The evolution of improvisation

By Kip Hanrahan

As far as what I do during live performances, that's a whole story, and an evolved (not always for the best) and evolving one.

Music for the Texts of Ishmael Reed By Conjure American Clavé: 1985 To hear sound clips or learn more about this release, Turbula recommends viewing its Amazon.com entry. Days and Nights of Blue Luck Inverted By Kip Hanrahan American Clavé: 1985 To hear sound clips or learn more about this release, Turbula recommends viewing its Amazon.com entry.

I started off playing percussion, guitar and singing live. Then, when better percussionists joined, I played less percussion. When Jack (Bruce) joined, I sang less and less live, etc. It

Kip Hanrahan

was Gil Evans who suggested that I should join him and use the band each night as a chance to write and re-write music as the concert goes on. He only played piano to start and cue pieces (he always said he was only a composer/piano player, not a pianist), and suggested, as we were understanding our roles a lot alike, that I do what I do in the studio (he actually was a fan who'd show up to watch the sessions), and play a little, then turn to music sheets I'd have on the stage and take notes, or even change the charts as I imagine new ideas, and hand them to the players as the set went on. In the case of Jack, even new words as the set went on.

When it works, it's magic. Sometimes, it's a train wreck. Not all the new ideas you get during a concert are as good as the ones already written and rehearsed. And the method looks awkward to people who don't know what I'm doing. But it does let us NOT get stuck quoting music that's already there, repeating music that existed the set the night before. This way, each night we allow a new musical truth, or set of musicly possible illusions, to make itself audible in whatever town or space we're playing in.

As far as my actually playing on stage, that was a problem from the time Gil suggested it. I write on guitar (I'd like to write on bass, but ...), but it's (like Gil used to say of his piano playing) composer's guitar. I write to hear the chords and notes move, but I'm bored with my playing and phrasing. It's much more interesting for me to, in the studio and on stage, have a more interesting guitarist, like Leo Nocentelli, find something in what I wrote, and play it to a deeper music, even if that player can't "technically" play the same voiced chords, or can't read or whatever. Or, at some of the richest moments, have the basses play the moving notes of what I'v writen on guitar, using only the essential ones, but making it stronger. (You have to admit that the bassists I've been lucky enough to work with are all enough of musicians to transform whatever I write into seven times the music, by what they include and what they leave out, and how they do it. Man.)

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