Trombonist Jeb Bishop, who participated in Thursday night's performance by the Globe Unity Orchestra in Harlem (described in the post immediately below), stopped by here and provided a couple of comments regarding certain things that I wrote. I'm pulling his comments up for plain view, because I think both are important:
thanks for the kind words --
two notes:(a) there was no pre-planning at all other than our implicit multilayered shared history together as players/listeners
(b) the saxophonist/clarinetist's name is Daniele D'Agaro; Google will no doubt yield information about him under that name. Zingaro could be violinist Carlos.
That this large ensemble of powerful soloists was able to present such a coherently shaped performance without any pre-planning whatsoever simply boggles the mind -- and offer profound testimony to just what it is that can make free improvisation so completely vital an experience. It also serves as a manifestation of something that Alexander von Schlippenbach talked about in an interview with photojournalist Laurence Svirchev: the belief that spontaneous creation and longtime relationships between musicians are not fundamentally incompatible:
It make good sense that if you find musicians you really can work with and you understand very well like Evan [Parker] and Paul [Lovens], I like to go on for long distance working together. It makes sense. There are some people with theories of improvisation, like Derek Bailey, they doubt this point. They say you should only play one time together. If you play together too much, it is no longer improvisation. I find this is more theory, it’s not the point of view of a musician, because you want to find something that works. If I can have the possibility to go on for a longer time there also may be weaker periods or even crisis points. But if you can work it through and can go on, then the music gets a stable bottom.
The full interview is well worth taking the time to read. It covers Schlippenbach's formative years, primary influences and subsequent development, including some points about which I'd been completely unaware: his studies with composer Bernd Alois Zimmerman, for one.
My apologies to Mr. D'Agaro, whose name I misheard in the post-concert tumult of well wishers. His long, distinguished bio is chock full of meaningful work with Tristan Honsinger, Ernst Glerum, Han Bennink, Benny Bailey and Mark Helias; his most recent working band includes Bishop, the great bassist Kent Kessler and former Sun Ra drummer Robert Berry. The last thing D'Agaro said to me was that he hoped he'd get the chance to play here more often. I hope he gets his wish.
My sincere thanks to Jeb Bishop for setting the record straight on both of these counts.And now that you've finished reading here, head straight over to my TONY colleague Hank Shteamer's review of the same concert, which includes a long, dazzlingly characterized description of the Axel Dörner solo (and a seriously great title for the post).
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