Darrell Grant has performed extensively both as a sideman with such jazz luminaries as Betty Carter, Tony Williams, and Roy Haynes, and as a bandleader and solo artist throughout the U.S., Canada, and Europe. He is a Professor at Portland State University where he also directs the Leroy Vinnegar Jazz Institute.
Saturday – February 27th – “Elemental Forces”
The Grieg Lodge (Norse Hall) - 111 NE 11th (& Couch) - 11:30 PM - 2 AM
THE PLAN
In this session we will deal with 4 elements of music–Rhythm. Harmony. Melody & Tone
As on Friday, the plan is to come up with 10-12 vehicles to play on over the course of the night. They could be tunes, sketches or just concepts. The vehicles are just frameworks around which to organize our explorations of these elements.
We might play free, improvise over spontaneous changes, or play on melodies or songs. Kind of a high-risk approach, but could be unforgettable, with people sliding in and out of the music as they hear things, and the music evolving organically as it is played.
Post your thoughts, ideas, stuff to listen, resources we might explore.
Then let’s make some music.
Learn more about the session
House Players
Darrell Grant-piano, organizer
John Nastos
John Nastos is a freelance saxophone and woodwinds player in Portland, Oregon. He can currently be seen with groups such as the Bobby Torres Ensemble, the Art Abrams Swing Machine Big Band, and as a sub with the Mel Brown Septet. He is also running a year-long project called Duo Chronicles in which he and Clay Giberson present a new song in video each week.
Ben Darwish-piano
Portland native Ben Darwish has played with Kevin Mahogany, Rich Perry, Ron Miles, Devin Phillips, Esperanza Spalding, Alan Jones, Reggie Watts, Bill Summers (of The Headhunters), Stephanie Schneiderman and Ohmega Watts. His latest Trio album is entitled “Ode To Consumerism”
Alan Jones-drums
Sam Howard-bass
Reed Wallsmith-saxophones
Session Questions
What would you suggest as an improvisation vehicle that emphasizes Tone?
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my first thought is for someone to start a piece using sounds we notice around us / in the world as a jumping off point. some ideas that spring to mind: screeching trains, small birds, Tibetan bells, alpine wind, the forest at night, a car factory, ocean waves, fingers on a blackboard, the hum of a computer, footsteps echoing down a hallway, a church organ, a breaking glass, tearing paper, a semi truck going up a hill… as i write this, i’m realizing how hard it is for me to write about improvising, and also how cheesy it could quickly become to focus on consciously imitating these sounds. hmmff. thoughts?
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Reed,
Cheesy is always a risk you take when you try something different. Seems to me that you choose your parameters and then you create in the moment. You never know until you are in it if it will work. Lets try something like this on Saturday.
Anybody else in? -
Reed’s list of everyday sounds makes me think of the piece I wrote for Darrell’s Advanced Jazz Improvisation class at PSU. The assignment was to compose an open ended framework for improvising, including some musical information and guidance for the musicians- but not too much. I had inspiration in this idiom from a couple tracks from ‘Steve Lacy + 16′, of which I still wonder how much information and structure was written amidst the compositions.
I wanted the theme of my piece to be based on one of the natural elements and I chose the wind. Sequentially for each instrument involved, I wrote one or two of the following to help guide their improvisation: a few specific notes or a range to play within, a rhythmic figure, an embellishment, a suggestion for tone, a dynamic range, etc. After each instrument had entered and a collective climax had been reached, each instrument then exited in reverse order of their entrances. Of the four elements of music, focusing on tone and rhythm, this piece proved to be an interesting musical journey without emphasis on melody or harmony. It would be challenging to make a whole program of music like this, but a single piece in this vein can certainly be a breath of different air. -
John Nastos says:
I’m in. I think trying it in earnest could yield some interesting results.
I think another interesting concept could be playing a free form piece in which one of the guidelines was that the majority of notes should be held for a reasonable period of time. Very few short or staccato notes (maybe just as accents) over a bed of drones.
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Maybe pass around the opportunity to play lines while the other players sound a drone-ish bed of tones that shift freely between pitches and textures. Plenty of contrasts can evolve without a song structure on a piece like this.
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Tim DuRoche says:
I like Reed’s notion—it opens up your ears. I think asking people to think across into another discipline (say Painting or Film or Dance) can be useful: thinking about texture, densities, brush stroke; cinematic qualities of tones and space; gestural qualities of instruments. Tone becomes a springboard or auger to nurture strata of texture, timbre, contour and like abstract expressionism defy the frame of the canvas. Key is freeing yourself from the burden of what you know and allowing the production of sound to direct it.
What would you suggest as a non-standard improvisation framework that emphasizes Harmony?
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I’ve always wanted to extract harmony from Chopin and improvise using it as a framework. Since Chopin’s harmony is very chromatic in nature, it lends itself well to jazz voicings. I don’t have any specific pieces in mind but I’d be willing to do some research to find a piece of Chopin that would work well for this.
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Ben,
How about one of the preludes?
Maybe even a section of one of them. Post some changes on the blog if you find something -
I know that the Prelude in E minor would work good. I’ll put them into a leadsheet and post it.
- B -
Jobim used the Prelude in Em to great effect for How Insensitive (if I remembers right). Clara Schumann is another one (3 Romances)—lots of rich sonority and drone-like opportunity for pulse and swing.
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Come to think of it, since this is in the Grieg Lodge, why not pull a Claude Thornhill/Gil Evans and dig into Grieg’s Piano Concerto as a starting point?
What would you suggest as a non-standard improvisation framework that emphasizes Rhythm?
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Back in the mid-eighties Wynton, Branford, Terence Blanchard & others explored a kind of playing the called Burnout. It drew inspiration from the harmonic freedom that Miles Quintet explored on Miles Smiles & ESP, and the energy generated by Elvin Jones & Coltrane’s Quartet. Usually up tempos, the goal was physical burning swing with no or very few pre-set chord changes. It was an aggressive, take no-prisoners kind of playing. Perfect for the pedal to the metal culture of the times.
Great examples are Chambers of Tain from Black Codes and The Wrath from Branford’s record Renaissance.
I’ll try to get clips up soon.
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Well, to go way out on a limb, each player could be assigned a limited number of pitches available to them to explore during the improvisation. Might be too weird, but could be interesting as well.
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Many of my favorite groups employ wide-open vamps, often in odd time signatures, usually on one chord, where the idea is to groove as a group and improvise around the ostinato figure, pushing the boundaries of group harmony and rhythm. I always enjoy jamming on a good vamp tune, and will bring some ideas to the session. I love the way this tune and group flows together.
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Some of the frameworks that Blackwell (or Higgins) and Charlie Haden used—pulse, but not always time-specific, swing against ostinati or pedals is a wonderful way to allow momentum to build and let horn players find their center. . .things like Togo, Lonely Woman. Elastic forms (6/8 afro-cuban grooves, waltzes, time-against-time hemiola) inspire a level of probing and discovery . Combining a palette of strategies that use all the above (tone, harmony, rhythm, melody) in varying capacities could be luverly.
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Darrell, Ben, and all, thank you for making the jam sessions memorable moments of high caliber musicianship and exploration. These were some of the best jam sessions at the Portland Jazz Festival over the years.
Thanks again,
Spencer
I travelled to Norway last spring to meet players and here what was happening over there. I met a lot of great musicians, had a lot of long conversations. One lasting impression I got is that while in American jazz rhythm is the dominant factor, in Norway it’s all about tone. A different goal, spawning very different, but very powerful music.
Check out this YouTube clip from saxophonist Trygve Seim