WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.420 align:middle line:84% The following content is provided under a Creative 00:00:02.420 --> 00:00:03.630 align:middle line:90% Commons license. 00:00:03.630 --> 00:00:06.050 align:middle line:84% Your support will help MIT OpenCourseWare 00:00:06.050 --> 00:00:09.870 align:middle line:84% continue to offer high-quality educational resources for free. 00:00:09.870 --> 00:00:12.620 align:middle line:84% To make a donation or to view additional materials 00:00:12.620 --> 00:00:15.170 align:middle line:84% from hundreds of MIT courses, visit 00:00:15.170 --> 00:00:17.270 align:middle line:90% MITOpenCourseWare@ocw.mit.edu. 00:00:17.270 --> 00:00:21.162 align:middle line:90% 00:00:21.162 --> 00:00:22.620 align:middle line:84% MARK HARVEY: What we're going to do 00:00:22.620 --> 00:00:26.060 align:middle line:84% is we'll have this lecture for most of the period, 00:00:26.060 --> 00:00:28.920 align:middle line:84% then at about quarter of or so, I'm going to stop and just 00:00:28.920 --> 00:00:32.100 align:middle line:84% hand out the assignment for the final project, which is fairly 00:00:32.100 --> 00:00:35.340 align:middle line:84% detailed, talk about just a couple 00:00:35.340 --> 00:00:38.400 align:middle line:84% of quick things, organizationally speaking, 00:00:38.400 --> 00:00:40.840 align:middle line:90% and then we'll be all set. 00:00:40.840 --> 00:00:44.700 align:middle line:84% So postmodern, this is a term that 00:00:44.700 --> 00:00:52.620 align:middle line:84% gets thrown around a lot in different ways. 00:00:52.620 --> 00:00:55.190 align:middle line:84% It's usually, some people have applied it 00:00:55.190 --> 00:01:00.210 align:middle line:84% to the whole period of culture and history. 00:01:00.210 --> 00:01:01.970 align:middle line:84% Some people will take it back as far 00:01:01.970 --> 00:01:05.690 align:middle line:84% as maybe the 1950s or the 1960s in jazz. 00:01:05.690 --> 00:01:10.010 align:middle line:84% It's begins roughly around that period, 00:01:10.010 --> 00:01:14.430 align:middle line:84% but there's a lot of development up to it. 00:01:14.430 --> 00:01:17.540 align:middle line:84% And basically, it's a convenient catch 00:01:17.540 --> 00:01:21.620 align:middle line:84% phrase for talking about things that maybe don't fit 00:01:21.620 --> 00:01:24.380 align:middle line:84% in other categories or that are blendings 00:01:24.380 --> 00:01:29.960 align:middle line:84% and to some extent, as I say on this little handout, well, 00:01:29.960 --> 00:01:34.760 align:middle line:84% I guess I don't say it there, but the notion of combining 00:01:34.760 --> 00:01:39.200 align:middle line:84% things and also of blurring boundaries 00:01:39.200 --> 00:01:40.890 align:middle line:90% and this sort of thing. 00:01:40.890 --> 00:01:44.600 align:middle line:84% So I'm going to talk about a few people, specifically, and then 00:01:44.600 --> 00:01:46.880 align:middle line:84% a couple of things of mine as we get into this, 00:01:46.880 --> 00:01:51.420 align:middle line:84% but let me just take us through this little chart briefly. 00:01:51.420 --> 00:01:53.390 align:middle line:84% And the reason I go all the way back 00:01:53.390 --> 00:01:56.630 align:middle line:84% to the turn of the previous century, 00:01:56.630 --> 00:01:59.930 align:middle line:84% meaning the 20th century, is that a lot of the things that 00:01:59.930 --> 00:02:03.590 align:middle line:84% were going on then, actually, have influenced 00:02:03.590 --> 00:02:05.360 align:middle line:90% composers in the present day. 00:02:05.360 --> 00:02:07.790 align:middle line:84% For instance, Charles Ives is mentioned there. 00:02:07.790 --> 00:02:09.680 align:middle line:84% Both Walter Thompson and I are deeply 00:02:09.680 --> 00:02:11.330 align:middle line:90% influenced by Charles Ives. 00:02:11.330 --> 00:02:15.560 align:middle line:84% And so here's somebody who was active over 100 years ago 00:02:15.560 --> 00:02:20.570 align:middle line:84% whose music still has influence and resonance for people. 00:02:20.570 --> 00:02:24.230 align:middle line:84% You'll remember that New Orleans jazz was dominated, 00:02:24.230 --> 00:02:25.790 align:middle line:84% particularly in the earliest days, 00:02:25.790 --> 00:02:27.680 align:middle line:90% by collective improvisation. 00:02:27.680 --> 00:02:30.260 align:middle line:84% Then that concept went out of the music 00:02:30.260 --> 00:02:33.260 align:middle line:84% and came back in the 1960s, with people 00:02:33.260 --> 00:02:35.270 align:middle line:84% like Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane, 00:02:35.270 --> 00:02:39.320 align:middle line:84% so sometimes looking back is worth doing. 00:02:39.320 --> 00:02:43.160 align:middle line:84% In the 1920s, Bix Beiderbecke, James P. Johnson, 00:02:43.160 --> 00:02:45.500 align:middle line:84% Darius Milhaud, Igor Stravinsky were all 00:02:45.500 --> 00:02:50.160 align:middle line:84% interested in different ways of blending jazz and classical, 00:02:50.160 --> 00:02:51.360 align:middle line:90% whatever that meant. 00:02:51.360 --> 00:02:54.510 align:middle line:84% For Stravinsky, in that period, it was more ragtime, but still 00:02:54.510 --> 00:02:55.650 align:middle line:90% an interest in this. 00:02:55.650 --> 00:02:59.520 align:middle line:84% Then a lot of the key elements, key pieces 00:02:59.520 --> 00:03:01.740 align:middle line:84% that we've talked about are on your chart 00:03:01.740 --> 00:03:03.690 align:middle line:90% like Harlem, all about Rosie. 00:03:03.690 --> 00:03:05.970 align:middle line:84% We've talked a little bit about third stream that 00:03:05.970 --> 00:03:09.360 align:middle line:84% was definitely a way of broadening people's thinking 00:03:09.360 --> 00:03:13.050 align:middle line:84% and making some very interesting musical investigations. 00:03:13.050 --> 00:03:16.650 align:middle line:84% And there, again, what was going on in the '50s and '60s 00:03:16.650 --> 00:03:19.950 align:middle line:84% with third stream as an experimental period, 00:03:19.950 --> 00:03:22.620 align:middle line:84% down the road, you find all kinds 00:03:22.620 --> 00:03:25.380 align:middle line:84% of composers and performers right now 00:03:25.380 --> 00:03:27.330 align:middle line:84% who are deeply influenced by that, 00:03:27.330 --> 00:03:29.310 align:middle line:84% although they might not necessarily even use 00:03:29.310 --> 00:03:30.520 align:middle line:90% that term anymore. 00:03:30.520 --> 00:03:36.282 align:middle line:84% So these are stepping stones, you might say, along the way. 00:03:36.282 --> 00:03:38.490 align:middle line:84% One thing that's very important in the middle of that 00:03:38.490 --> 00:03:40.740 align:middle line:84% chart where it says classical composers, 00:03:40.740 --> 00:03:44.070 align:middle line:84% there were two directions that were going on in the '50s, one 00:03:44.070 --> 00:03:48.180 align:middle line:84% was to a very rigorous, systematic, almost mathematical 00:03:48.180 --> 00:03:49.020 align:middle line:90% concept. 00:03:49.020 --> 00:03:54.300 align:middle line:84% Milton Babbitt is one of those, taking the serial, S-E-R-I-A-L, 00:03:54.300 --> 00:03:58.050 align:middle line:84% serial 12-tone notion of Schoenberg and taking it 00:03:58.050 --> 00:04:01.710 align:middle line:84% to an extent where everything was systematized. 00:04:01.710 --> 00:04:04.260 align:middle line:84% And many people thought it, to some extent, 00:04:04.260 --> 00:04:07.710 align:middle line:84% took some of the joy and spontaneity out of music, 00:04:07.710 --> 00:04:11.340 align:middle line:84% not necessarily so, but this is the way sometimes 00:04:11.340 --> 00:04:13.440 align:middle line:84% that whole movement was perceived. 00:04:13.440 --> 00:04:18.360 align:middle line:84% Polar opposite was John Cage, who very often would come up 00:04:18.360 --> 00:04:23.040 align:middle line:84% with concepts of how you might approach music 00:04:23.040 --> 00:04:25.320 align:middle line:84% in a very open-ended way and blended things. 00:04:25.320 --> 00:04:27.120 align:middle line:84% Like he might have a radio playing, 00:04:27.120 --> 00:04:28.890 align:middle line:84% he might have two or three radios playing 00:04:28.890 --> 00:04:31.920 align:middle line:84% and ask the performers to change the dials, 00:04:31.920 --> 00:04:34.350 align:middle line:84% and then maybe a performer would play the violin along 00:04:34.350 --> 00:04:34.850 align:middle line:90% with that. 00:04:34.850 --> 00:04:36.120 align:middle line:90% That was a piece. 00:04:36.120 --> 00:04:41.580 align:middle line:84% So that's a new-fangled conception consideration 00:04:41.580 --> 00:04:44.070 align:middle line:84% of how you would make a performance, how 00:04:44.070 --> 00:04:47.050 align:middle line:84% you would improvise but within certain boundaries. 00:04:47.050 --> 00:04:50.640 align:middle line:84% And there were a lot of jazz musicians in the 1950s 00:04:50.640 --> 00:04:53.160 align:middle line:84% who were being influenced to one degree or another 00:04:53.160 --> 00:04:56.400 align:middle line:84% by these events in the same way that people 00:04:56.400 --> 00:04:58.800 align:middle line:84% like Milton Babbitt, particularly, and some others 00:04:58.800 --> 00:05:00.390 align:middle line:90% were influenced by jazz. 00:05:00.390 --> 00:05:03.870 align:middle line:84% Cage never seemed to let on exactly about jazz, 00:05:03.870 --> 00:05:05.880 align:middle line:84% at least that I know of, but I think 00:05:05.880 --> 00:05:09.900 align:middle line:84% it's hard to believe that he wasn't influenced in some way 00:05:09.900 --> 00:05:10.950 align:middle line:90% by all of this. 00:05:10.950 --> 00:05:12.840 align:middle line:84% Then we come to some of the key figures-- 00:05:12.840 --> 00:05:17.520 align:middle line:84% Mingus, Sun Ra, whom we're going to play a little bit about, 00:05:17.520 --> 00:05:19.200 align:middle line:84% say just a little bit about them, 00:05:19.200 --> 00:05:21.060 align:middle line:84% but let me keep going down this list. 00:05:21.060 --> 00:05:22.320 align:middle line:90% Ornette Coleman. 00:05:22.320 --> 00:05:26.940 align:middle line:84% His 1960 album, very important called Free Jazz, 00:05:26.940 --> 00:05:29.940 align:middle line:84% which really gave the name to the whole movement was, 00:05:29.940 --> 00:05:34.500 align:middle line:84% as many of you know, a 40-minute improvisational tour de force. 00:05:34.500 --> 00:05:36.690 align:middle line:84% It was essentially extended form music, 00:05:36.690 --> 00:05:39.660 align:middle line:84% but from improvisational background. 00:05:39.660 --> 00:05:45.420 align:middle line:84% That all feeds into what people then saw as possible for a jazz 00:05:45.420 --> 00:05:46.050 align:middle line:90% orchestra. 00:05:46.050 --> 00:05:49.450 align:middle line:84% The Free Jazz Group was a double quartet, eight players, 00:05:49.450 --> 00:05:52.600 align:middle line:84% but they sounded sometimes like they were about 24. 00:05:52.600 --> 00:05:56.020 align:middle line:84% But they gave an idea that other people could use. 00:05:56.020 --> 00:05:57.370 align:middle line:90% Coltrane's "Africa." 00:05:57.370 --> 00:05:59.800 align:middle line:84% A lot of you know this from Africa/Brass 00:05:59.800 --> 00:06:04.810 align:middle line:84% has several seven or eight-horn section on that arranged 00:06:04.810 --> 00:06:07.210 align:middle line:84% by Eric Dolphy that's functioning 00:06:07.210 --> 00:06:10.360 align:middle line:84% like an African ritual group, you could say, 00:06:10.360 --> 00:06:14.970 align:middle line:84% but it's also taking the concept of horns from a large band 00:06:14.970 --> 00:06:16.720 align:middle line:84% and putting it in a totally different kind 00:06:16.720 --> 00:06:19.610 align:middle line:90% of a configuration. 00:06:19.610 --> 00:06:21.500 align:middle line:84% Then we have Muhal Richard Abrams, 00:06:21.500 --> 00:06:25.540 align:middle line:84% who was the founder of the AACM, The Association 00:06:25.540 --> 00:06:28.690 align:middle line:84% for the Advancement of Creative Musicians in Chicago, 00:06:28.690 --> 00:06:31.390 align:middle line:84% and he had, in 1961, something called 00:06:31.390 --> 00:06:34.120 align:middle line:84% just simply the Experimental Band, 00:06:34.120 --> 00:06:36.310 align:middle line:90% a band that tried out things. 00:06:36.310 --> 00:06:38.920 align:middle line:84% This eventually spawned the Art Ensemble 00:06:38.920 --> 00:06:41.500 align:middle line:84% of Chicago, which was one of the great free jazz 00:06:41.500 --> 00:06:42.430 align:middle line:90% groups of all time. 00:06:42.430 --> 00:06:45.490 align:middle line:84% They're still going, although Lester Bowie has passed on, 00:06:45.490 --> 00:06:46.780 align:middle line:90% the great trumpet player. 00:06:46.780 --> 00:06:49.160 align:middle line:84% And then you'll see just a few things, other things 00:06:49.160 --> 00:06:54.620 align:middle line:84% in the '60s, the Jazz Composers Guild, led by Bill Dixon; 00:06:54.620 --> 00:06:58.040 align:middle line:84% the Jazz Composers Orchestra Association, commonly called 00:06:58.040 --> 00:07:02.060 align:middle line:84% JCOA, led by both Carla Bley and Mike Mantler; 00:07:02.060 --> 00:07:05.750 align:middle line:84% and Liberation Music Orchestra, led by Charlie Haden. 00:07:05.750 --> 00:07:08.660 align:middle line:84% The only one that's still going is the Liberation Music 00:07:08.660 --> 00:07:09.200 align:middle line:90% Orchestra. 00:07:09.200 --> 00:07:13.160 align:middle line:84% Charlie Haden has revivified that recently. 00:07:13.160 --> 00:07:15.620 align:middle line:84% That group always had kind of a political edge, 00:07:15.620 --> 00:07:17.330 align:middle line:84% and in the last year or two, he's 00:07:17.330 --> 00:07:22.880 align:middle line:84% seen fit to bring that back into being. 00:07:22.880 --> 00:07:26.100 align:middle line:84% Then if you look at the last page, 00:07:26.100 --> 00:07:29.630 align:middle line:84% this is just my little list of what I call selected postmodern 00:07:29.630 --> 00:07:31.010 align:middle line:90% jazz orchestras. 00:07:31.010 --> 00:07:35.000 align:middle line:84% I put my own band there because we are in this category, also 00:07:35.000 --> 00:07:37.370 align:middle line:84% the Either Orchestra, you remember Russ Gershon 00:07:37.370 --> 00:07:40.250 align:middle line:84% who lectured to us, that's his band. 00:07:40.250 --> 00:07:43.370 align:middle line:84% They represent, clearly a world music blending, 00:07:43.370 --> 00:07:47.000 align:middle line:84% one of the many possibilities, with Ethiopian jazz as we know. 00:07:47.000 --> 00:07:50.650 align:middle line:84% Jazz Composers Alliance Orchestra, JCAO, 00:07:50.650 --> 00:07:53.200 align:middle line:84% not to be confused with the JCOA, 00:07:53.200 --> 00:07:55.150 align:middle line:84% you get these initials in jazz, just 00:07:55.150 --> 00:07:56.920 align:middle line:84% like the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, 00:07:56.920 --> 00:07:59.320 align:middle line:84% the ODJB, well, you've got to get them straight. 00:07:59.320 --> 00:08:03.490 align:middle line:84% But the Jazz Composers Alliance Orchestra, another great group. 00:08:03.490 --> 00:08:05.770 align:middle line:84% They're having a concert this coming weekend, 00:08:05.770 --> 00:08:07.840 align:middle line:84% and I may have let you know about this, 00:08:07.840 --> 00:08:12.130 align:middle line:84% but I'll let you know again, with a lot of different points 00:08:12.130 --> 00:08:13.810 align:middle line:90% of view being expressed there. 00:08:13.810 --> 00:08:15.730 align:middle line:84% And then others within this country, 00:08:15.730 --> 00:08:17.500 align:middle line:90% I've put the names down there. 00:08:17.500 --> 00:08:19.570 align:middle line:84% I'll come back and mention a couple of these, 00:08:19.570 --> 00:08:21.310 align:middle line:84% and Walter Thompson's own group is 00:08:21.310 --> 00:08:24.820 align:middle line:84% there, one of the leading exponents of this. 00:08:24.820 --> 00:08:27.340 align:middle line:84% And then in Europe, there's a whole variety, 00:08:27.340 --> 00:08:29.590 align:middle line:84% and there are others, but these are some 00:08:29.590 --> 00:08:31.900 align:middle line:90% of the more interesting ones. 00:08:31.900 --> 00:08:35.890 align:middle line:84% Willem Breuker, from Holland, does some things 00:08:35.890 --> 00:08:38.559 align:middle line:84% that almost border sometimes on circus music 00:08:38.559 --> 00:08:40.809 align:middle line:84% and sort of a comedy show, you could 00:08:40.809 --> 00:08:43.840 align:middle line:84% say, with about 11 or 12-piece aggregation. 00:08:43.840 --> 00:08:46.480 align:middle line:84% They've been here at MIT, interestingly enough. 00:08:46.480 --> 00:08:48.940 align:middle line:84% Globe Unity, I'm not sure they're still around. 00:08:48.940 --> 00:08:52.240 align:middle line:84% Do you know if they're still around? 00:08:52.240 --> 00:08:56.230 align:middle line:84% They used to be based in a pan European group, 00:08:56.230 --> 00:08:57.970 align:middle line:90% but largely based in Germany. 00:08:57.970 --> 00:09:00.220 align:middle line:84% A guy named Albert Mangelsdorff, trombonist, 00:09:00.220 --> 00:09:03.400 align:middle line:84% was the motive for it, so I'm not sure they're still around. 00:09:03.400 --> 00:09:06.130 align:middle line:84% Instabile Orchestra, which I'm assuming 00:09:06.130 --> 00:09:10.510 align:middle line:84% translates to unstable, great group in Italy. 00:09:10.510 --> 00:09:13.090 align:middle line:84% My band and their band always get compared. 00:09:13.090 --> 00:09:15.980 align:middle line:84% I'd love to meet them someday and have a battle of the bands. 00:09:15.980 --> 00:09:18.880 align:middle line:84% We see how much unstability we could really 00:09:18.880 --> 00:09:20.470 align:middle line:90% put out in the world. 00:09:20.470 --> 00:09:23.710 align:middle line:84% The London Jazz Composers Orchestra sounds very stuffy, 00:09:23.710 --> 00:09:24.730 align:middle line:90% but it's not. 00:09:24.730 --> 00:09:27.940 align:middle line:84% They can do some very wild things, and the Vienna Art 00:09:27.940 --> 00:09:29.780 align:middle line:90% Orchestra, really a great group. 00:09:29.780 --> 00:09:33.470 align:middle line:84% So we have some of these people on our syllabus, 00:09:33.470 --> 00:09:37.330 align:middle line:84% and if you see that any of these groups are playing any place 00:09:37.330 --> 00:09:39.040 align:middle line:84% or you come across a recording, it's 00:09:39.040 --> 00:09:41.020 align:middle line:84% worth your while to check it out. 00:09:41.020 --> 00:09:42.520 align:middle line:90% You won't be disappointed. 00:09:42.520 --> 00:09:44.967 align:middle line:84% You may be perplexed, befuddled, if not 00:09:44.967 --> 00:09:46.550 align:middle line:84% able to understand what they're doing, 00:09:46.550 --> 00:09:50.060 align:middle line:84% but you won't be without some kind of intrigue. 00:09:50.060 --> 00:09:50.560 align:middle line:90% Yes. 00:09:50.560 --> 00:09:52.210 align:middle line:84% AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] and Globe Unity 00:09:52.210 --> 00:09:55.270 align:middle line:84% is foregoing the 40th anniversary concert in 2006. 00:09:55.270 --> 00:09:56.380 align:middle line:90% MARK HARVEY: There we go. 00:09:56.380 --> 00:09:58.480 align:middle line:90% 40th anniversary, 2006. 00:09:58.480 --> 00:09:59.560 align:middle line:90% Excellent. 00:09:59.560 --> 00:10:00.460 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:10:00.460 --> 00:10:02.120 align:middle line:90% The power of the internet. 00:10:02.120 --> 00:10:05.800 align:middle line:84% So let me just stop here and ask if anybody 00:10:05.800 --> 00:10:09.400 align:middle line:84% has any questions about this very rapid survey or some 00:10:09.400 --> 00:10:12.910 align:middle line:90% of these people or movements? 00:10:12.910 --> 00:10:16.480 align:middle line:84% Anything at all that's totally foreign to you 00:10:16.480 --> 00:10:22.170 align:middle line:84% or that you don't have a grasp of what I mean. 00:10:22.170 --> 00:10:24.920 align:middle line:84% So everybody is fairly well situated with this? 00:10:24.920 --> 00:10:26.430 align:middle line:90% OK, good. 00:10:26.430 --> 00:10:32.630 align:middle line:84% So let me come back over, then and just say 00:10:32.630 --> 00:10:35.060 align:middle line:84% a couple of things about where some 00:10:35.060 --> 00:10:38.900 align:middle line:84% of the impulses that these groups now, and I 00:10:38.900 --> 00:10:41.870 align:middle line:84% mean now, the last 20 or 30 years, draw on. 00:10:41.870 --> 00:10:44.900 align:middle line:84% One of them is clearly, Charles Mingus. 00:10:44.900 --> 00:10:50.510 align:middle line:84% Mingus was one of the real progenitors of advanced 00:10:50.510 --> 00:10:53.060 align:middle line:84% thinking in the jazz orchestra world, 00:10:53.060 --> 00:10:56.390 align:middle line:84% and his groups tended to be not a full big band. 00:10:56.390 --> 00:10:59.330 align:middle line:84% They tended to be more like maybe 7 people, 00:10:59.330 --> 00:11:00.450 align:middle line:90% maybe 12 people. 00:11:00.450 --> 00:11:03.890 align:middle line:84% He got a lot of sound and a lot of interesting things 00:11:03.890 --> 00:11:06.950 align:middle line:84% going on out of a smaller big band. 00:11:06.950 --> 00:11:08.450 align:middle line:84% And let me just back up a second, 00:11:08.450 --> 00:11:12.290 align:middle line:84% because going all the way back to the birth of the cool, 00:11:12.290 --> 00:11:15.312 align:middle line:84% in the late '40s and early '50s, you 00:11:15.312 --> 00:11:18.380 align:middle line:84% know that was a nine piece group, right, a nonet. 00:11:18.380 --> 00:11:21.540 align:middle line:84% That brought in the idea of what some people call 00:11:21.540 --> 00:11:27.180 align:middle line:84% the medium-sized big band, 9, 10, maybe eight players. 00:11:27.180 --> 00:11:29.400 align:middle line:84% That showed the possibilities of what 00:11:29.400 --> 00:11:31.860 align:middle line:84% you could do with smaller forces, 00:11:31.860 --> 00:11:34.140 align:middle line:84% but bigger than a quartet or a quintet. 00:11:34.140 --> 00:11:37.423 align:middle line:84% And so Mingus' group sort of following that, and in fact, 00:11:37.423 --> 00:11:39.090 align:middle line:84% there were a lot of those kind of groups 00:11:39.090 --> 00:11:41.580 align:middle line:90% in the 1950s and '60s. 00:11:41.580 --> 00:11:43.530 align:middle line:84% But some of the things that Mingus 00:11:43.530 --> 00:11:47.760 align:middle line:84% did that were particularly interesting were, first of all, 00:11:47.760 --> 00:11:54.255 align:middle line:84% he began to really push this notion of multi-sectional form. 00:11:54.255 --> 00:11:57.040 align:middle line:90% 00:11:57.040 --> 00:11:59.730 align:middle line:84% And so if you think of some of the things that some of you 00:11:59.730 --> 00:12:01.920 align:middle line:84% know, like "Better Git It in Your Soul" 00:12:01.920 --> 00:12:06.340 align:middle line:84% or "Fables of Faubus," those are multi-sectional form pieces. 00:12:06.340 --> 00:12:10.260 align:middle line:84% They don't just stay with a 12-bar blues or a 32-bar form 00:12:10.260 --> 00:12:13.140 align:middle line:84% or something, they go through different types of things. 00:12:13.140 --> 00:12:14.910 align:middle line:90% They have a lot of variety. 00:12:14.910 --> 00:12:17.010 align:middle line:84% They usually also have a lot of variety 00:12:17.010 --> 00:12:19.920 align:middle line:84% in terms of orchestration, in terms of mood, 00:12:19.920 --> 00:12:22.890 align:middle line:84% in terms of the way the improvisation 00:12:22.890 --> 00:12:25.650 align:middle line:90% is being utilized. 00:12:25.650 --> 00:12:31.020 align:middle line:84% And in some cases, what Mingus was doing 00:12:31.020 --> 00:12:35.010 align:middle line:84% was asking people to improvise, not necessarily freely, as 00:12:35.010 --> 00:12:40.380 align:middle line:84% in free jazz, but definitely, without regard to time limit 00:12:40.380 --> 00:12:43.560 align:middle line:84% or even sometimes specific chord changes. 00:12:43.560 --> 00:12:46.980 align:middle line:84% If you go back to a piece called Pithecanthropus Erectus, which 00:12:46.980 --> 00:12:51.300 align:middle line:84% is from 1957, I think that's the right date, that's 00:12:51.300 --> 00:12:52.930 align:middle line:90% a pretty landmark piece. 00:12:52.930 --> 00:12:57.180 align:middle line:84% And after the tune is stated, there's 00:12:57.180 --> 00:13:00.660 align:middle line:84% an open vamp for soloing on two chords back and forth. 00:13:00.660 --> 00:13:02.610 align:middle line:84% And depending on what recording you hear, 00:13:02.610 --> 00:13:05.190 align:middle line:84% that can sometimes go for quite a long time. 00:13:05.190 --> 00:13:07.500 align:middle line:84% The same thing happened with "Fables of Faubus." 00:13:07.500 --> 00:13:09.500 align:middle line:84% "Fables of Faubus," on the couple 00:13:09.500 --> 00:13:13.540 align:middle line:84% of recordings that most people know, is fairly well defined. 00:13:13.540 --> 00:13:16.680 align:middle line:84% It's a long piece, but in other performances, 00:13:16.680 --> 00:13:19.620 align:middle line:84% it's said that he would go a half an hour with that piece 00:13:19.620 --> 00:13:23.700 align:middle line:84% and weave all kinds of other music into it, making it really 00:13:23.700 --> 00:13:25.650 align:middle line:90% a framework for expansion. 00:13:25.650 --> 00:13:28.200 align:middle line:84% Well, all of that was the kind of thing 00:13:28.200 --> 00:13:31.260 align:middle line:84% that later groups would pick up on. 00:13:31.260 --> 00:13:33.810 align:middle line:84% One of his great pieces, it's really 00:13:33.810 --> 00:13:36.600 align:middle line:84% one of his master pieces, I think, 00:13:36.600 --> 00:13:40.860 align:middle line:84% called The Black Saint and The Sinner Lady, 00:13:40.860 --> 00:13:44.295 align:middle line:84% and it was meant to be a ballet score. 00:13:44.295 --> 00:13:48.410 align:middle line:90% 00:13:48.410 --> 00:13:50.360 align:middle line:84% We have this on our syllabus, and I 00:13:50.360 --> 00:13:53.300 align:middle line:84% want to play the second movement of this, 00:13:53.300 --> 00:13:57.230 align:middle line:84% because I think it gives you a good sense of what 00:13:57.230 --> 00:13:58.190 align:middle line:90% Mingus was up to. 00:13:58.190 --> 00:14:02.210 align:middle line:84% It's also a wonderful piece that really bears 00:14:02.210 --> 00:14:03.910 align:middle line:90% listening to in its entirety. 00:14:03.910 --> 00:14:06.550 align:middle line:90% 00:14:06.550 --> 00:14:07.890 align:middle line:90% Let me get this in the-- 00:14:07.890 --> 00:14:18.090 align:middle line:90% 00:14:18.090 --> 00:14:22.700 align:middle line:84% And the liner notes alone are worth looking at. 00:14:22.700 --> 00:14:25.370 align:middle line:84% Mingus wrote a good share of the liner 00:14:25.370 --> 00:14:28.910 align:middle line:84% notes and has a lot of interesting things to say. 00:14:28.910 --> 00:14:30.470 align:middle line:84% If you know anything about Mingus, 00:14:30.470 --> 00:14:35.360 align:middle line:84% you know that his personality spilled over 00:14:35.360 --> 00:14:39.480 align:middle line:84% into the music in a very strong way. 00:14:39.480 --> 00:14:42.650 align:middle line:84% And the whole notion of what psychiatrists 00:14:42.650 --> 00:14:44.090 align:middle line:84% would call the id, the thing that 00:14:44.090 --> 00:14:48.470 align:middle line:84% governs your emotions, that didn't seem to be too governing 00:14:48.470 --> 00:14:49.070 align:middle line:90% with Mingus. 00:14:49.070 --> 00:14:51.560 align:middle line:84% A lot of stuff was very apparent in terms 00:14:51.560 --> 00:14:53.690 align:middle line:84% of what he was doing and talking about, 00:14:53.690 --> 00:14:55.520 align:middle line:84% and these liner notes are unbelievable. 00:14:55.520 --> 00:14:58.910 align:middle line:84% Not the least of which is that the piano player, Jaki Byard, 00:14:58.910 --> 00:15:02.180 align:middle line:84% one of the great piano players, seemed 00:15:02.180 --> 00:15:04.710 align:middle line:84% to have been in tension with Mingus on this session. 00:15:04.710 --> 00:15:09.380 align:middle line:84% And so he says things like, I hope that one day, 00:15:09.380 --> 00:15:12.350 align:middle line:84% you'll figure out how to play what I want you to play. 00:15:12.350 --> 00:15:14.660 align:middle line:84% And I hope someday, you have a band 00:15:14.660 --> 00:15:16.580 align:middle line:84% and you call me as the bass player 00:15:16.580 --> 00:15:18.690 align:middle line:84% and I can be as cooperative with you 00:15:18.690 --> 00:15:21.810 align:middle line:84% as you were with me, which is a real satirical tone. 00:15:21.810 --> 00:15:24.660 align:middle line:84% Now, Jaki was his regular piano player, 00:15:24.660 --> 00:15:27.510 align:middle line:84% and about three months later, they were back on the road 00:15:27.510 --> 00:15:29.550 align:middle line:84% playing both in Europe and in this country, 00:15:29.550 --> 00:15:30.960 align:middle line:90% making fantastic music. 00:15:30.960 --> 00:15:33.720 align:middle line:84% So clearly, whatever the rift was, 00:15:33.720 --> 00:15:35.310 align:middle line:84% whatever the tension got healed up, 00:15:35.310 --> 00:15:38.100 align:middle line:84% but it's very interesting to read this sort of thing 00:15:38.100 --> 00:15:39.090 align:middle line:90% in the liner notes. 00:15:39.090 --> 00:15:42.060 align:middle line:84% In any case, on this Black Saint and the Sinner Lady, 00:15:42.060 --> 00:15:44.970 align:middle line:84% we're going to listen to the second movement, which 00:15:44.970 --> 00:15:47.100 align:middle line:90% is called "Hearts Beat." 00:15:47.100 --> 00:15:49.830 align:middle line:84% And I just want to give you a little sense of what 00:15:49.830 --> 00:15:52.800 align:middle line:84% some of the programmatic indications 00:15:52.800 --> 00:15:54.780 align:middle line:84% are, because this was another thing that Mingus 00:15:54.780 --> 00:15:56.670 align:middle line:90% was doing to stretch. 00:15:56.670 --> 00:15:58.950 align:middle line:84% It wasn't just that it was program music, 00:15:58.950 --> 00:16:06.360 align:middle line:84% but it was that he was giving instructions sometimes 00:16:06.360 --> 00:16:09.300 align:middle line:84% verbally, which you can hear sometimes on recordings, 00:16:09.300 --> 00:16:10.172 align:middle line:90% but also, written. 00:16:10.172 --> 00:16:11.880 align:middle line:84% Now, I just want to take you through this 00:16:11.880 --> 00:16:13.860 align:middle line:84% and tell you some of the things that-- this 00:16:13.860 --> 00:16:19.950 align:middle line:84% is a score excerpt that was discovered by a former student 00:16:19.950 --> 00:16:22.050 align:middle line:84% here, doing a research project down 00:16:22.050 --> 00:16:24.450 align:middle line:84% at the Lincoln Center Public Library, 00:16:24.450 --> 00:16:27.090 align:middle line:90% this manuscript of Mingus. 00:16:27.090 --> 00:16:29.670 align:middle line:84% So at the beginning of this, Jaki Byard 00:16:29.670 --> 00:16:33.210 align:middle line:90% is asked to solo on the piano. 00:16:33.210 --> 00:16:35.460 align:middle line:84% There's a couple of chords, and the only thing it says 00:16:35.460 --> 00:16:44.100 align:middle line:84% is, solo in tempo, Duke, meaning play like Duke Ellington. 00:16:44.100 --> 00:16:45.870 align:middle line:90% It's interesting. 00:16:45.870 --> 00:16:54.150 align:middle line:84% As we move along, he writes above the cut muted, 00:16:54.150 --> 00:16:59.817 align:middle line:84% two trumpets and cut mutes he says, "Felt, not heard." 00:16:59.817 --> 00:17:00.650 align:middle line:90% What does that mean? 00:17:00.650 --> 00:17:02.430 align:middle line:84% If you're a trumpet player, that's 00:17:02.430 --> 00:17:05.280 align:middle line:84% an interesting instruction as how to play. 00:17:05.280 --> 00:17:06.525 align:middle line:90% So very subtle. 00:17:06.525 --> 00:17:09.200 align:middle line:90% 00:17:09.200 --> 00:17:11.569 align:middle line:84% Then there's a repeated riff idea. 00:17:11.569 --> 00:17:15.530 align:middle line:84% At some point, the alto takes the lead. 00:17:15.530 --> 00:17:16.579 align:middle line:90% You'll hear this. 00:17:16.579 --> 00:17:18.740 align:middle line:84% And then at some point, the lead trombone 00:17:18.740 --> 00:17:23.619 align:middle line:84% is instructed to sound like a sax. 00:17:23.619 --> 00:17:24.175 align:middle line:90% Interesting. 00:17:24.175 --> 00:17:26.050 align:middle line:84% How are you going to say that except to write 00:17:26.050 --> 00:17:28.450 align:middle line:84% that, sound like a sax, so this is one of the things 00:17:28.450 --> 00:17:30.205 align:middle line:90% that you wanted. 00:17:30.205 --> 00:17:32.080 align:middle line:84% Then we get over, and this is where it really 00:17:32.080 --> 00:17:38.210 align:middle line:84% gets interesting, it gets very slow, 00:17:38.210 --> 00:17:41.510 align:middle line:84% and he says to the trombone player, who, on this recording, 00:17:41.510 --> 00:17:43.315 align:middle line:84% is not Jimmy Knepper, but evidently, it 00:17:43.315 --> 00:17:44.690 align:middle line:84% was supposed to be Jimmy Knepper, 00:17:44.690 --> 00:17:46.460 align:middle line:90% his long-time trombone player. 00:17:46.460 --> 00:17:47.580 align:middle line:90% This is what it says. 00:17:47.580 --> 00:17:50.795 align:middle line:84% It says, "Rest up, Jimmy, you're going to preach soon." 00:17:50.795 --> 00:17:54.990 align:middle line:90% 00:17:54.990 --> 00:17:57.620 align:middle line:84% Then we get over here, and it says, plunger solo. 00:17:57.620 --> 00:18:00.590 align:middle line:90% And he says, "Preach." 00:18:00.590 --> 00:18:04.700 align:middle line:84% In the piano part, it says, "If you ain't been to church, 00:18:04.700 --> 00:18:05.285 align:middle line:90% don't play." 00:18:05.285 --> 00:18:09.340 align:middle line:90% 00:18:09.340 --> 00:18:11.020 align:middle line:84% Clearly, wants a very specific thing. 00:18:11.020 --> 00:18:14.440 align:middle line:84% Then later on, the piano is instructed, "Blues cryin' 00:18:14.440 --> 00:18:16.540 align:middle line:90% and answer the preaching." 00:18:16.540 --> 00:18:20.350 align:middle line:84% So this is a whole little dramatic monologue that's 00:18:20.350 --> 00:18:22.150 align:middle line:90% being put right into the music. 00:18:22.150 --> 00:18:28.330 align:middle line:84% Now, you just don't find that in hardly anybody else's music 00:18:28.330 --> 00:18:29.420 align:middle line:90% around this time period. 00:18:29.420 --> 00:18:32.920 align:middle line:84% This is the early '60s, but later on, people 00:18:32.920 --> 00:18:35.380 align:middle line:84% are taking this and they're saying, OK, 00:18:35.380 --> 00:18:39.320 align:middle line:84% so we can make this little dramatic scenario, if you will, 00:18:39.320 --> 00:18:40.287 align:middle line:90% out of this. 00:18:40.287 --> 00:18:42.370 align:middle line:84% There's a couple other things happening musically, 00:18:42.370 --> 00:18:43.570 align:middle line:90% so let's listen to this. 00:18:43.570 --> 00:18:44.860 align:middle line:84% You won't be able to hear any of those, 00:18:44.860 --> 00:18:46.693 align:middle line:84% because those are just written instructions, 00:18:46.693 --> 00:18:48.520 align:middle line:84% but hopefully, you'll hear it in the music, 00:18:48.520 --> 00:18:50.103 align:middle line:84% but you'll hear some other things too. 00:18:50.103 --> 00:18:56.028 align:middle line:90% 00:18:56.028 --> 00:18:57.695 align:middle line:84% Kind of things you hear happening there. 00:18:57.695 --> 00:19:03.410 align:middle line:90% 00:19:03.410 --> 00:19:08.000 align:middle line:84% It happened about midway, something I didn't mention. 00:19:08.000 --> 00:19:12.660 align:middle line:90% 00:19:12.660 --> 00:19:13.740 align:middle line:90% Something changed. 00:19:13.740 --> 00:19:17.946 align:middle line:90% 00:19:17.946 --> 00:19:19.020 align:middle line:90% Now, how did it change? 00:19:19.020 --> 00:19:19.987 align:middle line:90% AUDIENCE: Faster 00:19:19.987 --> 00:19:20.820 align:middle line:90% MARK HARVEY: Faster. 00:19:20.820 --> 00:19:21.903 align:middle line:90% And how did it get faster? 00:19:21.903 --> 00:19:26.240 align:middle line:90% 00:19:26.240 --> 00:19:27.035 align:middle line:90% Like right away? 00:19:27.035 --> 00:19:29.130 align:middle line:84% AUDIENCE: Oh, no, it slowly increased faster. 00:19:29.130 --> 00:19:30.380 align:middle line:90% MARK HARVEY: Slowly increased. 00:19:30.380 --> 00:19:31.250 align:middle line:90% The Cello Rondo. 00:19:31.250 --> 00:19:33.042 align:middle line:84% I think we talked about this the other day. 00:19:33.042 --> 00:19:35.810 align:middle line:84% There was a very small example of that in the Ellington 00:19:35.810 --> 00:19:36.770 align:middle line:90% piece, "Harlem." 00:19:36.770 --> 00:19:40.430 align:middle line:84% But this is a pretty dramatic slow build, 00:19:40.430 --> 00:19:41.930 align:middle line:84% and I know some of you in the FJE 00:19:41.930 --> 00:19:43.910 align:middle line:84% have done this when you've done a Mingus piece because he 00:19:43.910 --> 00:19:44.690 align:middle line:90% used that a lot. 00:19:44.690 --> 00:19:48.890 align:middle line:84% F Cello Rondo and D Cello Rondo, gradually getting faster, 00:19:48.890 --> 00:19:50.330 align:middle line:90% gradually getting slower. 00:19:50.330 --> 00:19:53.180 align:middle line:84% And this is only maybe 2.5 minutes of music 00:19:53.180 --> 00:19:54.030 align:middle line:90% that I just played. 00:19:54.030 --> 00:19:57.860 align:middle line:84% And so you already had that plus you 00:19:57.860 --> 00:20:01.140 align:middle line:84% had it start off at a medium tempo, and then it slowed down. 00:20:01.140 --> 00:20:03.740 align:middle line:84% So in other words, he's dealing with a lot of variety 00:20:03.740 --> 00:20:07.130 align:middle line:84% in terms of feel and rhythmic concept just 00:20:07.130 --> 00:20:09.110 align:middle line:84% within two or three minutes of the piece. 00:20:09.110 --> 00:20:10.580 align:middle line:90% Anything else that you noticed? 00:20:10.580 --> 00:20:16.712 align:middle line:90% 00:20:16.712 --> 00:20:21.200 align:middle line:84% AUDIENCE: It wasn't necessarily dominated by a block harmony, 00:20:21.200 --> 00:20:22.460 align:middle line:90% MARK HARVEY: Right. 00:20:22.460 --> 00:20:24.773 align:middle line:90% AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]. 00:20:24.773 --> 00:20:25.565 align:middle line:90% MARK HARVEY: Right. 00:20:25.565 --> 00:20:26.065 align:middle line:90% Right. 00:20:26.065 --> 00:20:29.360 align:middle line:84% There was a lot of contra puzzle type stuff, polyphony, 00:20:29.360 --> 00:20:30.720 align:middle line:90% which we've talked about. 00:20:30.720 --> 00:20:32.720 align:middle line:84% And in this particular piece, there's 00:20:32.720 --> 00:20:34.970 align:middle line:84% at least sometimes at least three things going on, 00:20:34.970 --> 00:20:38.090 align:middle line:84% plus you add the soloists, that may be a fourth line, 00:20:38.090 --> 00:20:40.310 align:middle line:90% it gets a very rich texture. 00:20:40.310 --> 00:20:41.450 align:middle line:90% This is an 11-piece band. 00:20:41.450 --> 00:20:44.120 align:middle line:84% This is one of the ways you can get a rich sound out 00:20:44.120 --> 00:20:47.240 align:middle line:84% of a smaller number of players if you know what you're doing. 00:20:47.240 --> 00:20:51.670 align:middle line:84% And in fact, that strange thing, that 00:20:51.670 --> 00:20:54.170 align:middle line:84% was one of the few places where there was some kind of block 00:20:54.170 --> 00:20:57.170 align:middle line:84% harmony and a very odd orchestration, 00:20:57.170 --> 00:21:00.050 align:middle line:84% but being since he had a tuba on hand, 00:21:00.050 --> 00:21:04.010 align:middle line:84% having tuba and string bass go this way and then 00:21:04.010 --> 00:21:08.240 align:middle line:84% the trombone and the three saxes doing the afterbeat, 00:21:08.240 --> 00:21:10.340 align:middle line:90% it's a very interesting sound. 00:21:10.340 --> 00:21:13.520 align:middle line:84% And the kind of thing you might expect from somebody 00:21:13.520 --> 00:21:14.758 align:middle line:90% like Prokofiev, let's say. 00:21:14.758 --> 00:21:16.550 align:middle line:84% If you're thinking classical orchestration, 00:21:16.550 --> 00:21:17.883 align:middle line:90% you think of Peter and the Wolf. 00:21:17.883 --> 00:21:20.150 align:middle line:84% There's some of that idea going on when 00:21:20.150 --> 00:21:23.100 align:middle line:84% the wolf comes on the stage, just a quick reference that 00:21:23.100 --> 00:21:24.270 align:middle line:90% came to mind. 00:21:24.270 --> 00:21:27.420 align:middle line:84% But you're hearing things, in other words, that 00:21:27.420 --> 00:21:30.990 align:middle line:84% go well beyond what most people think about as jazz, 00:21:30.990 --> 00:21:33.750 align:middle line:84% the conventional sense of jazz, which is why Ellington didn't 00:21:33.750 --> 00:21:36.780 align:middle line:84% like to use that word, because he felt it was too limiting. 00:21:36.780 --> 00:21:38.550 align:middle line:84% Well, the other thing I was looking for 00:21:38.550 --> 00:21:40.830 align:middle line:90% was a certain kind of intensity. 00:21:40.830 --> 00:21:42.420 align:middle line:84% There's an intensity here, there's 00:21:42.420 --> 00:21:44.880 align:middle line:84% an emotional quality in every single person 00:21:44.880 --> 00:21:49.110 align:middle line:84% that's playing that's more than what can be put on the page. 00:21:49.110 --> 00:21:51.343 align:middle line:84% You don't get that by writing a bunch of notes. 00:21:51.343 --> 00:21:53.260 align:middle line:84% You can write the greatest notes in the world. 00:21:53.260 --> 00:21:54.010 align:middle line:90% It doesn't matter. 00:21:54.010 --> 00:21:56.550 align:middle line:84% If the players are basically, let's just 00:21:56.550 --> 00:21:58.680 align:middle line:90% play that, that's nice, no. 00:21:58.680 --> 00:22:03.750 align:middle line:84% And Mingus was very much about having the players contribute 00:22:03.750 --> 00:22:06.630 align:middle line:90% their own particular approach. 00:22:06.630 --> 00:22:09.510 align:middle line:84% There was a story about Jackie McLean, one 00:22:09.510 --> 00:22:14.430 align:middle line:84% of the great alto players, who had played 00:22:14.430 --> 00:22:17.400 align:middle line:90% wonderfully in the Mingus band. 00:22:17.400 --> 00:22:20.640 align:middle line:84% And a new person came in to, essentially, 00:22:20.640 --> 00:22:25.080 align:middle line:84% play his part, his chair, and it was not doing very well. 00:22:25.080 --> 00:22:27.390 align:middle line:84% Well, you're following Jackie McLean, 00:22:27.390 --> 00:22:28.650 align:middle line:90% so you would be intimidated. 00:22:28.650 --> 00:22:30.150 align:middle line:90% Anybody would be. 00:22:30.150 --> 00:22:33.150 align:middle line:84% But Mingus finally had to tell this player, 00:22:33.150 --> 00:22:36.090 align:middle line:90% he said, don't play the notes. 00:22:36.090 --> 00:22:39.690 align:middle line:84% Your a man, play your mind, which is 00:22:39.690 --> 00:22:40.930 align:middle line:90% an interesting way to phrase. 00:22:40.930 --> 00:22:43.410 align:middle line:90% It in other words, be yourself. 00:22:43.410 --> 00:22:47.700 align:middle line:84% What I want you to do is not play necessarily what 00:22:47.700 --> 00:22:49.440 align:middle line:84% I'm telling you, I want you to play 00:22:49.440 --> 00:22:53.370 align:middle line:84% who you are in my band, which is a whole different kind of level 00:22:53.370 --> 00:22:56.140 align:middle line:90% of emotional intensity. 00:22:56.140 --> 00:22:57.570 align:middle line:84% This is the kind of thing we talk 00:22:57.570 --> 00:23:01.080 align:middle line:84% about when we get into this land of the postmodern approach. 00:23:01.080 --> 00:23:04.890 align:middle line:84% This is not necessarily what was going on in the Thad Jones-Mel 00:23:04.890 --> 00:23:05.730 align:middle line:90% Lewis Band. 00:23:05.730 --> 00:23:09.420 align:middle line:84% Very often, that's what came out because those were also 00:23:09.420 --> 00:23:12.990 align:middle line:84% great musicians and they knew how to play within that style 00:23:12.990 --> 00:23:15.210 align:middle line:84% and to give that same level of performance, 00:23:15.210 --> 00:23:18.460 align:middle line:84% but it's just a different means of how you get to that point. 00:23:18.460 --> 00:23:23.175 align:middle line:84% And usually, the notes were very important in that band 00:23:23.175 --> 00:23:26.280 align:middle line:84% and maybe more so than they would be in something 00:23:26.280 --> 00:23:28.800 align:middle line:90% like the Mingus band. 00:23:28.800 --> 00:23:32.160 align:middle line:90% Let me move along now. 00:23:32.160 --> 00:23:34.800 align:middle line:84% One of the great influences on all of this 00:23:34.800 --> 00:23:37.170 align:middle line:84% was Sun Ra, and Sun Ra-- how many people 00:23:37.170 --> 00:23:38.940 align:middle line:90% know who Sun Ra was? 00:23:38.940 --> 00:23:40.740 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:23:40.740 --> 00:23:43.005 align:middle line:84% So for those who don't, even for those who are here, 00:23:43.005 --> 00:23:44.880 align:middle line:84% it's always good to see a picture of the man. 00:23:44.880 --> 00:23:50.160 align:middle line:84% Here's the man, Sun Ra, who had a very interesting 00:23:50.160 --> 00:23:54.780 align:middle line:84% personal trajectory, personal understanding of who 00:23:54.780 --> 00:23:59.610 align:middle line:84% he was, literally situated in the universe, thinking, 00:23:59.610 --> 00:24:02.640 align:middle line:84% believing that he had somehow come 00:24:02.640 --> 00:24:08.070 align:middle line:84% both from the Egyptian pharaohs and from the planet Saturn. 00:24:08.070 --> 00:24:11.310 align:middle line:84% How this works out, you'd have to ask him, 00:24:11.310 --> 00:24:13.470 align:middle line:84% but he shuffled off the astral plane, 00:24:13.470 --> 00:24:15.180 align:middle line:84% so it's a little difficult. But there 00:24:15.180 --> 00:24:21.360 align:middle line:84% are some books on Sun Ra, some video interviews he gave. 00:24:21.360 --> 00:24:24.000 align:middle line:90% A wonderful musician. 00:24:24.000 --> 00:24:27.330 align:middle line:84% One of the most, maybe the most far-reaching, 00:24:27.330 --> 00:24:31.320 align:middle line:84% the strangest in the best possible way, 00:24:31.320 --> 00:24:33.600 align:middle line:84% jazz musician that's ever come along. 00:24:33.600 --> 00:24:35.010 align:middle line:90% Really, just phenomenal. 00:24:35.010 --> 00:24:37.920 align:middle line:84% His band, going back to the 1950s, 00:24:37.920 --> 00:24:42.090 align:middle line:84% nobody is even sure exactly when he put his band together, 00:24:42.090 --> 00:24:43.230 align:middle line:90% but he could play. 00:24:43.230 --> 00:24:45.450 align:middle line:84% He had played with Fletcher Henderson, 00:24:45.450 --> 00:24:48.480 align:middle line:84% and his band could play Fletcher Henderson or Duke 00:24:48.480 --> 00:24:53.100 align:middle line:84% Ellington just spot on, clean and clear as a bell, and then 00:24:53.100 --> 00:24:56.070 align:middle line:84% the next minute, literally, go into outer space 00:24:56.070 --> 00:24:59.940 align:middle line:84% or his conception of outer space interplanetary music. 00:24:59.940 --> 00:25:03.210 align:middle line:84% He called his band The Arkestra, not Orchestra, 00:25:03.210 --> 00:25:07.110 align:middle line:84% but A-R-K, Arkestra, with various modifiers, 00:25:07.110 --> 00:25:11.100 align:middle line:84% like intergalactic Arkestra, interplanetary 00:25:11.100 --> 00:25:14.040 align:middle line:84% whatever, certain kinds of phrases 00:25:14.040 --> 00:25:16.500 align:middle line:90% to make a descriptive statement. 00:25:16.500 --> 00:25:18.540 align:middle line:84% But the sound is what's so interesting, 00:25:18.540 --> 00:25:21.390 align:middle line:84% and it drew on Free Jazz, but it also 00:25:21.390 --> 00:25:26.102 align:middle line:84% had things like the Mingus approach of instructions that 00:25:26.102 --> 00:25:27.810 align:middle line:84% would give a certain emotional intensity, 00:25:27.810 --> 00:25:29.550 align:middle line:84% and then they also played for music. 00:25:29.550 --> 00:25:35.190 align:middle line:84% So it just depended on what you had as to what came across. 00:25:35.190 --> 00:25:38.940 align:middle line:84% I'm going to play some excerpts here from this album 00:25:38.940 --> 00:25:40.740 align:middle line:84% that I've had the little print out. 00:25:40.740 --> 00:25:43.020 align:middle line:90% It's called Heliocentric Worlds. 00:25:43.020 --> 00:25:45.090 align:middle line:90% We have this in the library. 00:25:45.090 --> 00:25:48.060 align:middle line:84% It's on the syllabus, and I'm going 00:25:48.060 --> 00:25:51.870 align:middle line:84% to play just a couple of things to give a little sense of this. 00:25:51.870 --> 00:26:01.200 align:middle line:90% 00:26:01.200 --> 00:26:06.790 align:middle line:84% And the first is a little bit of a piece called "Nebulae," 00:26:06.790 --> 00:26:08.460 align:middle line:84% and I'm going to fade that down and go 00:26:08.460 --> 00:26:09.990 align:middle line:90% into "Dancing in the Sun." 00:26:09.990 --> 00:26:17.910 align:middle line:90% 00:26:17.910 --> 00:26:21.420 align:middle line:84% Some pretty wild stuff going on there, 00:26:21.420 --> 00:26:24.150 align:middle line:84% in some ways, a little wilder than Mingus. 00:26:24.150 --> 00:26:27.420 align:middle line:84% And this was recorded in the early '60s. 00:26:27.420 --> 00:26:31.380 align:middle line:84% Sun Ra was basically paralleling Mingus in terms of his career, 00:26:31.380 --> 00:26:37.290 align:middle line:84% but always more of a free thinker, I would say. 00:26:37.290 --> 00:26:39.930 align:middle line:84% Mingus really came out of the jazz tradition 00:26:39.930 --> 00:26:41.400 align:middle line:90% and helped to expand it. 00:26:41.400 --> 00:26:45.660 align:middle line:84% Sun Ra really did come in from an interplanetary direction, 00:26:45.660 --> 00:26:49.140 align:middle line:84% even though he understood the tradition and could play it, 00:26:49.140 --> 00:26:54.250 align:middle line:84% but his aesthetic was just out there from the get go. 00:26:54.250 --> 00:26:59.017 align:middle line:84% Now, it's interesting in Sun Ra's whole conception, 00:26:59.017 --> 00:27:00.600 align:middle line:84% I've just given you a little fragment, 00:27:00.600 --> 00:27:02.850 align:middle line:84% because you can't really pick one piece 00:27:02.850 --> 00:27:04.140 align:middle line:90% as representative of Sun Ra. 00:27:04.140 --> 00:27:07.420 align:middle line:84% He was so varied in the kind of work that he'd done. 00:27:07.420 --> 00:27:09.480 align:middle line:84% But if you will listen to this entire album 00:27:09.480 --> 00:27:11.370 align:middle line:84% that we have in the library, in our syllabus, 00:27:11.370 --> 00:27:13.620 align:middle line:84% it takes you through about eight or nine pieces, 00:27:13.620 --> 00:27:15.640 align:middle line:84% they're all different one from another. 00:27:15.640 --> 00:27:18.760 align:middle line:84% And if you were to listen to another Sun Ra album, 00:27:18.760 --> 00:27:21.670 align:middle line:84% that would possibly be different from what this one was. 00:27:21.670 --> 00:27:25.060 align:middle line:90% Just a tremendous variety. 00:27:25.060 --> 00:27:26.920 align:middle line:84% When he would perform, he would often 00:27:26.920 --> 00:27:30.130 align:middle line:90% perform three hours at a go. 00:27:30.130 --> 00:27:33.310 align:middle line:84% I saw him one time in a club in Boston, 00:27:33.310 --> 00:27:35.433 align:middle line:84% where they were supposed to have a second show, 00:27:35.433 --> 00:27:36.850 align:middle line:84% and that just went out the window. 00:27:36.850 --> 00:27:38.110 align:middle line:90% He just started in. 00:27:38.110 --> 00:27:41.470 align:middle line:84% He would often have three or four people 00:27:41.470 --> 00:27:45.410 align:middle line:84% who sang and sometimes did processions around the room. 00:27:45.410 --> 00:27:47.980 align:middle line:84% And by the time you got to the end of three hours, 00:27:47.980 --> 00:27:50.470 align:middle line:84% you didn't know that much time had elapsed. 00:27:50.470 --> 00:27:53.440 align:middle line:84% You had really been taken on a different kind 00:27:53.440 --> 00:27:56.770 align:middle line:84% of a time-space continuum adventure. 00:27:56.770 --> 00:27:58.720 align:middle line:84% And sometimes in the pieces, you'll 00:27:58.720 --> 00:28:00.650 align:middle line:84% hear a kind of a chanting going on. 00:28:00.650 --> 00:28:02.650 align:middle line:90% It's a very unique world. 00:28:02.650 --> 00:28:05.770 align:middle line:84% I recommend that you get in touch with Sun Ra as a way 00:28:05.770 --> 00:28:09.070 align:middle line:84% to free up your mind and your entire being 00:28:09.070 --> 00:28:12.400 align:middle line:84% and put it on the interplanetary level. 00:28:12.400 --> 00:28:14.650 align:middle line:84% I can't go into much more here, except to say 00:28:14.650 --> 00:28:18.040 align:middle line:84% that many of the musicians who have come after this 00:28:18.040 --> 00:28:21.340 align:middle line:84% and who have been interested in the post modern jazz orchestra 00:28:21.340 --> 00:28:23.830 align:middle line:84% look to Sun Ra in some way or another 00:28:23.830 --> 00:28:26.260 align:middle line:84% as one of the founding principles, 00:28:26.260 --> 00:28:27.730 align:middle line:90% because it's so rich. 00:28:27.730 --> 00:28:35.410 align:middle line:84% And I should say here that the aspect of improvisation 00:28:35.410 --> 00:28:39.430 align:middle line:84% is absolutely crucial, and you get that in Mingus, 00:28:39.430 --> 00:28:42.400 align:middle line:84% but you get it even more in Sun Ra, 00:28:42.400 --> 00:28:46.480 align:middle line:84% meaning sometimes, one person with a rhythm section, a fairly 00:28:46.480 --> 00:28:49.360 align:middle line:84% conventional setup, sometimes collectively improvising, 00:28:49.360 --> 00:28:52.330 align:middle line:84% sometimes a small group of people improvising. 00:28:52.330 --> 00:28:55.720 align:middle line:84% In other words, paying attention to and honoring 00:28:55.720 --> 00:28:57.880 align:middle line:84% that aspect of the jazz tradition, 00:28:57.880 --> 00:29:02.500 align:middle line:84% but making sure that got put into the large-scale framework 00:29:02.500 --> 00:29:06.610 align:middle line:84% of a larger group and not just as a solo that 00:29:06.610 --> 00:29:07.840 align:middle line:90% would occur here and there. 00:29:07.840 --> 00:29:09.910 align:middle line:84% That's a pretty big difference from the way 00:29:09.910 --> 00:29:12.170 align:middle line:90% many things had gone on. 00:29:12.170 --> 00:29:14.800 align:middle line:84% I want to now, give you an example 00:29:14.800 --> 00:29:18.670 align:middle line:84% from a friend of mine, a band I played 00:29:18.670 --> 00:29:20.360 align:middle line:90% in quite a few years ago. 00:29:20.360 --> 00:29:23.470 align:middle line:84% This is a band called The Year of the Ear, 00:29:23.470 --> 00:29:26.530 align:middle line:84% and unfortunately, the music is out of print. 00:29:26.530 --> 00:29:32.220 align:middle line:84% It hasn't been reissued on CD, but was some pretty interesting 00:29:32.220 --> 00:29:33.150 align:middle line:90% stuff. 00:29:33.150 --> 00:29:41.790 align:middle line:84% Basically, a jazz-funk crossover, and all I have left 00:29:41.790 --> 00:29:42.750 align:middle line:90% is my trumpet part. 00:29:42.750 --> 00:29:45.510 align:middle line:84% But as I'm passing this around, let 00:29:45.510 --> 00:29:49.770 align:middle line:84% me ask you what the first thing you notice about this. 00:29:49.770 --> 00:29:54.830 align:middle line:84% What's the first thing you notice about this manuscript? 00:29:54.830 --> 00:29:56.508 align:middle line:90% AUDIENCE: Nothing on bar lines. 00:29:56.508 --> 00:29:58.050 align:middle line:84% MARK HARVEY: So there's no bar lines. 00:29:58.050 --> 00:29:58.860 align:middle line:90% Right. 00:29:58.860 --> 00:30:05.520 align:middle line:84% So this is a breakthrough that, again, classical composers 00:30:05.520 --> 00:30:07.950 align:middle line:84% in the mid part of the 20th century 00:30:07.950 --> 00:30:10.020 align:middle line:84% made, getting away from bar lines, 00:30:10.020 --> 00:30:12.240 align:middle line:84% but it took jazz musicians a while to do that. 00:30:12.240 --> 00:30:14.310 align:middle line:90% Mingus was stretching for that. 00:30:14.310 --> 00:30:15.830 align:middle line:90% Sun Ra actually did that. 00:30:15.830 --> 00:30:17.430 align:middle line:84% I've never seen any of his scores, 00:30:17.430 --> 00:30:21.180 align:middle line:84% but he definitely accomplished that. 00:30:21.180 --> 00:30:22.560 align:middle line:90% This was a band from the '70s. 00:30:22.560 --> 00:30:24.900 align:middle line:84% By the time we get to the bands like this one, 00:30:24.900 --> 00:30:27.360 align:middle line:84% at least, and a few others, people really 00:30:27.360 --> 00:30:28.590 align:middle line:90% didn't see a need for that. 00:30:28.590 --> 00:30:30.240 align:middle line:84% Now, the question is, what do you do? 00:30:30.240 --> 00:30:32.070 align:middle line:84% How do you cue these sections in? 00:30:32.070 --> 00:30:37.020 align:middle line:84% Well, you either have the conductor cue each note 00:30:37.020 --> 00:30:41.790 align:middle line:84% or you have to have subsets be associate conductors. 00:30:41.790 --> 00:30:44.070 align:middle line:84% The other night with the FJE, I premiered a new piece. 00:30:44.070 --> 00:30:45.570 align:middle line:84% A couple of you may have been there. 00:30:45.570 --> 00:30:46.830 align:middle line:90% I know some of you were. 00:30:46.830 --> 00:30:48.330 align:middle line:84% A couple others may have been there. 00:30:48.330 --> 00:30:52.650 align:middle line:84% And I asked the trombone section to basically self-cue 00:30:52.650 --> 00:30:53.460 align:middle line:90% themselves. 00:30:53.460 --> 00:30:56.040 align:middle line:84% The lead trombone player was the associate conductor 00:30:56.040 --> 00:30:56.680 align:middle line:90% in this case. 00:30:56.680 --> 00:30:59.740 align:middle line:84% Well, that's a principle that's been around for quite a while, 00:30:59.740 --> 00:31:01.720 align:middle line:84% and we were able to use it the other night, 00:31:01.720 --> 00:31:05.560 align:middle line:84% and so it makes for a nice elasticity. 00:31:05.560 --> 00:31:08.440 align:middle line:84% It also means that every time you play a piece, 00:31:08.440 --> 00:31:10.130 align:middle line:84% it's going to be slightly different. 00:31:10.130 --> 00:31:11.860 align:middle line:84% And this goes back to Charles Ives, 00:31:11.860 --> 00:31:15.610 align:middle line:84% for instance, who had a great belief in flexibility of forms 00:31:15.610 --> 00:31:18.760 align:middle line:84% and didn't necessarily need to have things come out 00:31:18.760 --> 00:31:21.190 align:middle line:90% the same way every single time. 00:31:21.190 --> 00:31:23.300 align:middle line:84% You'll also notice that letter B, 00:31:23.300 --> 00:31:27.100 align:middle line:84% I don't remember when we were asked to sing this, 00:31:27.100 --> 00:31:29.380 align:middle line:84% and I can't believe we did, and I would never 00:31:29.380 --> 00:31:30.470 align:middle line:90% want to do it again. 00:31:30.470 --> 00:31:33.010 align:middle line:84% But if you look at those intervals toward the end, 00:31:33.010 --> 00:31:37.540 align:middle line:84% there's an interval from a low E flat up to a high D. Well, 00:31:37.540 --> 00:31:39.040 align:middle line:90% good luck. 00:31:39.040 --> 00:31:42.220 align:middle line:84% We must have had that together, we probably even practiced it, 00:31:42.220 --> 00:31:45.940 align:middle line:84% but as I say, I would not ever inflict this on anybody else, 00:31:45.940 --> 00:31:48.130 align:middle line:90% but we did play it. 00:31:48.130 --> 00:31:52.270 align:middle line:84% And I'm just going to play you a little bit of this, 00:31:52.270 --> 00:31:54.490 align:middle line:84% and I'll point out just a couple of things. 00:31:54.490 --> 00:31:58.090 align:middle line:84% There were solos around that you'll see at A, 00:31:58.090 --> 00:32:00.850 align:middle line:84% there's a couple of people are going to do some improvisation, 00:32:00.850 --> 00:32:04.870 align:middle line:84% and then there's more of a funk feeling 00:32:04.870 --> 00:32:08.140 align:middle line:84% that comes in, although we don't have that notated on this part. 00:32:08.140 --> 00:32:11.230 align:middle line:84% And then these other sections, they're put in, 00:32:11.230 --> 00:32:14.890 align:middle line:84% they're sort of placed in as the composer wants 00:32:14.890 --> 00:32:18.700 align:middle line:84% to do that, who's also the guitar player in this case. 00:32:18.700 --> 00:32:21.670 align:middle line:84% And just a little thing, at letter E, 00:32:21.670 --> 00:32:23.890 align:middle line:84% I don't know that we'll get that far, 00:32:23.890 --> 00:32:27.970 align:middle line:84% letter E is this line that comes out 00:32:27.970 --> 00:32:34.630 align:middle line:90% of nowhere is it layered in. 00:32:34.630 --> 00:32:37.540 align:middle line:90% [MUSIC] 00:32:37.540 --> 00:32:49.200 align:middle line:90% 00:32:49.200 --> 00:32:50.520 align:middle line:90% It's a little slower. 00:32:50.520 --> 00:32:52.020 align:middle line:84% I must have been in the band playing 00:32:52.020 --> 00:32:54.840 align:middle line:84% this piece for about two years before somebody pointed out-- 00:32:54.840 --> 00:33:00.020 align:middle line:84% [MUSIC - JUAN TIZOL AND DUKE ELLINGTON, "CARAVAN"] 00:33:00.020 --> 00:33:01.930 align:middle line:90% Right? 00:33:01.930 --> 00:33:04.070 align:middle line:90% Talk about disguising something. 00:33:04.070 --> 00:33:09.970 align:middle line:84% Once we heard that, it became a totally different phenomena 00:33:09.970 --> 00:33:13.460 align:middle line:90% to play that. 00:33:13.460 --> 00:33:15.550 align:middle line:84% So let me play you just a little bit of this 00:33:15.550 --> 00:33:19.285 align:middle line:84% to give you a little sense of how this goes. 00:33:19.285 --> 00:33:25.660 align:middle line:90% 00:33:25.660 --> 00:33:28.652 align:middle line:84% So you can hear how that works, right? 00:33:28.652 --> 00:33:31.110 align:middle line:84% There's a lot more to this piece that goes on a lot longer. 00:33:31.110 --> 00:33:33.600 align:middle line:84% A couple of those themes recur, that little bop, bop, 00:33:33.600 --> 00:33:36.160 align:middle line:84% diddly-dat, diddly-dat, that occurs two or three times. 00:33:36.160 --> 00:33:38.880 align:middle line:84% It's kind of a little unifying aspect, 00:33:38.880 --> 00:33:44.670 align:middle line:84% but it's basically put together in a flexible way. 00:33:44.670 --> 00:33:48.120 align:middle line:84% The things always happen in the order that they're given, 00:33:48.120 --> 00:33:50.160 align:middle line:84% but within each performance, there 00:33:50.160 --> 00:33:52.650 align:middle line:84% is flexibility as to how this will work. 00:33:52.650 --> 00:33:54.720 align:middle line:84% And this is, again, part of the nature 00:33:54.720 --> 00:34:00.390 align:middle line:90% of these kinds of occurrences. 00:34:00.390 --> 00:34:03.210 align:middle line:84% Let me move along and just hand out-- 00:34:03.210 --> 00:34:05.520 align:middle line:84% how many people were at the concert the other night 00:34:05.520 --> 00:34:08.310 align:middle line:90% in addition to the players? 00:34:08.310 --> 00:34:13.218 align:middle line:84% This is the first page of what was played. 00:34:13.218 --> 00:34:14.760 align:middle line:84% I think there's enough for everybody. 00:34:14.760 --> 00:34:19.860 align:middle line:84% I just want to point out a couple of things here. 00:34:19.860 --> 00:34:22.730 align:middle line:84% This is a blend of conceptual music 00:34:22.730 --> 00:34:25.940 align:middle line:84% and a few notes that are actually written down. 00:34:25.940 --> 00:34:27.770 align:middle line:84% Sometimes all you would get would 00:34:27.770 --> 00:34:29.690 align:middle line:84% be more of the conceptual aspect, 00:34:29.690 --> 00:34:33.500 align:middle line:84% but this one actually has some notes. 00:34:33.500 --> 00:34:37.622 align:middle line:84% And so the notion is spacings, and there's 00:34:37.622 --> 00:34:39.830 align:middle line:84% a couple of different meanings to it, but one of them 00:34:39.830 --> 00:34:43.050 align:middle line:84% is that I've given some written notes. 00:34:43.050 --> 00:34:45.860 align:middle line:84% And if you look at this, it says the duration of the notes, 00:34:45.860 --> 00:34:48.260 align:middle line:84% the performer determines that, as well as 00:34:48.260 --> 00:34:50.750 align:middle line:84% if there's crescendos or decrescendos. 00:34:50.750 --> 00:34:54.620 align:middle line:84% So depending on the sensitivity of the performers, 00:34:54.620 --> 00:34:58.070 align:middle line:84% right away, you have possibility of some very interesting 00:34:58.070 --> 00:34:59.540 align:middle line:90% musical interaction. 00:34:59.540 --> 00:35:01.670 align:middle line:84% As it turned out, the performance 00:35:01.670 --> 00:35:03.170 align:middle line:84% was at a very high level, I thought. 00:35:03.170 --> 00:35:06.350 align:middle line:84% I was very impressed by what the musicians did and the Festival 00:35:06.350 --> 00:35:07.670 align:middle line:90% Jazz Ensemble. 00:35:07.670 --> 00:35:09.230 align:middle line:90% It says, three times. 00:35:09.230 --> 00:35:10.940 align:middle line:90% First time, play it as is. 00:35:10.940 --> 00:35:12.300 align:middle line:90% Play those notes. 00:35:12.300 --> 00:35:14.180 align:middle line:84% The second time, in between, where 00:35:14.180 --> 00:35:16.890 align:middle line:84% there's a vertical, sort of a diagonal line, 00:35:16.890 --> 00:35:19.230 align:middle line:84% the player is asked to interpolate 00:35:19.230 --> 00:35:23.070 align:middle line:84% some little improvisational aspect between those phrases, 00:35:23.070 --> 00:35:26.620 align:middle line:84% and then the third time, to use the seven pairs of notes-- 00:35:26.620 --> 00:35:29.220 align:middle line:84% so now, we've got a little different concept going on-- 00:35:29.220 --> 00:35:31.440 align:middle line:90% any order you want and stretch. 00:35:31.440 --> 00:35:33.750 align:middle line:84% In other words, more improvisation to vary 00:35:33.750 --> 00:35:36.600 align:middle line:84% the pitches, vary the rhythmic aspect. 00:35:36.600 --> 00:35:40.530 align:middle line:90% This is pretty open-ended stuff. 00:35:40.530 --> 00:35:42.300 align:middle line:84% It's pretty flexible stuff, but you 00:35:42.300 --> 00:35:45.000 align:middle line:84% have to be very sensitive to do this. 00:35:45.000 --> 00:35:50.170 align:middle line:84% Because I have encountered people who think, 00:35:50.170 --> 00:35:53.275 align:middle line:84% oh free improvisation, that's easy to do. 00:35:53.275 --> 00:35:54.900 align:middle line:84% And they'll look at something like this 00:35:54.900 --> 00:35:56.910 align:middle line:84% and immediately, they all start playing fast 00:35:56.910 --> 00:35:58.740 align:middle line:84% or they all start doing something 00:35:58.740 --> 00:36:02.100 align:middle line:84% that they've learned in their workbook or whatever it was, 00:36:02.100 --> 00:36:04.830 align:middle line:84% their fake book, and it sounds like mush. 00:36:04.830 --> 00:36:06.945 align:middle line:84% Whereas, if you're really paying attention 00:36:06.945 --> 00:36:08.820 align:middle line:84% and if you're really listening, and if you're 00:36:08.820 --> 00:36:11.190 align:middle line:84% really open to what possibilities are, 00:36:11.190 --> 00:36:14.340 align:middle line:84% then you can get some actual, very interesting music. 00:36:14.340 --> 00:36:18.810 align:middle line:84% And yet the beginning framework here is really not that much. 00:36:18.810 --> 00:36:22.650 align:middle line:84% But it's asking the musicians, it's asking the performers 00:36:22.650 --> 00:36:23.700 align:middle line:90% to add in. 00:36:23.700 --> 00:36:25.650 align:middle line:84% It's becoming a collaborative idea, 00:36:25.650 --> 00:36:28.410 align:middle line:84% and that's a really important aspect that 00:36:28.410 --> 00:36:32.160 align:middle line:84% is inherent in a lot of these other musicians, 00:36:32.160 --> 00:36:34.765 align:middle line:84% but it's something that I particularly am interested in. 00:36:34.765 --> 00:36:37.140 align:middle line:84% And it's something that Walter Thompson is interested in, 00:36:37.140 --> 00:36:42.510 align:middle line:84% and you'll hear more about that when he comes along. 00:36:42.510 --> 00:36:46.820 align:middle line:84% Now, what I'd like to do for the final bit of time 00:36:46.820 --> 00:36:51.920 align:middle line:84% here is to talk a little bit about and play a piece of mine 00:36:51.920 --> 00:36:54.650 align:middle line:84% that we should be able to have enough to-- 00:36:54.650 --> 00:36:55.400 align:middle line:90% what have we got-- 00:36:55.400 --> 00:36:56.750 align:middle line:90% 1, 2, 3, 4. 00:36:56.750 --> 00:37:00.530 align:middle line:84% We got almost enough for an individual score for everybody. 00:37:00.530 --> 00:37:03.620 align:middle line:84% Let's try that out and see what happens. 00:37:03.620 --> 00:37:07.710 align:middle line:84% This is a piece of mine that I, in fact, wrote for the FJE 00:37:07.710 --> 00:37:12.870 align:middle line:84% a number of years ago, and it's got a lot of these principles 00:37:12.870 --> 00:37:13.370 align:middle line:90% in it. 00:37:13.370 --> 00:37:14.953 align:middle line:84% I don't want to say too much because I 00:37:14.953 --> 00:37:16.670 align:middle line:84% do want to play the piece, but I'll just 00:37:16.670 --> 00:37:18.540 align:middle line:90% say a little bit about it. 00:37:18.540 --> 00:37:22.130 align:middle line:84% So when you get this, if you can-- 00:37:22.130 --> 00:37:26.180 align:middle line:84% it's called flex and it gets into this notion 00:37:26.180 --> 00:37:27.410 align:middle line:90% of flexibility. 00:37:27.410 --> 00:37:29.930 align:middle line:84% If you look at the first page of the actual music, 00:37:29.930 --> 00:37:32.660 align:middle line:84% there's a solo out in front, which is undetermined, 00:37:32.660 --> 00:37:36.350 align:middle line:84% open meaning, any length, whatever 00:37:36.350 --> 00:37:39.410 align:middle line:84% you might want to do based on the E Phrygian mode. 00:37:39.410 --> 00:37:42.600 align:middle line:84% The little cells that are given at number 2, 00:37:42.600 --> 00:37:46.080 align:middle line:84% these are to be given individually, 2 and 3, 00:37:46.080 --> 00:37:48.100 align:middle line:90% and I was the conductor on this. 00:37:48.100 --> 00:37:50.430 align:middle line:90% So I get to determine who plays. 00:37:50.430 --> 00:37:52.890 align:middle line:84% Who's going to make another contribution along 00:37:52.890 --> 00:37:55.200 align:middle line:84% with the soloist, happens to be a guitarist who's 00:37:55.200 --> 00:37:58.720 align:middle line:90% soloing in this case. 00:37:58.720 --> 00:38:06.570 align:middle line:84% When we come to the next page, it's the full band playing, 00:38:06.570 --> 00:38:10.290 align:middle line:84% but you'll notice that it says ensemble Q, 00:38:10.290 --> 00:38:13.570 align:middle line:84% and what it should say there is each note is conducted. 00:38:13.570 --> 00:38:16.050 align:middle line:84% So I can choose, or whoever's conducting 00:38:16.050 --> 00:38:19.530 align:middle line:84% can choose to take it at faster rate one time, slower rate 00:38:19.530 --> 00:38:21.750 align:middle line:84% another time, or maybe take certain parts of it 00:38:21.750 --> 00:38:22.980 align:middle line:90% faster or slower. 00:38:22.980 --> 00:38:24.510 align:middle line:90% Again, flexibility. 00:38:24.510 --> 00:38:28.410 align:middle line:84% It can be variable in every single performance. 00:38:28.410 --> 00:38:30.270 align:middle line:84% Then we get to an actual little base line. 00:38:30.270 --> 00:38:32.820 align:middle line:84% That's a written bass line, drums add in. 00:38:32.820 --> 00:38:35.580 align:middle line:90% We get over to page 4. 00:38:35.580 --> 00:38:37.537 align:middle line:84% This is a little hard to decipher, 00:38:37.537 --> 00:38:39.120 align:middle line:84% but let me just point out what happens 00:38:39.120 --> 00:38:42.450 align:middle line:84% is the trombones come in with a little eight bar pattern that 00:38:42.450 --> 00:38:43.950 align:middle line:90% goes over to the next page. 00:38:43.950 --> 00:38:45.090 align:middle line:90% That repeats. 00:38:45.090 --> 00:38:47.160 align:middle line:90% The baritone sax adds in. 00:38:47.160 --> 00:38:50.320 align:middle line:84% At some point, the trumpets add in. 00:38:50.320 --> 00:38:54.180 align:middle line:84% And then once that all gets established, then on page 6, 00:38:54.180 --> 00:38:56.080 align:middle line:90% the saxophones come in. 00:38:56.080 --> 00:39:01.380 align:middle line:84% So we've got a fairly modular type of structure, 00:39:01.380 --> 00:39:06.040 align:middle line:84% but it's not set as to who comes in is exactly how this 00:39:06.040 --> 00:39:07.180 align:middle line:90% is going to play out. 00:39:07.180 --> 00:39:09.370 align:middle line:84% In a given performance, the trumpets 00:39:09.370 --> 00:39:12.280 align:middle line:84% might go through their thing three times or two times, 00:39:12.280 --> 00:39:14.810 align:middle line:84% or maybe they don't get cued in at all. 00:39:14.810 --> 00:39:17.950 align:middle line:84% So it's almost like a mobile, those sculptures that 00:39:17.950 --> 00:39:19.720 align:middle line:84% are hanging in there, so it's like this. 00:39:19.720 --> 00:39:24.190 align:middle line:84% It moves around, and depending on what happens, 00:39:24.190 --> 00:39:25.900 align:middle line:84% different things work out differently. 00:39:25.900 --> 00:39:29.440 align:middle line:84% Then everything comes together over on page 7, at least 00:39:29.440 --> 00:39:33.130 align:middle line:84% for the saxophones, except just when they come together 00:39:33.130 --> 00:39:36.370 align:middle line:84% in chords, the trombones are going off and doing something 00:39:36.370 --> 00:39:38.150 align:middle line:90% differently. 00:39:38.150 --> 00:39:41.920 align:middle line:84% And then we get into some free playing on page 9. 00:39:41.920 --> 00:39:43.400 align:middle line:90% There are some other things. 00:39:43.400 --> 00:39:47.170 align:middle line:84% There's a little interlude that I've written specifically. 00:39:47.170 --> 00:39:49.240 align:middle line:90% Then we get to page 12. 00:39:49.240 --> 00:39:53.170 align:middle line:84% It's just several lines of music that the saxophones 00:39:53.170 --> 00:39:56.860 align:middle line:84% are asked to work with to build their own improvisational 00:39:56.860 --> 00:39:57.850 align:middle line:90% statement. 00:39:57.850 --> 00:40:00.460 align:middle line:84% And then we have some final chords, 00:40:00.460 --> 00:40:04.300 align:middle line:84% which are very specifically ordered in terms 00:40:04.300 --> 00:40:05.860 align:middle line:90% of who comes in when and where. 00:40:05.860 --> 00:40:09.250 align:middle line:84% Each time, more tone colors are built in. 00:40:09.250 --> 00:40:12.670 align:middle line:84% Each time, a fuller sense and a different harmonic sense 00:40:12.670 --> 00:40:13.700 align:middle line:90% is built in. 00:40:13.700 --> 00:40:15.100 align:middle line:90% So let's play this. 00:40:15.100 --> 00:40:17.680 align:middle line:84% This is about 12 minutes, and you can follow it through, 00:40:17.680 --> 00:40:21.010 align:middle line:84% and then maybe you'll have some questions or comments, 00:40:21.010 --> 00:40:22.760 align:middle line:90% as we come along. 00:40:22.760 --> 00:40:27.040 align:middle line:84% So this is the Festival Jazz Ensemble from the year 2000, 00:40:27.040 --> 00:40:29.365 align:middle line:90% I think it is, playing on this. 00:40:29.365 --> 00:40:37.165 align:middle line:90% 00:40:37.165 --> 00:40:40.159 align:middle line:90% [MUSIC - FESTIVAL JAZZ ENSEMBLE] 00:40:40.159 --> 00:50:26.740 align:middle line:90% 00:50:26.740 --> 00:50:32.838 align:middle line:84% So kind of questions or comments does everybody have on that? 00:50:32.838 --> 00:50:35.380 align:middle line:84% You could follow it pretty well, because I could hear and see 00:50:35.380 --> 00:50:37.345 align:middle line:84% the music turning roughly where we were. 00:50:37.345 --> 00:50:40.980 align:middle line:90% 00:50:40.980 --> 00:50:43.245 align:middle line:84% Any things that differed from what was on the page? 00:50:43.245 --> 00:50:47.436 align:middle line:90% 00:50:47.436 --> 00:50:51.010 align:middle line:84% Was every note played exactly as it set forth? 00:50:51.010 --> 00:50:54.070 align:middle line:90% 00:50:54.070 --> 00:50:55.780 align:middle line:90% Probably not. 00:50:55.780 --> 00:50:59.140 align:middle line:84% Well, that little thing that's marked x, x 00:50:59.140 --> 00:51:02.170 align:middle line:84% is always a good number to have in case you 00:51:02.170 --> 00:51:04.120 align:middle line:84% realize after you've numbered everything 00:51:04.120 --> 00:51:06.280 align:middle line:84% that you want to have something that can just 00:51:06.280 --> 00:51:08.920 align:middle line:90% be put in at a moment's notice. 00:51:08.920 --> 00:51:10.840 align:middle line:84% At x, at the end, there was supposed 00:51:10.840 --> 00:51:14.140 align:middle line:84% to be some other brass added into that chord, 00:51:14.140 --> 00:51:17.500 align:middle line:84% and the conductor, namely myself, evidently forgot, 00:51:17.500 --> 00:51:20.620 align:middle line:84% and so all you had was the last note in the bass 00:51:20.620 --> 00:51:22.140 align:middle line:90% trombone and the baritone sax. 00:51:22.140 --> 00:51:25.330 align:middle line:84% In theory, you would hear all of a sudden, out of nowhere 00:51:25.330 --> 00:51:29.860 align:middle line:84% comes this nice, soft chord, but that didn't happen. 00:51:29.860 --> 00:51:33.220 align:middle line:84% And there were some other things where the players were working 00:51:33.220 --> 00:51:35.620 align:middle line:84% more closely or less closely with some 00:51:35.620 --> 00:51:37.990 align:middle line:84% of the suggested material, but part 00:51:37.990 --> 00:51:41.350 align:middle line:84% that is OK because part of the notion is it's collaborative, 00:51:41.350 --> 00:51:45.790 align:middle line:84% and it's meant to have the improvisational aspect be 00:51:45.790 --> 00:51:51.070 align:middle line:84% as important as whatever I came up with in terms of thinking 00:51:51.070 --> 00:51:52.730 align:middle line:90% this out ahead of time. 00:51:52.730 --> 00:51:57.020 align:middle line:84% And I should say that the reason that this is a relatively-- 00:51:57.020 --> 00:52:00.405 align:middle line:84% at least my approach with this flexible idea and Walter 00:52:00.405 --> 00:52:02.030 align:middle line:84% Thompson and a couple of other people-- 00:52:02.030 --> 00:52:06.650 align:middle line:84% the reason it's a relative small subset of the world of jazz 00:52:06.650 --> 00:52:09.170 align:middle line:84% and conductors, all that, because many composers don't 00:52:09.170 --> 00:52:11.660 align:middle line:84% like to have their music messed with in this way. 00:52:11.660 --> 00:52:13.880 align:middle line:84% If they write, it they want it played. 00:52:13.880 --> 00:52:17.720 align:middle line:84% My perception is-- this is me, nobody has to follow this down 00:52:17.720 --> 00:52:19.040 align:middle line:90% the garden path-- 00:52:19.040 --> 00:52:21.530 align:middle line:84% what I write I can write some things 00:52:21.530 --> 00:52:23.355 align:middle line:90% that are more densely written. 00:52:23.355 --> 00:52:24.230 align:middle line:90% You saw "The Seeker." 00:52:24.230 --> 00:52:26.570 align:middle line:84% That's a pretty well-spelled-out piece 00:52:26.570 --> 00:52:28.700 align:middle line:90% with some occasions for solos. 00:52:28.700 --> 00:52:32.850 align:middle line:84% I'm more likely to want to have people collaborate with me. 00:52:32.850 --> 00:52:34.700 align:middle line:84% So I want to see what's going on. 00:52:34.700 --> 00:52:35.330 align:middle line:90% I want to hear. 00:52:35.330 --> 00:52:38.550 align:middle line:84% It's always an adventure, in other words. 00:52:38.550 --> 00:52:40.700 align:middle line:84% So far, I haven't been bitterly disappointed 00:52:40.700 --> 00:52:43.400 align:middle line:84% when I've put a piece like this in front of people. 00:52:43.400 --> 00:52:45.832 align:middle line:84% I suppose it could happen, but I've been lucky 00:52:45.832 --> 00:52:47.040 align:middle line:90% that it hasn't been that way. 00:52:47.040 --> 00:52:50.330 align:middle line:84% It usually come out with a very good musical result, 00:52:50.330 --> 00:52:52.970 align:middle line:84% because I try to get good musicians to work with. 00:52:52.970 --> 00:52:55.370 align:middle line:90% That's a key ingredient. 00:52:55.370 --> 00:52:59.863 align:middle line:84% Any other comments or questions anybody might have? 00:52:59.863 --> 00:53:01.280 align:middle line:84% AUDIENCE: I really like the effect 00:53:01.280 --> 00:53:06.500 align:middle line:84% that you get at 9, where everyone 00:53:06.500 --> 00:53:09.830 align:middle line:84% is playing that line in a canon line, 00:53:09.830 --> 00:53:12.320 align:middle line:84% coming in whenever they will and looping in. 00:53:12.320 --> 00:53:18.760 align:middle line:84% But there's sparse enough notes that you hear a harmony there, 00:53:18.760 --> 00:53:20.440 align:middle line:84% and it shifts around a little bit. 00:53:20.440 --> 00:53:26.575 align:middle line:84% And it's discernible, and it's a nice, slow effect. 00:53:26.575 --> 00:53:27.325 align:middle line:90% MARK HARVEY: Good. 00:53:27.325 --> 00:53:28.870 align:middle line:84% Because that was part of the intent 00:53:28.870 --> 00:53:33.160 align:middle line:84% was that both the idea of simple enough for you, the performer 00:53:33.160 --> 00:53:39.817 align:middle line:84% to add in, but also, to have some semblance of coherence. 00:53:39.817 --> 00:53:41.650 align:middle line:84% Whereas, at the very beginning, I'm not sure 00:53:41.650 --> 00:53:44.518 align:middle line:84% there was a lot of coherence harmonically, 00:53:44.518 --> 00:53:46.810 align:middle line:84% but then at least, to me, one of the interesting things 00:53:46.810 --> 00:53:49.730 align:middle line:84% is after you have all that stuff on page-- 00:53:49.730 --> 00:53:53.350 align:middle line:84% whatever it is, page where the first thing is. 00:53:53.350 --> 00:53:56.470 align:middle line:84% And then when you get to page 2, where the ensemble comes in, 00:53:56.470 --> 00:53:59.110 align:middle line:84% all of a sudden, that's a clearing, 00:53:59.110 --> 00:54:01.390 align:middle line:84% clarifying presence, because it comes out 00:54:01.390 --> 00:54:03.640 align:middle line:84% of what seemed a little dense and a little 00:54:03.640 --> 00:54:06.880 align:middle line:84% maybe somewhat chaotic, although I wouldn't call it that myself, 00:54:06.880 --> 00:54:08.080 align:middle line:90% but some people could. 00:54:08.080 --> 00:54:10.510 align:middle line:84% Then you have this big corral almost type of thing 00:54:10.510 --> 00:54:12.190 align:middle line:90% that comes out of that. 00:54:12.190 --> 00:54:15.760 align:middle line:84% So it's a way of thinking a little differently than you 00:54:15.760 --> 00:54:18.580 align:middle line:84% might if you were thinking count of Basie, 00:54:18.580 --> 00:54:20.530 align:middle line:84% Thad Jones, whatever, sort of approach. 00:54:20.530 --> 00:54:22.120 align:middle line:90% All these are good approaches. 00:54:22.120 --> 00:54:24.850 align:middle line:84% There's nothing that says this has to be the main one 00:54:24.850 --> 00:54:29.620 align:middle line:84% or no, it's just that this is the variety that you get. 00:54:29.620 --> 00:54:34.510 align:middle line:84% Any other comments anybody might have? 00:54:34.510 --> 00:54:35.080 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:54:35.080 --> 00:54:39.930 align:middle line:84% Well, as I say, this is a quick survey through this. 00:54:39.930 --> 00:54:44.840 align:middle line:84% And if you were to check out any of those bands on page 3 00:54:44.840 --> 00:54:47.480 align:middle line:84% or page 2 of the handout, where it talks 00:54:47.480 --> 00:54:50.000 align:middle line:84% about select post-modern jazz, each of them 00:54:50.000 --> 00:54:52.220 align:middle line:84% is going to be different from the other. 00:54:52.220 --> 00:54:54.410 align:middle line:84% Not one of them is going to sound exactly 00:54:54.410 --> 00:54:57.650 align:middle line:84% like another group, and it's very important 00:54:57.650 --> 00:55:00.890 align:middle line:84% to know what group you're working with. 00:55:00.890 --> 00:55:02.540 align:middle line:84% Vinny Golia, whose name is there, 00:55:02.540 --> 00:55:05.990 align:middle line:84% who's based in Los Angeles, has a group very similar to mine, 00:55:05.990 --> 00:55:08.840 align:middle line:84% and tends to write a lot more specific things, 00:55:08.840 --> 00:55:12.800 align:middle line:84% but can also have improvisational things. 00:55:12.800 --> 00:55:17.390 align:middle line:84% He and Walter and I participated in a project about 17 years 00:55:17.390 --> 00:55:20.120 align:middle line:84% ago, where we each wrote new music-- we had commissions, 00:55:20.120 --> 00:55:21.830 align:middle line:90% it was a nice project-- 00:55:21.830 --> 00:55:24.800 align:middle line:84% and then we took the commissions around each other's band. 00:55:24.800 --> 00:55:27.170 align:middle line:84% So they came here and did it with Aardvark. 00:55:27.170 --> 00:55:29.390 align:middle line:84% We went out to LA, and then we went to New York 00:55:29.390 --> 00:55:30.770 align:middle line:90% to work with Walter. 00:55:30.770 --> 00:55:35.120 align:middle line:84% In LA, Vinny does a little bit of studio work, not a lot 00:55:35.120 --> 00:55:39.590 align:middle line:84% but he plays every saxophone and woodwind known to mankind, 00:55:39.590 --> 00:55:41.570 align:middle line:90% including contrabass clarinet. 00:55:41.570 --> 00:55:45.080 align:middle line:84% And he often jokes that when in a movie, if they need a whale 00:55:45.080 --> 00:55:46.250 align:middle line:90% sound, they'll call him. 00:55:46.250 --> 00:55:48.350 align:middle line:84% They won't call him for the regular session work, 00:55:48.350 --> 00:55:52.190 align:middle line:84% but if they need an odd effect or some space effect and Star 00:55:52.190 --> 00:55:54.440 align:middle line:84% Trek, they'll call him to bring some odd instrument. 00:55:54.440 --> 00:55:57.470 align:middle line:84% Well, in his band he had about 25 people. 00:55:57.470 --> 00:56:00.980 align:middle line:84% He had a couple LA studio musicians, 00:56:00.980 --> 00:56:02.690 align:middle line:84% they shall remain nameless, but a couple 00:56:02.690 --> 00:56:06.950 align:middle line:84% of fairly well-known people, if you were to know that scene. 00:56:06.950 --> 00:56:09.050 align:middle line:84% One whom I had heard about since I was a kid. 00:56:09.050 --> 00:56:10.120 align:middle line:90% I was very impressed. 00:56:10.120 --> 00:56:12.500 align:middle line:84% I thought, wow, I got to get to conduct this guy. 00:56:12.500 --> 00:56:14.235 align:middle line:84% And when my score-- in that case, 00:56:14.235 --> 00:56:15.860 align:middle line:84% didn't have a lot of this stuff, but it 00:56:15.860 --> 00:56:18.890 align:middle line:84% had a couple of things where it had numbered cues 1, 2, and 3. 00:56:18.890 --> 00:56:23.180 align:middle line:84% But then it said, conductor may choose these out of order, 00:56:23.180 --> 00:56:25.100 align:middle line:90% and these guys went ballistic. 00:56:25.100 --> 00:56:28.460 align:middle line:84% It was like, it's supposed to be 1, 2, 3 then it's 00:56:28.460 --> 00:56:29.480 align:middle line:90% supposed to be 1, 2 3. 00:56:29.480 --> 00:56:29.870 align:middle line:90% What do you mean? 00:56:29.870 --> 00:56:31.328 align:middle line:84% You're going to cue number 3 first? 00:56:31.328 --> 00:56:32.750 align:middle line:90% And I said, well, that's just-- 00:56:32.750 --> 00:56:35.360 align:middle line:84% And all of a sudden, there was this tension in the air, 00:56:35.360 --> 00:56:38.270 align:middle line:84% shall we say, because some people were not 00:56:38.270 --> 00:56:39.303 align:middle line:90% quite as open as others. 00:56:39.303 --> 00:56:41.720 align:middle line:84% Anyway, it was an interesting situation it all worked out, 00:56:41.720 --> 00:56:46.430 align:middle line:84% but there are certain players who gravitate more to this 00:56:46.430 --> 00:56:47.533 align:middle line:90% than others. 00:56:47.533 --> 00:56:48.950 align:middle line:84% There are certain audience members 00:56:48.950 --> 00:56:52.070 align:middle line:84% who do the same kind of thing, and so it's 00:56:52.070 --> 00:56:55.670 align:middle line:84% useful to know who you're talking about. 00:56:55.670 --> 00:57:00.020 align:middle line:84% So I think we'll wrap up the lecture portion at this point, 00:57:00.020 --> 00:57:03.532 align:middle line:84% and as I say, if you can check out something on YouTube, 00:57:03.532 --> 00:57:05.990 align:middle line:84% even just a couple of minutes to get a sense of what Walter 00:57:05.990 --> 00:57:08.030 align:middle line:84% is doing, I think it will just help give you 00:57:08.030 --> 00:57:12.500 align:middle line:84% a little more preparation for when he comes in. 00:57:12.500 --> 00:57:14.420 align:middle line:84% And it would be great if we could all 00:57:14.420 --> 00:57:17.300 align:middle line:84% be here on time on Thursday so that we can get 00:57:17.300 --> 00:57:21.490 align:middle line:90% rolling in the right manner. 00:57:21.490 --> 00:57:22.000 align:middle line:90%