Been off the ol' Blogger for a bit, sorry to be elusive. A quick update of happened and happening:
I got to help out my good friend and Michael Mull Octet bandmate Tim Fischer on a DMA lecture recital as he completes his Doctorate at USC. Luckily, for me that translated to playing great tunes with an even greater band that included Octet bassist Emilio Terranova and the illustrious Joe LaBarbera on drums! Tim's lecture focused on the music of Miles Davis's first great quintet, styles in which Joe is an expert, not to mention being "two degrees of separation" from Miles himself --- it's hard to describe, but playing with a tight group like that is so "easy"!
Beginning at the end of August, I am fortunate to be teaching Jazz Arranging and coach "combo class" at Cal State University Northridge this semester, and it has been a rewarding experience so far. This is my first time teaching in a full classroom setting, so I'm really trying to do it right and give the students a good balance of structure and freedom.
Continuing the higher education trend, the Michael Mull Octet had the pleasure of doing a masterclass at CalArts, where I did my graduate work. This was an excellent experience all around, playing some new and older music and fielding thoughtful questions from both students and faculty. It was especially interesting for me to answer some of their questions, thinking and trying to describe aspects of my music and writing process for the Octet that I had never really sat down and considered, recognizing some of the reasons for my musical choices. Thank you to David Roitstein and Larry Koonse for hookin' it up, and to the students for being fantastic - hope to see you at a show soon!
SPEAKING OF OCTET SHOWS WHATSTHATYOUSAY? Yes, the Michael Mull Octet is going to de-blubber the Blue Whale once again on Friday, October 25th, this time with the help of NYC-based trio KROM. They play some remarkable and fresh music, so this is a date to make if at all possible! Mark them calendars and cave walls, more details to come. In the near October future:
Fri 10/18 - River Song and Walsh Set Trio @ ArtistShare LA (I'm not in this but GO SEE IT and thank me later) 8pm https://www.facebook.com/events/367428453387824/
Sat 10/19 - Orkestar MEZE @ 4th Annual CalArts Wild Beast Concert Series: In other words, a FREE dance party...https://www.facebook.com/events/515180121898672/ 6:00pm
Thurs 10/24 - Mahadev @ The Crest Bar in La Crescenta: also featuring Fumosonic and Bubbeleh, 8pm (Mahadev around 10pm)
Fri 10/25 - Michael Mull Octet and KROM @ Blue Whale: 9pm, 21+ and only $10 for both sets, no minimum. Check back here soon or on facebook for more details.
Michael Mull Octet
Showing posts with label Joe Labarbera. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Joe Labarbera. Show all posts
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Music vs. Title Survey
A Happy Father's Day to all you awesome pops out there!
I was talking about composition with my friend Steve Blum a month or two back, and the topic of titles came up. Turns out, Steve often starts with a title, whereas I rarely produce a title until near the end of the composition process. Everyone approaches composition a different way, and that includes the use of a title. I thought it would be interesting and enlightening to send off emails to some of my favorite composers in the jazz world asking them about this topic, and compile the answers here for y'all. I'd like to thank everyone listed for their time and great responses!
The question was:
"When you write a piece of music, what usually comes first, the music or the title?"
Here are the answers I received:
"Usually the music comes first in my case. The best titles for me do come when I'm at the beginning of the writing process however and am still feeling that initial inspiration. It's harder after the tune is complete to go back and find a title that fits the initial feeling for me."
--- Donny McCaslin, saxophone
"I almost always conceive the music first and titles comes later."
--- Edward Simon, piano
"Without hesitation the music comes first. Some titles come soon after finishing work on a tune, but many don't happen until I'm forced to come up with names of tunes for a record. I'll occasionally come up with a title I like separate from writing music. Then I'll add it to a list of potential tune titles that I'll reference if I'm not coming up with anything for a particular tune. Just like a lot of things, it either comes easily or it takes a while."
---Steve Cardenas, guitar
"For me a mood will come to me when composing and usually a title will follow. Other times a composition will surface at roughly the same time an event of notice occurs in my life."
--- John Fumo, trumpet
"The title either comes first or during the process....it usually helps me maintain a direction in the writing."
--- John Hollenbeck, drums
"Almost exclusively, the music happens first but sometimes on rare occasions a word or image will spark something to happen. I remember reading about Mathew Sheppard and that was one of those rare moments where I started working on lyrics and the music followed."
--- Alphonso Johnson, bass
"I don't think I've ever written a tune to fit with a title, although that might change with a few potential commissions coming up. What I do have is a list of potenital titles for tunes that I can match with new pieces, but only after I've written the music. So I guess technically sometime I do have the title before the music, but it's usually correlation rather than causation."
--- Gary Fukushima, piano
"The music almost always comes first. The only exceptions are when I come up with what I think is a clever title and I need to write a tune as an excuse to use it, but that usually doesn't work. I don't often write tunes based on specific places or events - they are mostly just explorations of musical ideas, so titles are sometimes hard to come by."
--- Ben Monder, guitar
"The music comes first."
--- Darek "Oles" Oleszkiewicz, bass
"For me, it's usually the music first but occasionally a title will inspire the direction. 'Boxer Rebellion', inspired by our 2 dogs, is an example of a 'title first' composition of mine. More often, I will have a person in mind, which I find more inspiring. This was the case with 'Message From Art' (Art Blakey), 'Kind of Bill' (Bill Evans), 'Bella Luce' (Conte Candoli) and 'For Gillian' (my wife). 'Sixth Sense' was inspired by an exercise on the drum set and 'Native Land' is a homage to planet earth. In each of those tunes, the music came first."
--- Joe LaBarbera, drums
"The very first thing that comes to mind is who is the music for, then sometimes the title comes first and the music is written but often what i write is concieved for a group or individuals and then the title is added, so I would say...maybe its 30 percent title first, and 70 percent music, then title. That said, I do keep a bag or lists of titles for every occasion."
--- Vinny Golia, multi-woodwinds
"It's very rare that I have a title before I write. Most often, I have to think of a title at the last minute when a recording is about to be released! Usually I start composing with a mood in mind, but since music is expressive in a way for me that's beyond words, often it's hard for me to think of a specific title that accurately captures that mood."
--- Chris Potter, saxophone
"To me, the title is important - it conveys a feeling and intention about the music before a listener even hears the first note. I often write the title BEFORE I discover the musical ideas. It is one of the many parameters that I use to get started writing, and can bring a sense of unity and focus to a composition.
"The relationship between a title and the composition can be very abstract and hard to define, or it can be more literal and even programmatic. But there are many compositions that first attract a performer's or listener's attention because of an effective title. If I complete a composition without a title, it can be difficult to find a title that is 'as good as' the music, and sometimes feels like a compromise (which is disappointing...). The goal is to complete a composition that tells one focused story, and the title can be very helpful in communicating that story."
--- David Roitstein, piano
"It is not a matter of a title or the music coming first, as both processes happen, as well as co-created titles and pieces that come together simultaneously.
"Some examples would be pieces of mine such as 'Frozen Ropes', 'Drifter', and 'Ceilings' where an entire piece had been completed and needed to be titled. Therefore, whatever popped into my mind--that evidently reflected current circumstances or situations I was immersed in--became the titles.
"Another avenue of construction is exemplified by pieces such as 'Dresden Moods', 'A Tree Frog Tonality', and 'Hydrofoil', where the titles came first and informed the content of the musical composition amply--in these particular cases, an historical event and its aftermath, the inspiration of nature's fine non-human musicians, and a dedication to the spirit of the late Fred Hopkins.
"Lastly the co-created dynamic where a title arises as the music is written. An example of this amongst my works would be 'Nature, Time, Patience'. I realized around half-way through composing the commissioned work, that the aforementioned three elements were going to be essential to the success of the piece, so I simply titled it that."
--- John Lindberg, bass
"When I write music the music always comes first. It starts as a small impulse and melody is almost always the generator. Melody contains so many elements in microcosm (it implies harmony, form, phrases, meter, etc.) and it also has a forward momentum through its storytelling. I just need to get my self out of the way and find what is contained or implied by that first impulse (more and more I'm convinced it contains all the information including the ultimate length of a piece). The title comes much later for me. I think the process would be less abstract and more stilted if I had word associations from the beginning."
--- Larry Koonse, guitar
I was talking about composition with my friend Steve Blum a month or two back, and the topic of titles came up. Turns out, Steve often starts with a title, whereas I rarely produce a title until near the end of the composition process. Everyone approaches composition a different way, and that includes the use of a title. I thought it would be interesting and enlightening to send off emails to some of my favorite composers in the jazz world asking them about this topic, and compile the answers here for y'all. I'd like to thank everyone listed for their time and great responses!
The question was:
"When you write a piece of music, what usually comes first, the music or the title?"
Here are the answers I received:
"Usually the music comes first in my case. The best titles for me do come when I'm at the beginning of the writing process however and am still feeling that initial inspiration. It's harder after the tune is complete to go back and find a title that fits the initial feeling for me."
--- Donny McCaslin, saxophone
"I almost always conceive the music first and titles comes later."
--- Edward Simon, piano
"Without hesitation the music comes first. Some titles come soon after finishing work on a tune, but many don't happen until I'm forced to come up with names of tunes for a record. I'll occasionally come up with a title I like separate from writing music. Then I'll add it to a list of potential tune titles that I'll reference if I'm not coming up with anything for a particular tune. Just like a lot of things, it either comes easily or it takes a while."
---Steve Cardenas, guitar
"For me a mood will come to me when composing and usually a title will follow. Other times a composition will surface at roughly the same time an event of notice occurs in my life."
--- John Fumo, trumpet
"The title either comes first or during the process....it usually helps me maintain a direction in the writing."
--- John Hollenbeck, drums
"Almost exclusively, the music happens first but sometimes on rare occasions a word or image will spark something to happen. I remember reading about Mathew Sheppard and that was one of those rare moments where I started working on lyrics and the music followed."
--- Alphonso Johnson, bass
"I don't think I've ever written a tune to fit with a title, although that might change with a few potential commissions coming up. What I do have is a list of potenital titles for tunes that I can match with new pieces, but only after I've written the music. So I guess technically sometime I do have the title before the music, but it's usually correlation rather than causation."
--- Gary Fukushima, piano
"The music almost always comes first. The only exceptions are when I come up with what I think is a clever title and I need to write a tune as an excuse to use it, but that usually doesn't work. I don't often write tunes based on specific places or events - they are mostly just explorations of musical ideas, so titles are sometimes hard to come by."
--- Ben Monder, guitar
"The music comes first."
--- Darek "Oles" Oleszkiewicz, bass
"For me, it's usually the music first but occasionally a title will inspire the direction. 'Boxer Rebellion', inspired by our 2 dogs, is an example of a 'title first' composition of mine. More often, I will have a person in mind, which I find more inspiring. This was the case with 'Message From Art' (Art Blakey), 'Kind of Bill' (Bill Evans), 'Bella Luce' (Conte Candoli) and 'For Gillian' (my wife). 'Sixth Sense' was inspired by an exercise on the drum set and 'Native Land' is a homage to planet earth. In each of those tunes, the music came first."
--- Joe LaBarbera, drums
"The very first thing that comes to mind is who is the music for, then sometimes the title comes first and the music is written but often what i write is concieved for a group or individuals and then the title is added, so I would say...maybe its 30 percent title first, and 70 percent music, then title. That said, I do keep a bag or lists of titles for every occasion."
--- Vinny Golia, multi-woodwinds
"It's very rare that I have a title before I write. Most often, I have to think of a title at the last minute when a recording is about to be released! Usually I start composing with a mood in mind, but since music is expressive in a way for me that's beyond words, often it's hard for me to think of a specific title that accurately captures that mood."
--- Chris Potter, saxophone
"To me, the title is important - it conveys a feeling and intention about the music before a listener even hears the first note. I often write the title BEFORE I discover the musical ideas. It is one of the many parameters that I use to get started writing, and can bring a sense of unity and focus to a composition.
"The relationship between a title and the composition can be very abstract and hard to define, or it can be more literal and even programmatic. But there are many compositions that first attract a performer's or listener's attention because of an effective title. If I complete a composition without a title, it can be difficult to find a title that is 'as good as' the music, and sometimes feels like a compromise (which is disappointing...). The goal is to complete a composition that tells one focused story, and the title can be very helpful in communicating that story."
--- David Roitstein, piano
"It is not a matter of a title or the music coming first, as both processes happen, as well as co-created titles and pieces that come together simultaneously.
"Some examples would be pieces of mine such as 'Frozen Ropes', 'Drifter', and 'Ceilings' where an entire piece had been completed and needed to be titled. Therefore, whatever popped into my mind--that evidently reflected current circumstances or situations I was immersed in--became the titles.
"Another avenue of construction is exemplified by pieces such as 'Dresden Moods', 'A Tree Frog Tonality', and 'Hydrofoil', where the titles came first and informed the content of the musical composition amply--in these particular cases, an historical event and its aftermath, the inspiration of nature's fine non-human musicians, and a dedication to the spirit of the late Fred Hopkins.
"Lastly the co-created dynamic where a title arises as the music is written. An example of this amongst my works would be 'Nature, Time, Patience'. I realized around half-way through composing the commissioned work, that the aforementioned three elements were going to be essential to the success of the piece, so I simply titled it that."
--- John Lindberg, bass
"When I write music the music always comes first. It starts as a small impulse and melody is almost always the generator. Melody contains so many elements in microcosm (it implies harmony, form, phrases, meter, etc.) and it also has a forward momentum through its storytelling. I just need to get my self out of the way and find what is contained or implied by that first impulse (more and more I'm convinced it contains all the information including the ultimate length of a piece). The title comes much later for me. I think the process would be less abstract and more stilted if I had word associations from the beginning."
--- Larry Koonse, guitar
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Master!
Well, that's it.
I received my Master of Fine Arts Degree from Calarts yesterday, and school's out for the summer...and then some. I had an incredible time these past two years, meeting some of the most inspiring musicians and people, getting to play with them, talk to them, share ideas and experiences. I formed my trio, soon to put out my debut album as a leader, with fellow students at Calarts. I played with and learned from musical legends like Charlie Haden, Wadada Leo Smith, Joe LaBarbera, Darek Oles, Swapan Chaudhuri and Morton Subotnick. While perhaps not as notorious as the aforementioned musicians, every faculty member at Calarts with whom I interacted had a distinct and positive impact on me, something I am sure very few schools could have accomplished. If you have an opportunity to spend some time at Calarts, please do so; it is a haven for the arts and there really is no other place like it.
I'm ready for a bit of rest and recovery after a harrowing but productive two years, but also excited to get to work immediately and dive into my career with complete focus. I began to realize today how much I have been waiting for this time, when I can push forward and dedicate all of my energy to my art, life, and career.
Thank you to all who have helped me up to this point, whether you know it or not. And, especially thank you to my wonderful wife Ami and my truly supportive family.
Well, that's it - for this chapter. Forward, onward, upward and all the other -wards that I can get my hands on. Good night.
I received my Master of Fine Arts Degree from Calarts yesterday, and school's out for the summer...and then some. I had an incredible time these past two years, meeting some of the most inspiring musicians and people, getting to play with them, talk to them, share ideas and experiences. I formed my trio, soon to put out my debut album as a leader, with fellow students at Calarts. I played with and learned from musical legends like Charlie Haden, Wadada Leo Smith, Joe LaBarbera, Darek Oles, Swapan Chaudhuri and Morton Subotnick. While perhaps not as notorious as the aforementioned musicians, every faculty member at Calarts with whom I interacted had a distinct and positive impact on me, something I am sure very few schools could have accomplished. If you have an opportunity to spend some time at Calarts, please do so; it is a haven for the arts and there really is no other place like it.
I'm ready for a bit of rest and recovery after a harrowing but productive two years, but also excited to get to work immediately and dive into my career with complete focus. I began to realize today how much I have been waiting for this time, when I can push forward and dedicate all of my energy to my art, life, and career.
Thank you to all who have helped me up to this point, whether you know it or not. And, especially thank you to my wonderful wife Ami and my truly supportive family.
Well, that's it - for this chapter. Forward, onward, upward and all the other -wards that I can get my hands on. Good night.
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