[MD] Creative Freedom in Jazz

[David Harding]

Hi Dan,

Though the interviewer I found a little stuffy at times - it's a good Doco.  I think the role of rta within the MOQ is at the crux of the interplay between DQ and sq. We can talk about a 'balance' of DQ and sq all we want but really that's all just sq.  The real signpost to DQ is mastering sq.  You and I have talked about this before, but after we have got something 'mastered' then the static quality disappears and there's nothing left but DQ.  That's how you experience Dynamic Quality..

It's all in the practice of sq and the care of sq and the suffering which-comes-from-breaking-up of sq. If you do something over and over again with the aim of doing it good, you end up forgetting about it and it's gone...

-David.

On 06/04/2012, at 4:37 PM, Dan Glover wrote:

> Hello everyone
> 
> I came across this documentary (thank you for the link to
> openculture.com, dmb) on Bill Evans and found it very interesting in
> how it relates to the MOQ and its notion of Dynamic freedom and static
> quality determinism. I think his creative process relates not only to
> jazz but to all the arts. See what you think:
> 
> http://www.openculture.com/2012/04/the_universal_mind_of_bill_evans_advice_on_learning_to_play_jazz.html
> 
> The Universal Mind of Bill Evans: Advice on Learning to Play Jazz &
> The Creative Process
> 
> Bill Evans was one of the greatest jazz pianists of the second half of
> the 20th century. His playing on Miles Davis’s landmark 1959 record,
> Kind of Blue, and as leader of the Bill Evans Trio was a major
> influence on players like Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett and Chick
> Corea. “Bill’s value can’t be measured in any kind of terms,” Corea
> once said. “He’s one of the great, great artists of this century.”
> 
> Evans’s approach to music was a process of analysis followed by
> intuition. He would study a problem deliberately, working on it over
> and over until the solution became second nature. “You use your
> intellect to take apart the materials,” Evans said in 1969. “But,
> actually, it takes years and years of playing to develop the facility
> so that you can forget all of that and just relax, and just play.” In
> the book Jazz Styles: History and Analysis, music writer Mark C.
> Gridley describes his playing:
> 
> Evans crafted his improvisations with exacting deliberation. Often he
> would take a phrase, or just a kernel of its character, then develop
> and extend its rhythms, melodic ideas, and accompanying harmonies.
> Then within the same solo he would often return to that kernel,
> transforming it each time. And while all this was happening, he would
> ponder ways of resolving the tension that was building. He would be
> considering rhythmic ways, melodic ways, and harmonies all at the same
> time, long before the optimal moment for resolving the idea.
> 
> Evans discusses his creative process in a fascinating 1966
> documentary, The Universal Mind of Bill Evans. (See above.) The film
> is introduced by Tonight Show host Steve Allen and features a
> revealing talk between Evans and his older brother Harry, a music
> teacher. They begin with a discussion of improvisation and the nature
> of jazz, which Evans sees as a process rather than a style. He then
> moves to the piano to show how he builds up a jazz improvisation,
> starting with a simple framework and then adding layers of rhythmic,
> harmonic and melodic variation.
> 
> “It’s very important to remember,” Evans says, “that no matter how far
> I might diverge or find freedom in this format, it only is free
> insofar as it has reference to the strictness of the original form.
> And that’s what gives it its strength. In other words, there is no
> freedom except in reference to something.”
> 
> Dan comments:
> I find my own writings to be much like the way Evans builds up his
> improvisations by starting with a simple premise and adding layers of
> plot, theme, and interwoven character webs. I am free to write
> anything that I care to write but only as long as I keep sight of my
> original premise, otherwise the story will devolve into nonsense. I
> should imagine any creative endeavor to be the same. We might say that
> the very act of creation is a complex process of weaving static
> quality patterns both into and out of the Dynamic formlessness from
> which all such patterns flow.
> 
> Perhaps that is why it is easier to study the patterns others have
> created (philosophology) rather than mastering those pattens to the
> point of forgetting them and just create real philosophy.
> 
> Thoughts?
> 
> Thank you,
> 
> Dan
> 
> "To the extent that one's behavior is controlled by static patterns of
> quality it is without choice. But to the extent that one follows
> Dynamic Quality, which is undefinable, one's behavior is free." [Lila]
> 
> "The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we
> are unable to say." ~ Anais Nin
> 
> http://www.danglover.com
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