CD77, track 2

[ted]

I haven't recorded as much improvisation recently as I have been working on my technique and playing pieces. Suddenly it seems the physical aspect is improving in leaps and bounds, which is strange at sixty-five. I am treading carefully but I think I can afford to "unleash da fury" again now, at least in small doses. Hopefully not without concomitant musical effect though. This one is from yesterday and doesn't seem too foul apart from the slack start, which is par for the course for me.

[chopinatic]

I really enjoyed the suspense and build up at around the 8 minute 40 mark, and at about 15 mins 30 was beautiful.

[ted]

Thanks for listening and for your comments; I very quickly forget most of what I play. Exactly how precise moments come into being in improvisation is never very clear at the best of times. The jazz brigade talk about innumerable playing forms which purportedly bring about superior improvisation, but I have long missed the bus and cannot understand that approach. The whole process is so transient and dynamic and there are so many variables and feedback loops involved. I might think I know but when I try a specific method again it often doesn't work. I can remember a large vocabulary of general processes which are highly likely to produce interesting moments, but there is never any guarantee. Of course if I want to form a clearly defined, repeatable composition from improvised material, then I have to do that sort of retrospective wrestling match, as I did when young, but I cannot say I really enjoy it any more. I keep wanting to change things too much. Change and surprise are very important to my enjoyment of music now.