Out of Curiosity...

[Mike]

Careful Chris, I don't want you choking on your morning bagel.
I haven't touched the sax since last July when Chris and I completed our 6th CD. I didn't see a point
in continuing because I didn't love playing it. I liked playing it but I never acquired that love which some of you have.
It's a great instrument but I like it better when I listen to others.

I was staring at the thing and wondered what I would sound like if I recorded something improvisational.
So I chose a rhythm track that Chris and I never used and here it is.
My rhythm is really off in a lot of places, which for me is always the main element
in my playing that goes to hell and that's the most important aspect of playing, in my opinion.

But it's all in fun and it felt really strange blowing into it. The forum has become diverse in others sharing
their work and I wanted to contribute something. Curiosity got the better of me.........

Out of Curiosity
https://www.box.com/s/aqty3or9jv1y7bk0ken5

 

[Fraser Jarvis]

Seems such a waste, to be able to play like that and not use it....

 

[Ivan]

Seems such a waste, to be able to play like that and not use it....

Seconded

 

[kevgermany]

Seems such a waste, to be able to play like that and not use it....

yes, agree

 

[trimmy]

If we can both be online at 6pm today and we both gently touch the start button on our computers, do you think it would pass some of your unwanted skills onto me ? !! Nahhhhh didn't think so
To be able to pick a sax up after 6months and play like that is such a waste if you don't carry on playing

 

[rudjarl]

Seems such a waste, to be able to play like that and not use it....

agree with that

 

[Colin the Bear]

I completely understand. If it's not floating your boat it becomes a chore. I had 15 years or so away from the sax. I couldn't see the point. Had a go at singing and banjo and various folk strings. Took a meander down the heavy metal guitar road for a while. I also started listening more and explored lots of different music.

I picked it up again a couple of years ago. I now feel like I have something to say and know who I am and where I'm going with the saxophone.

At present I have a need to play and if I don't play daily I get a bit twitchy. Some need to practice every day and strive for perfection, others need to come and go. A break can be like clearing out the shed. All the stuff you thought to be important reveals itself to be the junk and the clutter it really is.

I hope you get your Mojo back Mike.

 

[Chris]

Now I've wiped the Coffee off the monitor.:shocked: Not bad for a retired sax player. They don't write music like that anymore. Music has a way of always getting back at you Mike. You can run but you can't hide as they say..))))

Chris..

 

[trimmy]

I hope you get your Mojo back Mike.

Jeeeez and here's me thinking it was only the sax that packed in

 

[Clivey]

Is this what they used to call a " single release " ? I think its one of the best you pair have done.( That I have heard ) ..Very Boppy and cool time sig as well.

Enjoyed.

 

[Mike]

Thanks everyone. Yeah, I'm sure most think I'm an idiot to not pursue the sax.
Man, I just don't have the love some of you have for this instrument. I love it too
when it's not me playing. Sincerely.....The hobbyist attitude from my perspective is that I'm an impersonator of this music of jazz. lol.....In other words, 'Here's my impression of a jazz musician'.... I don't try to formulate a chord progression the way it's played because I hate to practice, always did. So, I mimic what I think should be played as a 'response'. I do have a decent ear but not a great ear and so I grope along as best I could. Chris will tell you, I never wanted to know the chorded structure to any piece he sent me. It didn't interest me.


It's my own style but it will always remain a hit or miss style. I call it the lazy man's style to jazz improvisation because when it comes to improv learning, I'm profoundly lazy. Do you really think I know what it is I'm doing? I guess and then I guess some more. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't and it's always on a fly, but that's purely out of chance. Learning II-V-I's? Are you kidding me? lol.....But these are the things that must be learned in order to be an efficient player. I'm not efficient and so I play it today or I don't play it for months on end. It's never something I fret over. I just respond to it and after awhile I get curious what will come out of it because I'd forgotten how I last played, like last night.
I can like it for what it is but there's certainly no love there and that works perfectly fine. I find it equally rewarding when I'm not playing as I do when I like it for brief periods, not to sound too much like Zen. What I do love to do is read! Now there I have a genuine love!


There are some really good players on this forum and some up and coming players. I enjoy listening to what they're doing. Personally, I think more should post their recordings and let everyone hear what they're doing. I'm rhythmically flawed and still I put it up. It's cool for everyone. No one here is a Charlie Parker. It's just fun to share what we do. Life's short....


I could understand other attitudes regarding what they heard, in regards to my playing. I assume that there are quite a lot of serious players who love playing this instrument. I certainly don't want to show disrespect in my nonchalance because I too love the instrument when someone else is playing it. I like hanging out and just listening. In fact I would rather listen back to what I played than the actual process of playing it. There was a writer, sorry, forgot the name, who said. "I hate writing, but I love having written".


Thanks to all the posters, I do appreciate this support.

 

[gladsaxisme]

Firstly I would like to apologise for what might have appeared to be less than amiable comments I may have made in the past but I would like to say at this point I have always thought you were a tremendous sax player despite what you seem to think of it youself,I am very glad you mentioned Charlie Parker because I have been doing a lot of listening to him since Christmas,I have all or most of his music standing on spotify at the moment which I listen to as I read Miles Davis the Autobigraphy and as you proably know there is plenty to go at,and when you listen in that way it kind of gets ingrained in you,as I listened to you playing I got the same kind of feeling,you say you have very little interest in chord structure etc and just play on the fly which to me is exactly the way Bird played,Miles coments that bird could leave all the band for dead and go of on his own little roam around any tune but would always come back at some point right where he needed to be,he talks about having arguments with a particular pianist who used to try to go off with him and left everybody in the lurch wondering where they were supposed to be and told him to leave bird to do what he did and stay with the rythm cause bird would come back in his own time,I honestly believe Bird did exactly what you are saying isn't right I think he went where the music took him and where he felt it should go with very little regard for convention, but it was always wonderful,I really don't think you need to knock your playing for doing something that the master did all the time,especially when you do it so well,I know I will never get anywhere near that,WELCOME BACK....john

PS please post some more of this kind of stuff it's fabulous

 

[Mike]

Firstly I would like to apologise for what might have appeared to be less than amiable comments I may have made in the past but I would like to say at this point I have always thought you were a tremendous sax player despite what you seem to think of it youself,I am very glad you mentioned Charlie Parker because I have been doing a lot of listening to him since Christmas,I have all or most of his music standing on spotify at the moment which I listen to as I read Miles Davis the Autobigraphy and as you proably know there is plenty to go at,and when you listen in that way it kind of gets ingrained in you,as I listened to you playing I got the same kind of feeling,you say you have very little interest in chord structure etc and just play on the fly which to me is exactly the way Bird played,Miles coments that bird could leave all the band for dead and go of on his own little roam around any tune but would always come back at some point right where he needed to be,he talks about having arguments with a particular pianist who used to try to go off with him and left everybody in the lurch wondering where they were supposed to be and told him to leave bird to do what he did and stay with the rythm cause bird would come back in his own time,I honestly believe Bird did exactly what you are saying isn't right I think he went where the music took him and where he felt it should go with very little regard for convention, but it was always wonderful,I really don't think you need to knock your playing for doing something that the master did all the time,especially when you do it so well,I know I will never get anywhere near that,WELCOME BACK....john

PS please post some more of this kind of stuff it's fabulous

I appreciate it John. Don't be concerned, I never take anything online personal because I really couldn't know who you are, or anyone else, and so I understand that anything can be taken any which way so it's best never to overly consumed with difference of opinion. I realize that in a physical 3D environment things would have the potential to be remarkedly different regarding the same topic of discussion.
It's very nice of you to post, thank you!.


Yeah, when I was first starting out I was consumed with Bird. Although he had an incredible ear and he could hear right through any change presented to him. He had a way of playing changes that was like a physicist contemplating sub atomic particles. He listened for substitutions of the depth within the harmonies potential. But he did that intelligently. People like me can't understand that on that 'molecular' level and so I pretend to do just that, which is okay. I'm an experimentalist who never comes to a conclusion. Bird was ALL about resolve! I don't need to be definitive or conclusive in whatever it is I play. I'm not trying to be self depracating, just merely being honest in how I see my own situation. I'm perfectly fine with it because it's not important to my way of life. Bird lived through his horn and you heard his life everytime he played.


Bird was like Einstein. The theory was always there but it took someone with vision and imagination to show others how it's done, or how it really is. Bird heard the barrier that was mainstream at the time and instinctively knew how to stretch it beyond human conception at that particular time. Today it's common place to have heard the equation E=mC2, and it's common place for every sax player to recognize Bird's playing in other sax players. Bird was genius because he changed the way improvisation
is approached, even after 70 some odd years. Einstein was a direct parallel and genius only comes into play when a popular way of thought is forever changed because something with a better intellect makes perfect sense in every logical and mathematical way.

 

[Sue]

Well I enjoyed listening - thank you. If you don't love playing and it's a 'chore' then it didn't come across in this piece. I haven't heard anything you've done with Chris so no comparisons to make. I'd love to hear more so if you record in the future, please share (only if you want though). Once again thanks

Scoots off to search forum for Mike & Chris music

 

[Mike]

Well I enjoyed listening - thank you. If you don't love playing and it's a 'chore' then it didn't come across in this piece. I haven't heard anything you've done with Chris so no comparisons to make. I'd love to hear more so if you record in the future, please share (only if you want though). Once again thanks

Scoots off to search forum for Mike & Chris music

Thank you Sue. Well, when it becomes a chore then I stop. I never make myself play. That's why I'm intermittent.
On this page I presented a medley of some of Chris's writing and my improv on that writing.
I'll record again, just don't know when because there is something I would like to checkout which I left off with last July. It'a kind of angular thing so maybe something will come out of it. My playing usually presented itself in a linear way.


Every now and again I like to do jigsaw puzzles. I never continuously do them. With my sax I try to connect as many notes in sequence that sound decent, or fit, when I feel a compulsion to try. Inspiration is a fleeting phenomenon of our species. I just don't fight it when inspiration decides to become void.

 

[daveysaxboy]

Keep the horn in ya mouth.Very nice straight ahead playing.I've been on that rocky road of not enjoying,thinking of rapping many times.It can be hard but when it all clicks at a gig its the best drug going.Chin up.Keep the faith.We need you.

 

[Colin the Bear]

I wouldn't worry about all the theory bandied about by jazz heroes. It's not lazy to not spend vast amounts of time learning how to restrict yourself. Music is an aural thing. No need to understand how a watch works to tell the time. You pick up what you need. It can help if you're composing and stuck for ideas and it can help to explain something you're having trouble hearing.

The chords are only there to carry a good melody. If you're playing the chords then you're part of the backing imo. Handy to mark where you are in the tune and a safe route when perfoming a new piece or something you don't know.

I think we all get dazzled by Bird when we start out on alto. I'm more into Desmond and Hodges now.

Life throws things at you. I ended up dueting with a bird in a tree while busking today, and a builders flat back truck with a slight misfire and a rattling exhaust inspired a new rhythm for a bit of freestyling I was indulging in.

Quiet moments can inspire great sounds.

If you can keep your tone without playing on a daily basis , lucky you.

Play when you feel inspired. It will inspire us all.....or maybe we won't like it lol who knows?

 

[Mike]

Keep the horn in ya mouth.Very nice straight ahead playing.I've been on that rocky road of not enjoying,thinking of rapping many times.It can be hard but when it all clicks at a gig its the best drug going.Chin up.Keep the faith.We need you.

There seems to be a misinterpretation here. I'm not complaining or feeling slighted of my deficiency in being current in my playing.
I'm only explaining to those who feel that I'm in denial or that I'm down that I'm an intermittent player. I enjoy when it comes and I also and equally enjoy when I don't play. I have a balanced attitude when it comes to playing the saxophone.
I understand that some feel a sense of guilt when the inspiration doesn't happen and the process may be forced to keep as current as possible. I don't battle those emotions.

I simply felt an urge and I responded and so I shared that urge because others share their urge to contribute.
That's really it in a nutshell.

Thanks for listening Dave!

 

[Mike]

Life throws things at you. I ended up dueting with a bird in a tree while busking today, and a builders flat back truck with a slight misfire and a rattling exhaust inspired a new rhythm for a bit of freestyling I was indulging in.

Yeah, I can dig that. That's a beautiful way to spend some time. Nature exemplifying nature. And the flat bed truck's misfire is what I was explaining awhile back in that controversial thread I put forth. It's all out there and we can pick and choose what it is we find musical because imagination can allow for all of it to be very musical if the intuition is open to it.

Right Colin, it's about inspiration and I certainly don't look for it because inspiration knows where to find me or anyone else.
Essentially, inspiration is saying....'Look, I'm here, take it or leave it'. It does it's part and we must do ours depending on own frame of mind when inspiration does ring our door bell!

 

[Strobe]

wow..what a thread! here's some of me, mike. to me, playing my horn has always been about love and the people - those I play with and those I play for and so really for everyone.
the dilemma I have faced, continue to face and will until forever is best described by my great friend in his song 'aimer'. I'll play the melody for you, note for word..https://soundcloud.com/strobell
aimer, cest un grand pays. o ami. mais comment, comment, comment l'habiter? comment l'habiter?
In English, it's not poetry, but it says...to love (loving) is a great (large) country, o my friend. The question is, how can (should) you live in it?