Tagged with: musicians
Interesting name, don’t you think. This is a fairly new project based in Los Angeles with two very interesting people, Evan Taylor and Sarah Safaie. They have been putting out about one new single a month. Available on their band camp page
Purple Witch Culver
After writing and working on a couple of operas the things that I was seeking to overcome still remained an obstacle. A production or any presentation is a single item that should be looked after as a whole by all involved no matter what their particular field of excellence. The tendency for most is to just attempt to do their "job" and if there are things amiss they pass the buck in a few ways that undermine the coherence of a work--at least those that are produced by a multiple number of people. Often, after they have done their "bit" (acting, singing, playing, directing, or lighting) they neglect other shortfalls they observe as if it wasn't their department. The mistake is, that in a larger work, the final work, as a whole, is every contributor's department. Otherwise the work remains in pieces and, the work of each contributor, is looked at as deficient regardless of skill level.
From different backgrounds and diverse training experiences or modes of apprenticeship come different ways of working. Certain artforms make action in different ways- for example the inner workings of opera singers tends to be different than actors and others from more "straight" theater. Where there would be benefit from both exchanging, learning, and translating each others methods the default is to recoil into what is easy, and then compete for dominant view in a production. If dominance isn't obtained then variations of the line, "well...I've done my job." emerge, and a production is on the way to fragmented compromise and egotistical stagnation of he various artisans.
It is like Franklin's revolutionary observation- "We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately."
Most good theater has a certain air of revolution about it anyway, and this starts early in history.
(Note to hipsters and group musicians: when you perform it is a kind of theater ritual whether you like it or not. The tendency is to imagine that you have a heady and less pretentious mode of performance...but you don't! Audiences still respond as if it was a dramatic performance with another kind of content. Poor music performance often hangs on a lack of attention to this. Muddy Waters's band had a look and a stance on stage where another could have been used, and a lot could be derived and realized from that stance. So, he projected the real, or similar values even before any music was played. Archie Shepp wrote for the theater and there is probably much underlying knowledge there that reveals itself in the power of his stance and presentation when he performs. Arts separation is a bit deadly!)
Perusing Peter Brook's (wish I'd read it sooner) classic, The Empty Space,I came across this passage which even more articulately states the problem.
"Closely related to this is the conflict between theatre directors and musicians in opera productions where two totally different forms, drama and music, are treated as though they were one. A musician is dealing with a fabric that is as near as man can get to an expression of the invisible. His score notes this invisibility and his sound is made by instruments which hardly ever change. The player's personality is
Firstly, I'll be back.
Secondly, it definitely feels like the end of a chapter and it's caused some amount of reflexive pondering. There were a lot of warm send off parties and parting gigs, and I can't express what it I felt like to receive that sort of attention from friends and colleagues. Thank you for all those who sent me off so well and made me feel some sense of accomplishment. It's nice to leave thinking that some musical efforts really have been understood.
...Now I find myself here in California, on the precipice of the Pacific, thinking so hard and gratefully about the last 22 years in New Orleans. I would always rather be there but I suppose musical exploration is driving me right now, more than location. New Orleans offers both in a way I love, but there are some directions that, artistically and, yes, even in music, that the city doesn't really foster at this juncture. There are, of course, still other well known features where the city shows itself to have no ceiling. I feel lucky to have benefitted a great deal from those limitless directions.
The music community that accepted me so easily when I first got to town is really composed of individuals. I can't really say enough about these figures. On the outside we spend a lot of time talking about the groups. And that is important from the outside, as music goes a long way in describing co-effort and harmony within groups. Yet, from the inside, particularly while playing, one is really feeling the