11/26/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 330)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 330

Date: 11/27/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

Location: The back, center of the main performance hall at Chief Sealth High School.  Seattle, WA

Notes:

Between my teaching commitments today I recorded in the main performance hall at Chief Sealth high school.  With the holiday’s coming up, my access to this room during the 12 Moons project will become limited, and I felt very thankful and energized to be playing in this excellent space once again.  I walked into the room with an improvisational model in mind, but immediately after beginning the recording process a piece emerged that was rooted in my teaching work from a few hours earlier.

To begin my weekly sectional time with a group of Denny Middle School jazz students, I played the recording “Blues For You” from John Coltrane’s album “Coltrane Plays the Blues."  There is a deep but easy-blowing mood on this album, and I used the recoding as a springboard for today’s sectional theme.  After finishing this class and walking into the performance hall, a very simple, blues inspired piece emerged.  In this improvisation, I used 3 pitches that formed an A minor triad.  At will I would insert a recurring multiphonic chord with the following fingering:

(Left Hand) 1-2-3, Low Bb // (Right Hand) 1-2-3

The scope and direction of this improvisation was unplanned, and it was not until nearly the end of the piece that I realized I was developing a long, slow burn from humble beginnings into a larger, darker sound space.  I generally maintain a good sense of elapsed time while improvising, but during this improvisation I felt liberated from time, my ego and my natural inhibitions.  I felt deeply a part of the space and the present.

-Neil

The image "Cataract-Opaque Area Clouding Eye” accompanying today’s post by Magdalena Abakanowicz (2002).

11/25/2013 (Solo Project Day 329)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 329

Date: 11/25/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

Location: Home studion in Clinton, WA (Whidbey Island)

Notes:

This morning was my first multi-hour stretch of uninterrupted practice time in at least a few weeks.  Luckily my mind and body were prepared to work, and I had a very focused and productive session.  Towards the end of this practice time, I began improvising a series of small motives, repeating each in isolation, or threading them together into longer strains of activity.  I naturally gravitated towards 3 melodic figures, and then found multiphonic fingerings that complimented both the individual melodic shapes, and the melodic shapes surrounding them.  These three melodies and three multiphonics became the source material for today’s improvisation.

I wanted these multiphonics to relate harmonically as well as timbrally to the melodies.  Overall, I aimed for a continuous flow of sound with gentler textures in all the played material.  Each melody had its accompanying multiphonic.  These are notated below as Melody 1, and Multiphonic 1, respectively.  Each are notated in the tenor key of Bb.

Melody 1.  Pitches A, E, G, E

Multiphonic 1.  Pitches (in ascending order) F#, F#

(Left Hand) 1-2, Octave, Low B // (Right Hand) 2, High F#

Melody 2.  Pitches Eb, E, B, D

Multiphonic 2.  Pitches (in ascending order) A, Bb, F

(Left Hand) 1-2, Octave, Low B // (Right Hand) 1-2

Melody 3.  Pitches C, D, E, A, D, G, A

Multiphonic 3.  Pitches: C#, E, D

(Left Hand) 1-2-3, Palm Eb only // (Right Hand) 1-2, Low C

The piece opens with a repeating cycle of Melodies 1, 2 and 3 one after the other.  To compositionally balance this, the piece closes with the repeated playing of Multiphonics 1, 2 and 3, again one after the other.  During the bulk of the piece I would continuously move from Melody 1, to 2, and 3, while occasionally interrupting the melodic threads by playing a multiphonic immediately after its Melodic pair.  For example, I would play Melody 1, 2, 3, 1 followed by Multiphonic 1, and then continue on to Melody 2, 3, 1 etc.

-Neil

The image “Constructivismes 2009” accompanying today’s post by R.H. Quaytman (2009).

11/24/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 328)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 328

Date:11/24/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

Location: Home studio in Clinton, WA (Whidbey Island)

Notes:

My wife and I headed up to Mount Index today to close our cabin for the Winter.  We spent the day installing simple, swinging window covers to help keep out the snow, a hard lesson we learned after last Winter’s heavy snowfall.  After finishing for the day, I headed to the top of the property to record today’s 12 Moons improvisation.  It was late afternoon with full sun shining down. The snow line was very low, exposing all the bare patches of earth on the majestic Cascade Range off in the foreground.  With the foliage now gone from the trees that surrounded the cabin and our property beyond, the Skykomish River was once again in view at the bottom of the ravine below us.  

During this piece I opened myself up to the beautiful day around me.  We’ve been lucky to have a long stretch of cold, sunny days this past week, and I was happy to up at the cabin working today.  During this piece I wanted to capture the calmness of this wonderful place, but also my purpose for being there today.  In a few weeks the ground will be covered in snow and within a 4-6 weeks it will be early impassible by car.  It’s always a bit sad for me knowing it will be half a year until I’m back at the cabin again, but the wait also makes the first trip back that much for enjoyable for me once the snowmelt finally comes.  To capture this transitional mood and the spirit of this day, I centered this improvisation around a figure which used a consonant major third interval with the pitches G# and E, played with rapid articulation.  But surrounding this interval was darker half step interval with the pitches G# and A.  I then incorporated a winder, more ominous Major 7th chord with the pitches A (mid register) and G# (upper register).  I used quick accelerando’s to articulate many of these pitches, chords and clusters, and used the fast tempo increases to suddenly break into and out of the textures I was exploring. 

-Neil

The image accompanying today’s post is of Mount Index.

11/23/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 327)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 327

Date: 11/23/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

Location: Home studio in Clinton, WA (Whidbey Island)

Notes:

A small cocoon is fastened to the outside of my practice room window.   About three months ago a small bug made its way up the window and began constructing the cocoon.  Only a few feet away a massive spider had woven it’s own resting spot.  Over the course of a day or two the cocoon was fully formed.  I had wondered if the spider would make it’s way over to target the easy pray, but it never appeared to do so.  After about 3 weeks, I noticed two wings beginning to push out from the white cocoon, but this is where the process stopped.  Whatever was inside did not make it, and was now frozen in position.  I’ve left it alone on the window to see what the process of diminution would look like.  Its now been about 3 months since the cocoon was formed, Winter has set in, and the little grave looks remarkably unchanged.  I developed today’s improvisation after having looked at it on the window for a minute or so this morning and having forgotten about the cocoon for at least a week. 

During this improvisation I pivoted around two fingerings to create, at the outset, a dark and static mood.  The two fingerings were as follows:

Fingering 1.  Pitches G (lower register) and Bb (upper register)

(Left Hand) 1-2-3, Low B // (Right Hand) 1-2-3, Low Eb.  Trill open and closed the G key in the left hand.

Fingering 2.  Pitches G (lower register) and A (upper register)

(Left Hand) 1-2-3, Low Bb // (Right Hand) 1-2-3.  Trill open and closed the G key in the left hand.

From these two fingerings I then began exploring the concept of maintaining the more static mood, while quickening the pace of melodic action, representing the forming of the cocoon.  After about 1 minute I began cycling open and closed the G key in the left hand as well as the side Bb key while quickening the overall tempo.  Inside this outer “cocoon” I wanted the internal structure, or mood to remain the same.  Eventually I began incorporating more indeterminate pitches by articulating against the reed, until a point at which the internal structure fractures and all that remains is a series of threaded, punctuated sounds–the outer shell.  After a brief unwinding of these articulations I unstained two pitches, each derived from the original fingerings, followed by a grand pause.  There is then a return to the original body of sound, this time with fractured pitch punctuations surrounding it.  

-Neil

The image accompanying today’s post from the blog “Inside Art New Orleans” from co-curators Caroline Rankin and Megan Whitmarsch.

11/22/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 326)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 326

Date: 11/22/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

Location: Home studio in Clinton, WA (Whidey Island)

Notes:

This improvisation came to me immediately as I began practicing this morning.  In it I used a simple folk melody played through a series of split tone and multiphonic fingerings.  Buried internally within the chords, the melody used the pitches Gb, Ab, Bb, D during the ascent, and the Bb, Ab, Gb on the descent.  As the melody ascended, I used fingerings which added a new key as each pitch climbed higher, and then subsequently began releasing one key per pitch during the descent.  The improvisation overall was felt in a 6/8 meter, with occasional diversions way from triple into duple phrasing.  I played the bulk of the material at medium tempo but gave myself the liberty to transition into slower or faster tempos at all times. 

During the piece I used a familiar technique of phasing in and out of octaves, exploring the beautiful colors hidden within the chord structures.  When diverting away from the cyclical 6/8 feel, I would often create punctuations in either the upper register or lower register, while then interjecting the 6/8 melody once again.  At other points I faded out the melodic cycle, while cross-fading in the Concert D (the highest tone in the melody) which them came to dominate the sound spectrum as a sustained pitch.  Even during these brief moments of sustain, I wanted the improvisation to possess a feeling of forward motion at all times.

The fingerings and primary melodic cycle were as follows (in order of execution)

(Ascending)

1.  (Left Hand) 1-2, Low Bb // (Right Hand) 1-2-3, Low C

2.  (Left Hand) 1-2, Octave, Low Bb // (Right Hand) 1-2-3, Low C

3.  (Left Hand) 1-2, Octave, Palm Eb key only, Low Bb // (Right Hand) 1-2-3, Low C

4.  (Left Hand) 1-2, Octave, Palm Eb key only, Low Bb // (Right Hand) 1-2-3, Low C, High F

(Descending)

5.  Same as fingering 3.

6.  Same as fingering 2.

-Neil

The image accompanying today’s post by Elias Friedensohn.