Last night I went to Barbes, the Brooklyn boite where my daughter,
Rachelle, performs monthly. Her improvisations get increasingly
fascinating the more I get immersed in the the improvisatory quality
that has to remain a vital element of music performance.
I
notice that she has two different kinds of improvisatory impulse: The
verbal improv is most free when the musical elements are kept to a
minimum, and the tonal elements when there are no words. She
has always improvised the intros to the songs, as she did again last
night, but there was a magical moment in which such an intro launched
without interruption into a new song. Even the bass player didn't
realize what was happening until it had already taken place.
I have learned a great deal by putting myself on a regular basis in the presence of someone who works with
these forces in order to realize the potential disguised by standard
music notation.
