QUESTIONS TO BAY AREA IMPROVISORS :

This blog contains a collection of interviews I made during my AIR Residency in the Headlands Center for the Arts, in September / Oktober 2017, with improvising musicians from the Bay Area. I met Tim Perkis, Karen Stackpole, Gino Robair, Tom Djll, Chris Brown, Aurora Josephson  and some other improvising musicians from the Bay and asked them pretty much the same questions.

The main interest about this work is driven by the idea that listening to improvisations does partially focus on other topics than listening to composed music. In composed music the use of the material and decisions can lead to a reflection on the ideas underlining the composers work. In improvisation the analysis of the material does not necessarily lead to any conclusions. Nonetheless many reviews of improvised music focus on nothing but playing techniques, involving awkward word inventions to describe what kind of noise was made. And unfortunately much too often that´s where it all ends.

I believe that improvisation is put together by interaction (of all kinds) rather than by material. So if you want to speak about improvisation you have to look at the interaction.

The interviews will be published one by one.

Meanwhile, in late 2019, these interviews are published as little booklets in pocket size. If you wish to support this work please order the booklets per mail to the prize of 7 € / booklet plus shipping.

(Please note that this prize is a solidarity prize, means I wanted to keep the prize low no matter whether it covers the costs I had in the production of the booklets. If you have enough money and it makes you feel good, please feel free to pay more. If you can not even afford the 7 € write me and I make you a better prize (this applies for students etc.))