Re: West Eats Meat

That's a tall order, but Okay:

We go about things in one of three ways - we either have a "sketch" chart
that lays out a head or a rhythmic/motivic idea;

The guitar player will start playing something and direct the band through
what HE is doing - he leads, we follow; or

I will start something and the others will follow that. The other night, the
drummer and I were farting around with a Bill Laswell-ish dub jam while Ari
was changing instruments, and it turned into a 30 minute jam that was one
of the best we've ever done.

Ari's instruments have prescribed open tunings, so the key centers revolve
around those and the related keys i.e. I IV V vi, maj/min. The keys are C,
C# and D; I know buy the instrument he chooses next what the locus will be.

Other than that, I have to say, I just rely on the Synethesia. I "see" what
he is playing,and this tells me the scale/raga we will be using. I know this
is going to sound totally ridiculous, but If I hear "brown/yellow", we're in
D Dorian, and if I hear "brown/gold", we're in D minor. Yeah, I know...

Anything you hear that is me "following changes" is just me perceiving a
change and acting on it. It is entirely a listening exercise. It has always
amused me that most people thing "free jazz" = playing any old thing. It
actually requires a very high level of listening skils to do well.

The drummer AFAIK latches on to the first solid downbeat and is off to the
races with a combo of Indian tabla rhythms and Jack DeJohnette grooves. We
also work off of each other a lot. The trick is to do that without getting
stuck in any one pattern; let the music "float".

As far as the "what" of I'm playing - I drift between laying down support
and being a true second lead instrument detached from the drums. Ari takes
up so much sonic space anyway that the bottom is not lost when I do this.
Lately, I have been doing a lot more "lead" playing.

I'm also approching this from the perspective of melodic lines interwtining
(cue Spinal Tap), rather than "supporting the harmonic structure". We have
an electric tambour which drones the R/5 of the key anyway.

That's as much as I can think of now. Ask away.





--
Lessons, music and more at www.jmsjazz.com

Conservatives are not necessarily stupid,
but most stupid people are conservatives."
- John Stuart Mill








"S&y" <peek@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:6M8cg.3510$921.2871@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
That is an interesting sound. I could listen for a very long time to
figure out what you're doing. Life is short, John. Would you tell us a
bit about how the music is structured, how much you have to 'hear' in
order to interact & how you all re-direct when you sense things have
gotten side tracked??

S&y




John Shaughnessy wrote:
Just finished a quickie webpage for my latest project, West Eats Meat.
Apparently someone is looking to book us for a festival this summer, so
I
threw this together. I like this web thing SO much better than mailing
***
out...

The band is basically a hybrid of Indian classical music, Middle Eastern
music and Free Jazz. The guitar player Ari, has been building
instruments of
his own design for the last year which are hybrids of guitar, sitar, and
sarod.I can honestly say you haven't heard anything like this before.

Here's a link to my site. I have short clips of two improvisations up
for
now. These were TOTALY improvised; we showed up and plugged in. No
charts,
no rehearsal. And not to blow my own horn (well okay...) but in the
electric
bass solo example, that is NOT a pick; just two fingers...

http://www.jmsjazz.com/wem.htm

Reactions have been either "really love it" or "really hate it." We
either
pack a room or clear it, which is fine with me. So if you hate it,
please
don't be afraid to say so.

Our new stuff is even more "ethnic". I've been playing what I call a
"modified Bass Saz", pics of which will be on my new website shortly.
'I'm
also waiting on a Turkish spike fiddle to arrive...Sure beats playing
Satin
Doll for assholes who don't listen. Too bad there's no money in it.

Oh, here's a pic of one of Ari's instruments. This is his first model,
and
the only one that sort-of looks like a guitar still:

http://www.lehtelaguitarcraft.com/assets/sitari_01L.jpg

Anyway, hope you like it (or not). Comments appreciated.



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