther removed than say, reading Philip Toshio Sudo's Zen Guitar and changing the word "guitar" to "mandolin" every time it is used, but it can be done.  In doing so the subtitle of this book becomes Freeing the Musician Within instead of Freeing the Writer Within.  The same would have been true with any subject you chose to steer it toward.

A funny thing happened as I was reading this book.  The more I read it out of context, the more I started to read it in context.  An earlier creative endeavor of mine, before I took up playing tunes on the banjo and mandolin, was filling a page a day in a notebook with a form of stream of consciousness prose poetry.  An abstract journal, if you will.  I only kept this practice up for a couple years and had stopped before I got my first tenor banjo, but reading Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones may have inspired me to take up this medium again.

This time I want to be a better creative writer by figuring out and gathering together who my writing influences in this style are going to be, studying their technique and learning how to be influenced by them, whether they write in English or not.  Only recently have I started to grasp how to be influenced by other musicians, musical genres and styles, and I'm sure that with enough practice the same can be done with writing.

Chris Smith - author of Celtic Back-Up for all Instrumentalists - was the one who recommended Writing Down the Bones to me.  A few years back I had emailed him to vent some frustration over my inability to learn to play Irish traditional music.  When I inquired about his Zen view of music, he responded: "As an artist and teacher, I have found profoundly helpful Zen's emphasis upon concentration, attention to the present moment, suspension of ego, growth of self-awareness, and appreciation for doing things as well as possible. I also love that Zen people refer to meditation as 'practice' - that is, something you do every day out of a belief that steady effort and consistent attention will enhance performance. Likewise, Zen's insistence upon letting go of attachment to specific results is very, very helpful for a performer or other improviser."

Drawings by Ben Belcher of The Hot Seats

In addition to being a standout 5-string banjo player, musician Ben Belcher of The Hot Seats is also a talented visual artist.  He makes pen and ink drawings. I own one of his originals and a couple prints. Below are some examples of his work. If you're interested in purchasing or commissioning something, contact Ben and Annie directly. 

Conflict

Fast Food

Dream Dogs

Hero

Happy Birthday Jesus

Sticker

Party Face for the Prophet

Science Fiction commission

2008

TMGB poster

Upon My Return

Gig flyer

Tour poster

Uten Hender

We Reach

Troupe 2

Wonders!

My Left-Handed Fletcher Tenor Guitar

Fletcher Tenor Guitar in Blue Heron case

In late summer 2012 I became the owner of a Fletcher Tenor Guitar.  Fletcher instruments are hand-crafted by Jamie Dugan in Ithaca, NY.  I had seen and heard a Fletcher guitar in the hands of Jamie's mom, Jody Platt, a well known oldtime musician and Clifftop veteran who plays with the likes of Riley Baugus and the Lonesome Sisters, and I immediately knew I wanted one.  The quality (and price tag) of these instruments meant that if  I was going to get one I was making the jump from someone who dabbles in music as a hobby, to someone who better be pretty damn serious about dabbling in music as a hobby!

Fletcher JD1 Mahogany

Fletcher guitar with The Bailey strap

I already play short scale (21", 17-fret) GDAE-tuned tenor banjo.  Most tenor guitars have a bigger body and longer scale length than I'm comfortable with, and I don't like the feel of double course strings so an octave mandolin wasn't something I was interested in.  Fletcher instruments, on the other hand, are designed to use the same GDAE tuning (one octave lower than a mandolin) and have basically the same scale length, specs and feel that I am used to from playing tenor banjo.  Add in the fact that Jamie could make it left-handed, and it seemed like the standard Fletcher model was custom made for me!

Blue Heron case

John Carty's traditional Irish album I Will If I Can - where he plays some tunes on tenor guitar - and Norman Blake's classic flatpicking guitar album Whiskey Before Breakfast are two huge influences on the playing style I'm aspiring to adopt, and the Fletcher tenor guitar gives me the perfect means to attempt these forms of music on a 4-string guitar-sounding instrument that I greatly enjoy playing.

The Fletcher came with a hard shell case and one strap button -- if I'd have thought about it I would have had Jamie install a 2nd strap button on the other side of the body.  I found that I don't like lugging around a heavy case, so I ordered a custom fit, high-quality soft case/gig bag from Ken Jorgenson at Blue Heron Cases, who is super friendly and easy to work with.  I had a local luthier install a 2nd strap button, and ordered a hand-braided leather strap from Bill Bailey ("The Bailey").  Now I'm all set.  Some hastily recorded sound demos are below.  I recorded them using a basic iPad recording app.  My limited playing abilities combined with the limitations of the amateur recording device may not properly convey the tones this instrument can produce, but it will give you some idea.

Seattle Art Museum: Northwest Mystics and Aboriginal Art

I have cool book at home called Sounds of the Inner Eye: John Cage, Mark Tobey, Morris Graves.  It explores the artistic and biographical connection among the three Pacific Northwest artists.  Known as the Northwest Mystics, Cage, Tobey and Graves were influenced by Eastern philosophies and the natural beauty of the Pacific Rim.  About 7 or 8 years ago, before I started to learn how to play music, I took up an interest in abstract art and Eastern philosophies which led to my discovery of these artists and my purchase of this book, which I think was originally published in relation to a 2002 exhibit in Tacoma, WA.

That Sounds of the Inner Eye book has been on the shelf for a few years now (I need to get it out again!), but when I was in Seattle recently for a conference it occurred to me that I was at the center of where this mystical art was made in the 30's, 40's and 50's.  A quick check on my smart phone verified that the Seattle Art Museum was only 4 or 5 blocks away, so I snuck over there during a break.  I was hoping they would have some of this visionary art.

Out of the three artists profiled in Sounds of the Inner Eye, Mark Tobey is my favorite.  To give you an example, while standing on a street corner waiting for a bus after visiting an exhibit of Tobey's white-writing paintings, John Cage "noticed that the experience of looking at the pavement was the same as the experience as looking at the Tobey.  Exactly the same.  The aesthetic enjoyment was just as high".  Tobey's paintings have opened my eyes in a similar way, causing me to look for art in unexpected places, so I was excited at the prospect of seeing some of his work.

As I approached the Seattle Art Museum I was surprised to see a banner for its current Ancestral Modern: Australian Aboriginal Art exhibit.  I had no idea this was going on but I immediately wondered if the exhibit included anything by Emily Kngwarreye?  That interest I developed in abstract art 7 or 8 years ago led me to Australian Aboriginal art, particularly the work of Emily Kngwarreye whose "dreaming" paintings bear an uncanny resemblance to (and are the artistic equivalent of) the great New York school of abstract expressionists like Kandinsky, Rothko, Pollock and de Kooning.   

Kngwarreye did not take up painting until she was 78, but once she started she was incredibly prolific, producing more than 3,000 paintings by the time she died at age 86.  A lot more can be said about Kngwarreye in a future post, but the good news is that the museum did have works by Tobey, Graves and Kngwarreye on display! (I didn't notice any John Cage visual art, but I did get to see some of his "smoked" works at the University of Richmond a couple years ago).  Enough words...here are some selected visual images of the art by Tobey, Graves, Kngwarreye and Cage. 

Mark Tobey

Mark Tobey

Mark Tobey

Mark Tobey

Emily Kngwarreye

Emily Kngwarreye

Emily Kngwarreye

Emily Kngwarreye

John Cage

John Cage

John Cage

John Cage

Morris Graves

Morris Graves

Morris Graves

Morris Graves

This experience may have rekindled my interest in art as well as Eastern philosophies.  Expect more on those topics in the future.  Please take a moment to comment on these images - similarities, differences, what you like/dislike about them.  Thanks!