So, Joel and I were discussing modes last night, especially as connected to medieval music and a possible future recording project. I happened to have my Zoom recorder to hand as we experimented with different modes, so I captured a couple of our study improvisations.
The present piece is in F# Phrygian, which it so happens a dulcimer tuned DAA with a capo at the 2nd fret is primed to play. Joel's playing accordion on this one, which led to a contemplation, as yet unresolved, over how best we might amplify accordion to work into the live show. We do live in Louisiana, luckily, so I'm guessing we can find some folks who have solved this problem already...
I shot the strange little film of bugs and flowers in my backyard earlier in the day.
Though it's an ever changing target, I've recently taken to using the word "jazz" more and more when I address the recurring question of genre that folks put to us: "so what kind of music to you play?" Folks ask this even when they've been listening to us play for several songs or more. It's a deceptively complex question.
I'm being a bit mischievous, though, when I use the word "jazz" in conjunction with genre, because, following Bill Evans and others (see the video below), I've come to understand the concept of jazz foremost as a process -- an approach to music that relies on informed improvisation. Perhaps a more common way of understanding "jazz" is to think of it as a "style" of music, though, which people variously hear in their mind's ear as bebop or smooth jazz or what-have-you. Obviously, that's not what I'm talking about when I talk about Twang as jazz, with the notable exception of a few pieces which rather obviously invoke elements of the "jazz style" (to the extent that such a thing even exists).
But Bill Evans can explain all this far better than I, unsurprisingly. So I humbly offer you a bit of musical documentary, Bill Evans on the Creative Process and Self-teaching, recently discovered on a wonderful website called Open Culture.
This is an inspriring film about music and the work that goes into it. Evans elucidates musical and creative concepts that very much resonate and help shape my own thoughts on these matters. In particular, his approach to the tension between frameworks and improvisation is fascinating and useful. In keeping with this way of understanding things, our own best pieces are the ones that provide rich base structures for improvisation, leading us to songs that are recognizable from performance to performance as "This or That," and yet still loose enough for us to surf the musical moments that arise. To my understanding, that's a kind of jazz, even when we're using the vocabulary of roots rock.
Most importantly, this "jazz" approach gives us room to grow. And when I listen to Evans play anything on the piano, I know it's an endless road we're travelling. Luckily, I think that's probably the best kind.
Our new album, The Sound of Secret Names, is available now as either a download, or as a download with a CD shipped to you. Order here.
This is Twang's first proper studio album, and I'm quite proud of the work we've done: 13 new songs of instrumental rock music, touching upon Appalachian, Spaghetti Western, swamp and roots, blues, Elizabethan, Native American, and jazz notes. Dulcimers, acoustic and electric guitars, flute, harmonica, upright bass, and sensational drumming -- Twang music!
A swamp rock sort of thing... one of our "juke joint" pieces, as we recorded it for our cd, The Sound of Secret Names.
A lot of songs for me begin with a central riff idea I find while noodling around. I play around with that riff and let it percolate and mutate. If it's of made of sound stuff, it can lead to a pretty loosely structured arrangement with fair amount of improvisational business related to the riff. Luckily this kind of approach works really well with Twang Darkly -- Joel and Troy are dogged trackers!
This particular piece ends up seeming as though it were structured like a normal ABABCAB sort of song, but the pattern of "parts" is dictated primarily by the feel of the individual performance.
