Friday, December 22, 2006

Snoose Junction & Musical Channelling, 12/22/06

So far in Snoose Junction, nearly all the music has been of an intentional but entirely freeform character. The only exceptions I can think of (in 6 months of weekly performance) are a) John Foss’ “Superbarristas” closing theme, which itself most likely originated as an improvisation, and b) an instance of Guitoracle which took place in December 2006, although the purely improvisational nature of El Grande Conquistadore (November 2006: Beezer, Iverson, Tennis, Van Yserloo) has been debated, mainly the contribution of singer / guitarist / visual artist Whiting Tennis.

The set by El Grande Conquistadore was nonetheless one of my favorite sets to date, and if Tennis is in fact bringing preconceived material to the stage, the results are still largely intentional freeform channelling with Whiting's contribution serving as a catalyst, since I know John Beezer won't play in bands that rehearse or play songs...

Snoose Junction improvisations are characterized less by form or preconception - most consisting of stream-of-consciousness themes and variations which arise from musical dialogue between the players - than by juxtaposition of different energies in the form of different combinations of musicians. In this sense we are all the composer, and an absence from the stage is as much a part of the picture as a presence.

-5-

3 comments:

Steven LaRose said...

I'm sorry that this comment is so late.

As a founding member of EGC, I'd like to say that Whiting Tennis can ad-lib, freestyle, improv, wonk, wank, and plain freak out when it comes to the microphone. The man thinks in poems. Rest assured he was cheating, if you think being prepared to improvise is cheating. Someday, when we get a new computer, I will digitize all the EGC sessions from the 90's off of the various Fostex and Teac devices that once used magnetic tape (if I recall). The greatest year of my life was spent Sunday nights with Whiting, Leighton, Mark Iverson, and a patient pool of drummers. Happy and jealous to see/hear the Art moving(no such thing as forward, mind you).

Everyone give John Foss a big smooch for me. Seriously, wet smooches for John.

Snoose Junction said...

Man, I so totally mean no slur on Whiting! He's been great both times he's been out to Snoose! Wish he'd come out more...

As for Foss, he's the one that said: "Whiting's just playin' his songs!" - not me!

Hope you do the digitizing, I want to hear it... Out there in limbo with the lost 3-Toed Sloth tapes?

thanks for sticking up
-5-

Steven LaRose said...

The good thing about Whiting is that he is so easy to slur. "Dude, you are tall. . . wanna fight?" Actually, I didn't take anything as a slur. John's point is well taken however because Whiting has been LIVING music for what, 30 years? It is impossible to seperate his art and life. Creativity/originality comes from the re-combination of familiar events and Whites has a vast and deep pool of aural events to scoop from. He IS just playin his songs!

I don't have any 3ts tapes but I do have this amazing Walkabouts jam when they went freestyle at the Ballard VFW hall. . . EGC opened, sans Whiting. . .I fell in love with Carla. . .