[Mike1955]

This is a piece I had written where I envision 3 trumpets, 3 saxophones (all with reverb), Wade's wawa on his sopranino sax brought this piece to mind, and have them wander aimlessly around the stage in a moderate steady pace while playing the horns parts. The bass player and the drummer would be directly in the center facing each other with the bass player with his back to the front and the drummer facing front, facing the bass player. The 2 keyboard players would come in at 1:24 and exit at 2:00 and play Keytars (guitar shaped keyboard) and walk moderately on a diagonal and when they reached the other side of the stage/room, they would then turn and head back as they alter their previous diagonal and moderately walk back while the horns are all intermingling around them and the bass and drummer. Sort of like the game pong. They would come in at opposite sides of the stage/room. Their venture would have to approximate 36 seconds. So on a pace of 18 seconds per diagonal walk.

It means nothing at all in concept but this is how I would enjoy seeing it performed if that was ever to come about.

Maybe one day technology will allow me to create this myself.
It is a beautiful consolation in having software allow me to realize the sounds in 4 dimensions while my imagination works terpsichoreally.

If You're Me Then Who Am I
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=1176814&songID=11129695

 

[Wade Cornell]

Demented, compelling, and downright catchy. Have listened to this about ten times now. Better watch out this is so good it has commercial possibilities. If written out for a tuba virtuoso it would be a must play! Hey, it's a very underutilised niche!

The trumpet line really works as the background for the bass line solo. Wonderful atonal complexity that makes perfect sense to me with inversions in both lines etc. Then mixing it up. What a gas.
More please.


What can I say? I love it!

 

[rolltrane]

great work Mike! This was my 9am wake up call for today. That was like the spirit of Jaco on bass! And you have the choreography worked out too- very cool

 

[Mike1955]

Demented, compelling, and downright catchy. Have listened to this about ten times now. Better watch out this is so good it has commercial possibilities. If written out for a tuba virtuoso it would be a must play! Hey, it's a very underutilised niche!

The trumpet line really works as the background for the bass line solo. Wonderful atonal complexity that makes perfect sense to me with inversions in both lines etc. Then mixing it up. What a gas.
More please.

What can I say? I love it!

Man, you're a tremendous supporter my friend! Thank you!
Tuba? That sounds very interesting! How about tuba and piccolo? I love contrast....

Wade, When I wrote this I immediately followed up with Devices
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=1176814&songID=11131492

They're kind of in the same style. Kind of.....

 

[Mike1955]

great work Mike! This was my 9am wake up call for today. That was like the spirit of Jaco on bass! And you have the choreography worked out too- very cool

Wake up call? Trumpets/Reveille.......I get it! lol...
Thanks very much rolltrane! Very kind of you!

 

[stormott77]

great work Mike! This was my 9am wake up call for today. That was like the spirit of Jaco on bass! And you have the choreography worked out too- very cool

I was thinking Jaco and Chick Corea had a baby.

 

[Mike1955]

I was thinking Jaco and Chick Corea had a baby.

So, what you're saying is it wasn't a dream after all? It still is actually, but who wants to dance around existentialism...

 

[FawltyTenor]

Mike - enjoyed this quite a bit...love the contrast... the opening sounds like it could be an alert tone on my phone, then the gradually piece unfolds in some interesting and fun directions.

The section starting just before 1:30, reminiscent of Ives for a minute there (at least I thought so). Cool!

Seemed to have an exuberant quality, with the tempo and driving rhythms...great piece!

Shawn

ps Interesting, there's a "patch" in there that reminds me of Pat Metheny's famous roland guitar synth tone...

 

[FawltyTenor]

Mike - listened to that Devices piece as well. I really like that one...not sure what to call that. Well, Great!, that's what I'd call it...

Very inventive orchestration, and loved all the shifting accents. In my simple mind, conjured up a bit of Corea/Bartok/Zappa...very contemporary and jazzy at the same time. Some great ostinato patterns in there, and lots of interesting counterpoint and pointalism. I liked the contast of the very electronic sounds mixed with a rather acoustic sounding clarinet patch. Nice.

You sure use a lot of different composition and orchestration techniques, but always in a very fitting way that serves each piece. Not exactly organic, these pieces just "work", if you know what I mean.

Shawn

 

[Mike1955]

Hello Shawn....The Ives reference as in Ives creating a dimorphic sound quality? An example of having two distinctly different pieces over lap each other? I think you may have thought that in it's initial phase. I merely tried to get away from the harmonics as much as possible, as in repelling it with the keyboards.

In regards to Devices, I don't think anyone has ever pointed out pointillism, also regarded as divisionism,which essentially applies to illustrative art, in my work or sound in general as far as I know. Shawn, that is an extremely interesting concept! I must do some research on that to see if that type of concept is viable with sound. I assume in an abstract way it could be but I feel that the outcome would be essentially different, or subjective, for anyone listening to it. Wherein, in illustrative art, pointillism is, more or less, objective.

Well actually, I've always considered my music as organic. The process wouldn't be possible if it weren't from an organic source. Synthetics is merely splitting hairs....Or, is organic actually the splitting of hairs? lol....

Shawn, many thanks...I'm glad you had a good time with music.

 

[FawltyTenor]

Mike - what I was referring to as pointalism was where it appeared to be a specific line or theme "broken up" and played by different instruments/timbres. Pretty common technique, that's what it sounded like to me.

As far as referenncing Ives, maybe that wasn't quite accurate. But, I guess it was just the multiple contrasting textures and "abstract" (to my ears) harmony I was referring to.

I'm not too well versed in 20th century music...I know we studied some of Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Britten, etc. in college but that was a long time ago. Unfortunately, I never studied composition though.

Anyhow, I find your music well conceived and executed and very creative. Always enjoyable!

Shawn

ps I also took a semester of electronic music using "state of the art" tools such as Arp analog synth (witch all the patch wires), Yamaha DX7, Yamaha TX81Z, Boss drum machine, and Apple iie to run sequencing software. Mid-to-late 1980s.

Looks like they've invested in quite a bit of gear since then, although it looks like they still have the old Arp!
Electronic_music_studio

 

[Mike1955]

I now understand what you meant after I looked into pointillism. As I assumed I was correct in how pointillism was used with sound and it's not quite the same thing as it is with illustrative art. In fact I do not really see the significance in trying to adapt it with sound. It merely takes on another meaning which can only be subjective as opposed to the objective which is something that is optically illustrative.
For instance, Seurat's pointillistic painitng 'La Parade de Cirque', when looked at is essentially the same perception, more or less, for everyone in that it's a picture a man's profile. If we tried something similar using sound the perception would be relegated to an individualistic interpretation meaning that it could mean anything at all.
I'm glad you pointed, excuse the pun, me in that direction because I never gave it a thought until you mentioned it. Common technique? It appears to be not so common actually.

Well Shawn, I never studied composition either. It's just something I felt a yearning to do and with a lot of trial and error I began to find the voice I was happy with. I was never the one to look over scores of other composers, much the same way jazz improvisers look to transcribe. I didn't want that type of influence and if I fell on my face that would have been fine, but this is the way I wanted to go. I'm very fortunate in how it all turned out because I feel I approached composition in a very organic way.

You're very kind Shawn and I do thank you sincerely for the acknowledgment.