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RE: Improv loops (was Re: Upcoming gig



Hey Mark, Thanks again for making it down to Santa Cruz to play for the
Second Sunday Series.
 I enjoyed both the music and the visuals, great beats and fat synth tones.
You know, when you improve with loops and midi clock, sometimes the 
machines
do take over!!!!! I am an advocate for a good midi patch bay, but sometimes
that doesn't even help.  Kudos to your friends from helping out and adding
visuals to our set. I enjoyed playing to the dolphins. I felt like I was
scoring an episode of Wild Kingdom! I think I got your whole set on mini
disc if you want to hear it.
Bill

-----Original Message-----
From: mark sottilaro [mailto:marksottilaro@sbcglobal.net]
Sent: Tuesday, June 14, 2005 1:29 PM
To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
Subject: Re: Improv loops (was Re: Upcoming gig


Thanks for the kind words!  I was trying to interact
with the video when I could... again probably
something that might work better if I was part of an
ensamble and not a one man band.  Perhaps what I'm
saying is that it's hard to improvise when I'm the
only one responsible for all the sound at any given
point.  In a perfect world I'd like to have been able
to see the screen most of the time, but I felt (as
usual) that I was mostly attending to some
device/instrument.

I think the point that made me think of this was when
out of the blue, my KAOSS pad.. started living up to
it's namesake and producing chaos!  Although I had it
set NOT to transmit any MIDI (just pass clock) it
randomly started to transmit program changes to the
next device in line which happened to by my BOSS VF-1.
 It took me a few seconds to realize what was
happening and then I was kind of lost... couldn't get
back in the groove for a bit.  There always seems to
be those moments in my shows.  Sometimes you can use
them, sometimes they totally break your mood.  Maybe
I'm just not good at recovery any more.

This reminds me of my friend Randy Clark's old band
"Jaws."  Great progressive rock band out of Ithaca,
NY.  Anyway, after the first time I saw them I was
under the impression that a lot of their music was
improvised.  I started taking lessons from Randy at
one point, and he showed me the sheet music for one of
the pieces I always thought was improvised.  He told
me that there was a little room for improvising in
each solo, but most of the music was precomposed.  In
hindsight, this makes sense.  Their music was pretty
complex.

So, while I'm not ever going to remove improvising
from my shows/music, I think it's time to take my
loops in a different direction and see what happens.
Who knows?  I may end up hating it and run right back.

Mark

--- cpr@musetrap.com wrote:

> and an excellent show it was... :) although you said
> the interaction 'tween the
> music and the video showing was a 'happy accident',
> it certainly seemed that
> you were improvising along (at times) with what was
> going on on the screen...
> like all good improv, you were reacting to the
> accidents, which, imo, is the
> meat and potatoes of improv... :)
>
> peace
> -cpr
>
> Quoting mark sottilaro
> <marksottilaro@sbcglobal.net>:
>
> > I totally hear you!  I just played my first live
> gig
> > in about 2 years and boy in hind sight I wish I'd
> have
> > had another month to prepare!  I'd decided to
> create
> > new material for it and I believe that was part of
> my
> > mistake.  On the bright side I got a bunch of new
> > stuff created and it's actually inspired me to
> drop
> > live improv and go for something that's closer to
> how
> > someone like Amy X or Andre Lafosse does live
> looping.
> >
> > Why?  I realize that most of the shows I really
> walk
> > away from and enjoy are ones that are probably 80%
> > precomposed... so why aren't I making that kind of
> > music myself?  I used to... many moons ago.  I
> think
> > the freedom the JamMan/Sequencer gave me made me
> > really interested in this sort of totally
> improvised
> > music.  Hell, it's really fun to do... but from
> the
> > perspective of the audience, do they care (and by
> > audience, I don't mean your other looping friends)
>  I
> > just have realized that the more I plan out a
> piece
> > (usually by extensive studio improvisation) the
> better
> > the audience seems to recieve it.  I partly
> realize
> > this because a friend of mine moved to the SF area
> and
> > we used to play together.  I remember the shows we
> did
> > and the CD we put together and I realize that I've
> not
> > created anything like that since I left NY.  I
> think
> > it's time to move back to that way of performing.
> > Hell, if anything, it sure is a lot easier!  While
> the
> > trade off may be missing some of those happy
> > accidents, hopefully it will result in missing
> some of
> > those unhappy accidents too.
> > Mark
> >
> > --- Edwin Hurwitz <edwin@indra.com> wrote:
> >
> > > I will be doing a looping show at Penny Lane
> Coffee
> > > house here in
> > > Boulder on Wednesday. It's been several years
> since
> > > I have done one,
> > > so it will be a challenge. Anyone who says you
> don't
> > > have rehearse
> > > improvisation is lying and improv with looping
> is
> > > even more
> > > challenging. My rig has changed so much from the
> > > last time I did one
> > > of these that half the battle will be
> reconfiguring
> > > it for
> > > improvisation, effects wise.
> > > I felt I had to do it, unprepared as I am, as
> Penny
> > > Lane is closing
> > > next month and they have been a great venue for
> > > alternative
> > > performances (including many by Beat Poets back
> in
> > > the day). I also
> > > feel pretty safe in announcing this as I know
> most
> > > of you can't make
> > > it!
> > >
> > > Loop on!
> > > --
> > >
> > > Edwin Hurwitz
> > > Boulder CO
> > > http://www.indra.com/~edwin
> > > http://www.cafemontalban.com Location Recording
> > > Services
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
>
>
>
>
>
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