In
the mid 1970s I began my study of the Lydian
Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization as
developed by George Russell. From that important
work I formulated an approach to collective improvisation
that was initially conceived as a way to bring
clarity and formal opportunities to ad hoc ensembles.
My experience had been that these ad hoc groups
most often devolved into a sonic mud very quickly
and rarely managed to extricate themselves from
that mud.
Philosophically
there were other forces at work that were less
clear during this period but more clear now.
My
orientation and aesthetic are anarchic, it turns
out. I wholly embrace freedom, both individually
and collectively realized. In music, it’s
collective freedom that is most interesting to
me and, I believe, the most important, as I see
music as a collective act.
That
collective act, by the way, includes the listener
(more on that at another time).
Since
the mid 1970s I’ve developed compositional
approaches to these concepts. In dozens of workshops
and performances, with professional and amateur
musicians, with master improvisers and with non-improvisers,
with all instrumentations imaginable, in the US,
Canada and in Europe, we have had a 100% success
rate in making rich, complex, non-idiomatic music
almost instantly.
I
am always amazed but never surprised.
The
requirements for success are these:
1.
Basic competence on any instrument.
2. A graciousness of spirit.
3. A willingness to withhold judgment or opinions
until we conclude.
4. An effort to work with some ideas which might
contradict ideas that may be very important to
how you think and play at this time.
5. A determined independence.
Here
is how I’ve put it before: Freedom through
unity, not consensus.
The
results are complex, with emergent, self-organizing
forms, created by the players themselves. The
concepts behind this approach share more than
a little with complexity studies, emergent properties
and behaviors, and new science. The approach to
playing this music shares more than a little with
African drum choirs and original New Orleans jazz.
--
Joe Giardullo
www.joegiardullo.com
http://www.myspace.com/joegiardullomusic
Reference: RED MOROCCO (Rogue Art Records) 2007
GRAVITY (Breeze Records) 1979
