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Looper's Delight
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>What does a good player do with an ostinato in an improv situation: = While we're waiting for a good player to answer I think I'll throw in my own $.02... >- variing a part here and there, maybe creating harmonic tension briefly Well, I'd take out the "maybe" and the "briefly". This suggestion is, to me, what makes ostinatos a desirable thing at all. That is, the opportunity to apply varying degrees of harmonic tensions against a static background. I wish more 'electronica' (for lack of a better term) took advantage of this, but it seems like most that I've checked out has been all about rhythm and texture primarily (if not exclusivley). Last week I saw Mark Isham's new 'electronica' band (from what I could tell, I counted three Jam Men, one Obie and one EH 16-sec delay and at least as many other 'standard' delays) and they did a few things that had some harmonic meat to them, and certainly Mark's playing exhibited a good amount harmonic imagination in improvising over ostinatos so I found that pretty enjoyable, but I think he's bringing more to the table in terms of overall musicianship than the rank and file electronica guys I hear. They recorded these shows, I hope they're considering releasing them, they were quite good. In the "Recording" thread there were recent posts listing Frisell's "Songs, We Know" and Emmylou Harris' "Spyboy" which I couldn't list yet but since I just got them this morning I would easily add them to my list, these are both great. Jim Hall's newest is a pretty standard good performance from Jim but is as problematic to me as his other "+ special guests" format records he's done for Tel Arc the last few years on the whole. Nothing quite as inspiring happens as the show I saw last week here in LA - Jim playing duo with Dave Holland - which proved to me he's still one of the most open-minded and fearless improvisors around given the right setting. Ken R