Fidelity towards the work vs. creative expression
This chapter focuses on the third research question: how can we navigate the tension between fidelity to the work and creative expression? First, we'll consider an approach described as a 'healthy dose of disrespect', as recurrent in the discussions surrounding the repertoire. Then, we'll examine different focal points that were salient in relation to working with the music: the score, the context of the piece, the expression of the piece, the context of the performer, improvisational freedom, the improviser’s voice, and the room.
A 'healthy dose of disrespect'
Discussions sometimes revolved around how a sense of respect, towards the work and its composer, might influence the processes when adapting and improvising over classical works of music. As I interviewed Anders Jormin, he pointed out a potential risk in that an excessive amount of respect can have a negative impact on the creative flow and be potentially paralyzing for the musicians in question. This can include a feeling that the music is already perfect, or that it’s beyond your capacity as an improviser:
AJ: You have to have a little self-criticism, you might say. Not so little, either. And I can see many situations where you or the orchestra become a little too rigid, because the framework is unfamiliar/new, and we have jazz musicians who have to play exactly as it says. And the fact that the work is known, the composer is known, and so on... you can get a paralyzing respect. (Interview with Jormin, 2022-01-20)
[AJ: Man får ju ha lite självkritik, kan man säga. Inte så lite, heller. Och jag kan se många situationer där man själv eller orkestern blir lite för stel, därför att ramarna är obekanta, nya, och vi har jazzmusiker som ska spela precis som det står. Och just att verket är känt, tonsättaren är känd, och så vidare... man kan få förlamande respekt.]
In such situations, Jormin stressed the importance of mutual reflections, besides approaching the material with maturity, aptitude and a certain audacity:
AJ: And then you have to talk – practice and talk to each other, in the ensemble – so that you get over the possible obstacles, or the challenges that are good for us to be inspired to do something new. But they must not become inhibiting obstacles. I think it takes the right maturity, rather skilled, and quite bold musicians to do this well. (Interview with Jormin, 2022-01-20)
[AJ: Och då får man ju tala – öva och tala med varandra, i ensemblen – så att man kommer över de eventuella hinder, eller de utmaningar som är goda för att vi ska inspireras att göra något nytt. Men de får inte bli hämmande bromsklossar. Det kräver nog rätt mognad, rätt skickliga och ganska djärva musiker för att göra detta bra.]
When trying out material with harpist Stina Hellberg Agback, she described how a feeling of authoritative voices could sometimes present an obstacle when creating classical pieces:
SHA: Some things are like this... That these voices of people who know how to do it, they become too strong; "but in this place you have to". But also that there is a respect for the piece, …"but it sounds best as written". But then it's not always like that. Some things that we play, you just go "yes!" "Yes, there it is!"
PK: Because it takes a certain amount of, what do you say, "disrespect", lack of respect to get at that stuff too.
SHA: Exactly, but you feel it, exactly this thing of playing so that you really get to explore them. You have to accept all these times when you step on Debussy's toes. But... the point is that there is no reason why one should have more respect for this particular music than any other music, or jazz, or whatever. (Conversation with Hellberg Agback, 2022-04-20)
[SHA: Vissa saker är så här, att de här rösterna av folk som vet hur man gör, de blir för starka: "men här måste du". Fast sen också att det finns en respekt för stycket, …"men det låter ju bäst som det är skrivet”. Fast sen är det inte alltid så. Vissa saker som vi spelar, man bara "ja!". "Ja, där!"
PK: För det krävs ju ett visst mått av, vad säger man "disrespect", brist på respekt för att komma åt de där grejerna också.
SHA: Precis, men det känns ju, just det här att spela så att man verkligen får utforska dem. Man får acceptera alla de här gångerna när man trampar Debussy på tårna. Men grejen är att det finns ju ingen anledning varför man skulle ha mer respekt för precis just den här musiken än någon annan musik, eller jazz, eller vad det nu kan vara.]
The idea that a certain amount of disrespect as something of a necessity for these processes was something I had picked up in conversation with Härenstam earlier, as he talked about the strong respect for the composer that can typically characterize the performance of classical music, particularly 19th century repertoire, sometimes almost to the point that one obliterates oneself as a performer. In this conversation, Härenstam suggested that "a healthy dose of disrespect" would be a more viable approach, a phrase used by Pat Metheny in relation to his musical heroes[1]. This, in fact, became somewhat of a credo for our duo work, and something Härenstam returned to when interviewed by the Swedish radio about our collaboration.
DH: The thing is, the more different interpretations a piece can have, the more alive the music and this musical tradition that we want to pass on tends to become, I feel. And then I've always had a bit of a guiding principle … When I was a teenager, I read an interview with Pat Metheny, and he talked about all his role models and how he looked up to them. But then at the same time he said he always kept 'a healthy dose of disrespect', and that spoke to me somehow. As great as I think Bach's music is, it was a human being, and if you always see it as something sacred that never changes, it can be hard to make something alive out of it. (Härenstam, interview in Sveriges Radio, 2023-09-14)
[DH: Saken är ju den, att ju fler olika tolkningar som ett stycke får ha, desto mer levande tenderar musiken och den här musiktraditionen som vi vill föra vidare att bli, känner jag. Och sen har jag alltid haft lite som en ledstjärna … när jag var tonåring så läste jag en intervju med Pat Metheny, och han pratade om alla sina förebilder och hur han såg upp till dem. Men så sa han samtidigt att han alltid behöll 'a healthy dose of disrespect', och det talade till mig på något vis. Hur fantastisk jag ändå tycker Bachs musik är, så var det en människa, och om man alltid ser den som något heligt som aldrig förändras så kan det vara svårt att göra något levande av det.]
The full interview (in Swedish) can be heard here. [link]
In a panel discussion following our release concert for All in Twilight, we discussed the idea of where to “draw the line” for reworking the pieces:
PK: For me, I’ve felt like that boundary has been more about how you perceive the music... What I feel, and I think we feel, that the music would benefit from. That it's rather that which dictates how the excursions look like.
DH: Well, I guess there's no boundary, morally … However, there is probably musically, where it doesn't sound good anymore. … Since we found this music, and love this music, there is obviously a limit to how much you want to change it. But I don't know if that limit is moral, but rather that it is musical. (Panel discussion, Skärningspunkter I, 2023-09-03)
[PK: För min del så har det känts som att den gränsen har handlat mer om hur man uppfattar musiken... Vad jag känner att, och jag tror vi känner, att musiken skulle må bra av. Att det är mer det som dikterar hur utflykterna ser ut.
DH: Ja, det finns väl ingen moralisk gräns … Däremot så finns det musikaliskt, där det inte låter så bra längre. … Eftersom vi hittade den här musiken, och älskar den här musiken, så finns det ju en gräns förstås för hur mycket man vill förändra den. Men jag vet inte om den gränsen är moralisk, utan det är väl musikaliskt.]
This attitude seemed to pervade the musical encounters in general, that explorations were more driven by perceptions of what would serve the music than a concern for the composer’s intentions. However, although liberties were taken – to varying degrees – there could still be an underlying feeling of respect, or even admiration for the music, that went beyond a literal interpretation of the score. A similar notion was presented as I interviewed violinist Anna Lindal, where she explained how their work with the improvising ensemble Makadam – which involves deconstructing music by composers like Schubert and Mussorgsky – can be seen as a symbiosis of love and disrespect. But, coming from a classical tradition, Lindal pointed out that their understanding of what it means to respect the music is key to approach it with disrespect.
AL: You look at this tradition [classical music] through different lenses and it sounds familiar, and we always talk about this very fact that we are grounded, we can't escape it, in that tradition. We can never get away from it and it's … It's as disrespectful as it gets, because we love it. So, this love and disrespect go hand in hand. …
PK: Do you talk about respect?
AL: Yes, we do have respect, of course, but there's nothing we can't do, that we're not allowed to do with this music. …
PK: But I imagine that it's a form of respect that doesn't happen on the literal level, with the written notes?
AL: No, exactly. And that's what I think, that you can't have disrespect if you don't know what the respect for it is. (Interview with Lindal, 2023-10-31)
PK: Pratar ni om respekt?
AL: Ja vi har ju respekt naturligtvis, självklart, men det finns ingenting som vi inte kan göra, som vi inte får göra med den här musiken. …
PK: Men jag tänker att det är en form av respekt som inte sker på det bokstavliga planet, med tonmaterialet.
AL: Nej, precis. Och det tänker jag, att man inte kan ha respektlöshet om man inte vet vad respekten för det är.]
When working with different constellations in the project, questions related to respect – such as ‘respecting the composer’s intention’ – were typically not in the foreground of the musical processes from the start, but something that I brought up later, as we evaluated the processes. This was often somewhat of a secondary concern, as illustrated by this conversation with Evenstad, after our studio recording together:
PK: I also think of something that I don't think we've talked about so much, that is, do you ever feel that we shouldn't do this or, this is not allowed to do with this person's music?
TLE: Absolutely not, no. … I think it’s strange, to be perfectly honest. Well, it depends, if you have an example of what music you absolutely shouldn't rework; it depends more on where you're going to perform it, in what situation. I think you can adapt and experiment with all kinds of music. Well, what can you say, it can become so “judgeful”. …
PK: I think it was clear when we were working, for example, [with] Solveig's song. There wasn't a second of doubt from any of us that “yes, of course we can do a riff like this”, and “of course we can stay on that chord”, and “of course we can change it to major”. ... We did everything with it, that was different, somehow. (Listening session with Evenstad, 2023-03-09)
[PK: Jag kommer också tänka på en sak som jag inte tror inte vi har pratat om så mycket, det här alltså, upplever man någon gång att det här borde vi inte göra eller, så här får man inte göra med den här personens musik?
TLE: Absolut inte, nej. … Jag tycker det är konstigt, om jag ska vara helt ärlig. Alltså, det beror ju på, om du har något exempel med vilken musik som man absolut inte ska omarbeta… det beror väl kanske snarare på var man ska spela upp det, i vilken situation. Jag tycker att man kan göra om och experimentera med all typ av musik. Ja, vad ska man säga, det blir så "judgeful". […]
PK: Jag tycker det var tydligt när vi jobbade, till exempel, [med] Solveigs sang… det var ju inte en sekund av tvivel från någon av oss om att "ja, men det är klart att vi kan göra ett sånt här riff" och "det är klart att vi kan stanna på det där ackordet", och ”det är klart att vi kan göra om till dur”. ... Vi gjorde ju allt med den, som var annorlunda, på något sätt.]
A similar view was expressed in conversation with Danemo, when asked whether his approach to re-working classical pieces were done with an idea of “respecting the composer’s intention” in mind:
PD: I've never really thought about that, but it... For me, I would never ever take a piece that I didn't have any kind of feeling for, and re-do it. And there are certain things that I don't do. I never change the melodies …That's where the line is drawn, I feel, because that's what you have liked in some way. (Conversation with Danemo, 2024-02-20)
[PD: Det har jag faktiskt aldrig riktigt tänkt på, men det.. För mig, så jag skulle ju aldrig någonsin ta ett stycke som jag inte kände någonting för, och göra om. Och det är vissa saker som jag inte gör. Jag ändrar aldrig melodierna. … Där går gränsen på något vis känner jag, för det är ju det man på något vis har gillat.]
Danemo’s point resonates with how I approached these encounters, as expressed earlier also; that there were certain musical qualities that attracted us to the music in the first place, such as a captivating melody, an intriguing combination of colors, or an expression that made it stand out. The natural tendency would thus be to preserve those qualities, and even highlight them through the reimagined versions. Although the nature of these musical qualities might differ from piece – and from performer to performer, seen that it was to a high degree a matter of personal preference – similar thoughts were expressed by other participants. The notion of ‘disrespect’ here can, thus, be seen as a shift in respect rather than a lack of respect, where certain aspects of a piece are given more priority than others.
[1] The quote by Pat Metheny is from an article in Downbeat magazine, where Metheny says that all important jazz musicians were people with a "healthy dose of disrespect" (Woodard, 1992).
The score
Focusing on the score might seem like somewhat of an oxymoron when bringing in improvisation into the performance of music with a high degree of notational specificity. Nevertheless, many of many of the re-interpreted versions were done with a high degree of fidelity to the scores, most tangibly in the duo together with Härenstam. For instance, in Takemitsu’s All in Twilight suite, all the pitches from the original score are present in our recording, meaning that the improvised elements that are present appear either as repetitions and variations of existing material, as added sections, or as elements that occur in combination with original material. An even stronger fidelity to the score is found in Utanmyra-variationer, where we are playing several variations as they are written – without improvised additions – with some adaptations in instrumentation, so that some passages are played in unison, while others are distributed between the guitar and the piano. The main change is that we are not playing all the nine variations; no. 7, largely a reprise of no. 6, was omitted to make room for our added, improvised variations.
A piece like By the Still Waters was approached in a way where it’s initially played close to the original, but where some of the written material is gradually dissolved as the theme is restated; e.g., the right piano figures of the A section and the ending phrases. Similarly, in Variazioni, everything that is played in saxophone, piano, and bass during the first presentation of the theme is taken from the score, with the drums – in the recorded version – largely playing in unison with the written rhythms. It can be added, however, that the addition of drums to this piece – as well as other pieces – had a tremendous impact on the general character of the music. Besides causing changes in the overall dynamics, the presence of drums often impacted the rhythmic character substantially, which could relate to intensity as well as to (implied) changes in style.
The context of the piece
Working with a piece a music could also involve looking at it from a larger perspective, to get an understanding of it that wasn’t limited to the notes of the score. This could involve learning about composer’s lives and their thoughts on music making – through biographies, documentaries, interviews etc., – often with an emphasis on the circumstances in which the piece was created. This was most tangible with von Koch’s Utanmyra-variationer and Takemitsu’s All in Twilight.
When it comes to Utanmyra-variationer, not only has the folk tune that it’s based on – Visa från Utanmyra – become an important cultural reference in Sweden, but it also became somewhat of a symbol for Swedish jazz, through how Jan Johansson immortalized it on the album Jazz på Svenska (Sweden’s most sold jazz album). As we expressed it in the liner notes for our album, one of the ambitions with the improvised sections in this version was to “bring out some of the Johansson-esque elements that are embedded in the DNA of von Koch’s piece”. This was not a question of copying Jan Johansson, merely to connect the piece to something of Johansson’s lyrical, folk music-tinged way of playing and improvising over melodies. In a sense, this addition meant that the music went full circle; first, it took the journey from Johansson’s interpretation of the melody to Koch’s composed variations that were partly inspired by Johansson’s version; then, through our way of interpreting von Koch’s variations with added improvisations in piano and guitar, it reconnects to Johansson.
As Härenstam and I worked with All in Twilight (the composition), I found it valuable to get a deeper understanding of Takemitsu’s music, including his frequent allusions to nature and, to some extent, aesthetic concepts that influenced his music making. Of particular importance was reading about the huge influence that jazz had on his writing. Not only was it an important part of his musical upbringing, as he heard American music on the radio when doing his military service, he even considered Duke Ellington to be his main ‘teacher’, alongside Debussy and nature. Furthermore, realizing that Takemitsu had been influenced by George Russell’s The Lydian Chromatic Concept – the same theory book that had influenced Miles Davis, John Coltrane and others in the development of modal jazz, as well and several Scandinavian jazz musicians that Russell were in touch with during his time in Sweden and Norway – reassured us in our intuition that elements in his music from these worlds somehow belonged together. This gave an explanation for something we had already sensed in the music, at some level; that there was an inherent synthesis of elements from jazz and classical music in the music, as well as a synthesis of elements from Eastern and Western musical traditions. It’s somewhat difficult to assess to what extent these insights influenced our playing, but they affected our ways of hearing the music and how we framed it; to give an example, the music that we chose to end our All in Twilight album with is a Duke Ellington song, In a Sentimental Mood.
The expression of the piece
Here, expression refers to the expressive qualities that composers use to infuse the music with a particular mood, character and/or emotional content. This was partly based on indications in the score, and partly on how we perceived the music. Reading descriptions from the composers could also influence these processes, via biographies or other sources.
With many of the pieces, focusing on expressive qualities was fundamental for making the transition from the original to a version for improvising musicians. This was evident with Cortège, where the emphasis laid on the bright playfulness that I picked up as I first heard the music – indicated in the score as léger et gai (= light and cheerful) – along with the dramatic character that is prominent in the B section. To emphasize those qualities rather than the rhythmic character of the piece helped us with reimagining the music in a jazz trio context. Similarly, when crafting the version of Leggiero for large ensembles, the rawness of the original was crucial for recreating it in the different constellations, with the ‘primitive fifths’, as Crawford Seeger refers to them, as important building blocks. When it came to Variazoni, not only did the atonal character of the piece inevitably inform the improvisations, performing it in a quartet setting meant that we could reinforce the dynamic expression of the piece. This was further enhanced through the free role assigned to the drums, which allowed Haugerud to accentuate the dynamic contours in an improvised manner.
Reinforcing expressive qualities could also involve the use of extra-musical ideas taken from the pieces, such as the recurring wave movements that are prominent in By the Still Waters and La mer. In the case with the latter, these movements were often prioritized over specific pitches. However, working with extra-musical associations wasn't a priority, mainly because there was already so much to draw on from within the music itself.
The context of the performer
Sometimes it was a priority to make the piece ‘work’ in the new context. There could initially be a feeling of distance between the piece and the musical environment that it was transferred to, for instance, when bringing a piece written for solo piano to a jazz constellation. This led me to occasionally omit passages where the musical characteristics didn’t seem compatible with the new environment. Typically, this was related to rhythmic or harmonic aspects, such as in this ending passage of Cortège, where the rhythmic accents – on the strong beats of the bar – in combination with the extended ending cadence seemed to ‘lock the music in’ somewhat, stylistically speaking:
When making the transition from the source material to the new context, finding some sort of musical reference often helped us in the process of imagining – or reimagining –the piece in the new setting. With Cortège, this was found in Tony Williams’ Sister Cheryl, a composition that shared certain features with Cortège; a largely diatonic melody, chords based on the mixolydian mode, triads moving over pedal points in the bass, and an underlying rhythm based on a straight subdivision (as opposed to a swing feel).
… so that actually became a valuable reference. And I feel like that this opened up my imagination to what can be done with the piece; I listened to some recordings of Sister Cheryl, and also played along with the recording, of different versions of it. And from there I really felt that there were common things for the two pieces that I can use. And, in many ways, this became an entrance, a way of getting into Cortége. And I feel like the groove of the tune, the rhythmic movement of the tune Sister Cheryl also gave some ideas for how to create more movement in Cortége. (Audio journal, 2023-01-01)
Not only did this open up my imagination for how the piece could be approached, it also contributed to a gradual shift in how we perceived the music; from a piano piece to a trio number that fit right in with the rest of our repertoire. With that, of course, came a certain change in style and aesthetics. Certain hesitations arose along the way, particularly related to the groove; at one point we discussed whether our version had taken on too much of a ‘jazz samba’ character. These concerns dissipated over time, however, as our feeling of playing the piece got stronger; the underlying groove ultimately became a secondary concern.
In one of the pieces we worked with, D’un vieux jardin, I heard a Bill Evans-like quality in the music that provided a key for how it could be approached in a trio setting. This also opened a door for me to turn to Evans-inspired musicians like British pianist John Taylor, whose playing had been a huge influence at a certain point in my own development; hearing his way of playing rubato ballads with intricate voicings further opened my ears for how we could approach the piece. This was not done with the ambition of copying one individual style, but rather as a way of fueling my imagination and ‘bridging the gap’ between the piece and our approach to jazz trio performance. One part of this involved harmonizing parts of the melody in so-called 'block chords':
Recording 10.1. D'un vieux jardin with Knudsen, Kristoffersson & Olsson. From Studio Epidemin, Göteborg, 2023-10-23.
Since the melodic passage from the second example relies heavily on sounds derived from melodic minor, I wanted to make use of that also when harmonizing the passage. This, thus, served as a way of reinforcing something that was a natural part of my way of constructing chord voicings, from a jazz piano perspective, while also connecting to something that was already present in the piece.
Sometimes, simply making a connection between a piece and something closer to our context as performers could be enough to ignite new musical impulses. This happened after we had initially tried the second movement of Sonatine for flute and piano in the quartet with en en en, as Hegdal commented that it had the character of a ‘Coltrane ballad’. From that point onwards, the possibility of viewing the piece this way gave new ideas for how we could be expressive with the material; in particular, that we could play the intro in a rubato tempo with a high degree of intensity, a common device in Coltrane’s quartet. Approaching the music this way, thus, found a particular resonance from the perspective of four musicians with backgrounds in jazz, while the melody and harmony from Dutilleux’s piece were still preserved.
Improvisational freedom
With the constellations that I worked with over longer periods of time, there was a strong tendency to gradually move away from the score to more open approaches, in favor of improvisational freedom. Here, improvisational freedom refers mainly to the space that emerges as restraints related to musical structures of the composition are decreased, e.g., when going from playing a melody or an accompaniment pattern as written to an improvised interpretation of the same passage; when going from improvisation over a dense harmonic progression to an open improvisation over a bass pedal; when going from adhering to a predetermined form to a form that is subject to change mid-performance; when going from improvisation over a sequence of changing time signatures to improvisation over a fixed meter, or, alternatively, improvisation without a given pulse. Thus, a freedom from something that is predetermined in some sense. It thus became a rule rather than an exception that improvisational frameworks that were initially determined would be renegotiated at a later point, to leave further room for improvisation. This happened on a few occasions in the quartet work with en en en in Sonatine for Flute and Piano, where the question about what the music really needs became a recurring one; if I had decided on a particular way of controlling an improvised passage, it was a rule rather than an exception that it would be discussed and renegotiated during our sessions together.
At times, the improvised sections seemed to act out as a sort of relief, in the sense of moving away from the restraints of the densely notated material.
PK: It's like you've been walking a bunch of dogs on a tight leash, that just can't wait to run free.
MD: Yes, exactly that.
EH: And that's really what it is. … When you're so free in relation to the material that it feels like you're flying on top of it. (Listening session with en en en, 2023-06-06)
[PK: Det är som att man har gått med massa hundar i koppel, som bara längtar efter att få gå i väg fritt.
MD: Ja, akkurat det.
EH: Og det er jo det. … Når du er så fri i forhold til materialet, at det føles som at man flyr på toppen av.]
This topic was also brought up in conversation with Joakim Milder, as we talked about the vitality that can characterize an improvisation that is released after having had a high degree of restrictions. Milder, paraphrasing Steve Swallow, also described one’s role when writing for improvising musicians as “to set the player free in a field of possibilities”; to put oneself in the shoes of the improviser, and realize that there has to be a certain degree of space of openness for improvisations to thrive:
JM: Writing for improvisers is very much about realizing that you can't finish writing this; there has to be enough left so that the player can shape the music. And that you then accept having a much lower degree of control … how would we have enjoyed playing this ourselves? (Interview with Milder, 2022-01-18)
[JM: Att skriva för improvisatörer handlar väldigt mycket om att inse att man inte får skriva klart det här: det måste finnas så pass mycket kvar så att den som spelar kan prägla musiken. Och att man då finner sig i att ha en mycket lägre grad av kontroll … hur skulle vi själva ha trivts med att spela det här?]
In the trio with Halse and Åse, renegotiating previously decided frameworks in favor of improvisational freedom was a recurrent part of the process with the different reimagined versions that were based on La mer. When reflecting on our first performance, Halse pointed out that:
TH: We didn't really take the time to improvise much out of the themes and develop something, in a way, from that. And that was natural, because there was so much material. So I'm thinking, for example, about that one theme there, the one that Amund is playing [referring to the 2nd theme] … To be able to improvise even more clearly, for example, to have a solo over it, or something like that. (Listening session with Halse & Åse, 2022-10-01)
[TH: Vi tok jo ikke tiden til at improvisere oss så veldig mye ut fra temaene og utvikle noe, på en måte, ut fra det. Og det var jo naturlig, for det var jo så mye materiale da. Så jeg tenker for eksempel på det ene temaet der, det Amund spiller [tema 2]… å kunne improvisere enda mer sånn tydelig, for eksempel, å ha en solo over det, eller et eller annet sånn.]
Discussions like these were important for rethinking the balance between composition and improvisation, and the amount of material that we based our work on. Often, simply removing information seemed to give us more impulses for our own creation, as it helped us to ‘zoom in’ on certain elements of the music. This led me to remove sections, highlight prioritized musical ideas, and focus on what might be rewarding from an improviser’s point of view; processes that ultimately led us to the more open, collage score-based re-interpretation of the piece. In this case, staying close to the original wasn’t much of a priority; partly because we were already dealing with an orchestral piece of symphonic dimensions that would be impossible to do justice with three performers, and partly because it seemed crucial to create more space for the improvisers.
The improviser's 'voice'
One aspect that was sometimes negotiated was to what extent the improvisational voice should also be present when playing the melodies. When working with Takemitsu’s music, I, at one point, asked myself the following questions:
How do I envision the improvised phrases and the voice that is interpreting melodies in different spaces, going in and out? Even though it might not be a solo section, it might feel strange from a jazz point-of-view to not have this feeling of a voice interpreting the melody, giving it life and personality. So, how can this voice then be gathered with the other things that are happening in the arrangement? (Audio journal, 2022-02-22)
Without reaching a definite answer, it made sense that the improvisational voice should be present also when playing the written melodies, to some extent. This was further discussed with Danemo at a later point, in relation to preparing material for our septet sessions:
PD: I think it's very nice when you have your themes, ... that you play it as you are, not that you should sound like a classical saxophonist, or cellist or something like that, but that you should play it where you are, I think. And then, that the musical language is different and that it can color the improvisations, that becomes “step two” somehow, but you still have to start from where you are, so that you don't play with any other sound, if you know what I mean.
PK: Yes. And there you put your finger on something that can, in the worst case, destroy this type of meeting, and that is that jazz musicians, when they are confronted with a complex score, will think “now I'm going to play this difficult music”, and then they forget that they have their personal voice, which should still come out (Conversation with Danemo, 2024-02-20)
[PD: Och sen tycker jag att det är väldigt kul det där om, alltså, när man har sina teman, … att man då spelar det som man är, inte att man ska låta som en klassisk saxofonist, eller cellist eller något sådant där, utan att då ska man spela det här där man står, tycker jag. Sen, att tonspråket är ett annat och att det kan färga improvisationerna, det blir ”steg två” på något vis, men man måste ju ändå utgå ifrån där man är, så att man inte ska spela med någon annan klang, om du förstår vad jag menar.
PK: Ja. Och där sätter du fingret på någonting som kan, i värsta fall, ödelägga den här typen av möten, och det är att jazzmusiker när de konfronteras med en komplex notbild tänker att ”nu ska jag spela den här svåra musiken”, och så glömmer man bort att man har sin personliga röst, som ändå ska fram.]
The topic of the voice also came up as Terese Lien Evenstad and I discussed our experiences with working in a larger constellation. One thing that became clear was how tangibly the addition of new voices affected the musical outcome. This was partly because the arrangements were, to a high degree, adapted for the voices of the improvisers, but also because the voices in themselves often seemed to steer the music in new directions. Evenstad took the playing of saxophonist Elin Forkelid as an example:
TLE: Everyone has very unique, strong voices, but Elin is very specific with her sound and how she approaches the tone and her energy. And it wouldn't have been the same with another saxophonist. And it's really the same with all individual musicians, everyone really has their strong voice, or unique voice. (Conversation with Evenstad, 2024-02-20)
[TLE: Alla har ju väldigt unika, starka röster, men Elin är ju väldigt specifik med sitt sound och hur hon tar sig an tonen och hennes energi. Och det hade ju inte alls blivit på samma sätt med en annan saxofonist, liksom. Och det är verkligen samma med alla enskilda musiker, alla har verkligen sin starka röst, eller unika röst.]
One example of Forkelid’s voice can be heard here, from an improvisation over a cluster taken from Gubaidulina’s Forest Musicians:
Recording 10.2. Improvisation by Forkelid based on Forest Musicians. From septet concert, Kapellet, Stockholm, 2024-03-08.
When talking about the preparations for our septet concert, I described what I perceived was a key factor for crafting the reimagined versions; to hear the music from the perspective of the performer’s voice:
PK: You develop an ear for what you can do with improvisation to take it further. You hear a phrase, or play a phrase in the original, and just: ‘But Karin and Svante could play with this further’, for example. You start to hear the piece in that way as an improvisation potential. (Panel discussion, 2024-03-08)
[PK: Man utvecklar ett hörande för vad man kan göra med improvisation för att ta det vidare. Man hör en fras, eller spelar en fras i originalet, och bara: ”Men det här skulle ju Karin och Svante kunna leka vidare med”, till exempel. Man börjar höra stycket på det sättet som en improvisationspotential.]
The idea of ‘hearing’ the pieces from the point of view of the musicians had been suggested by Joakim Milder at an earlier point, as a way of composing new music:
JM: I was in a situation where I had to write quite a lot of music in a short time… I just imagined these people I'm going to write for: what does it sound like when I put them together? And then all this music comes out that I hadn't heard before. So, it was really about faces in that case (Interview with Milder, 2022-01-18).
[JM: Jag var i ett sammanhang som jag skulle skriva ganska mycket musik på kort tid... Jag bara tänkte mig de här människorna jag ska skriva för: hur låter det när jag sätter ihop dem? Sen blir det en massa musik som uppstår som jag inte hade hört förut. Så, egentligen ansikten i det fallet.]
‘Hearing the voices’ of a certain constellation seemed to be particularly fruitful when it involved musicians that I had worked extensively with earlier, such as the quartet Derupeto:
It was interesting; as soon as I thought about Derupeto, and the four individual voices of Derupeto playing that music, I could hear ideas and ways of doing the music, and also improvising over the music, and making it our own. So just visualizing the actual musicians that will take on the music here seemed to be a good way of getting into the musical imagination (Audio journal, 2022-01-27)
In this case, beside the metaphorical voice, there was also the actual singing voice of drummer and vocalist Deodato Siquir present, a sound used in unison with the guitar as a part of the group sound.
The room
One metaphor used by several participants, including myself, was the image of a room; as a musical space highly defined by the presence of the composition, through its sounding manifestation. This was discussed in a listening session with en en en in relation to Variazioni, where we held on to the last chord repeatedly that gradually transitioned into an open, collective improvisation:
PK: We have another approach in the “twelve-tone tune” [Variazioni], for example, where you play exactly as it's written, and then you leave the notation, and play sort of freely, and then back.
TH: Yes, but not completely freely, because we added another one of these stabs as a foundation as well, which tied it together rhythmically too, right? On that twelve-tone tune. And I think that was a very important move. (Listening session with en en en, 2023-06-06)
[PK: En annan approach har vi i ”tolvtonslåten” [Variazioni], till exempel, att man spelar precis som det är skrivet, och sen så forlater man notbilden, och spelar liksom helt fritt, och sen tillbaka.
TH: Ja, men ikke helt fritt, for at vi la jo enda sånne her støtter som underlag også, som bandt det sammen rent rytmisk også, ikke sant? På den tolvton:en. Og det syns jeg var et veldig viktig grep.]
As Haugerud points out, it’s not entirely accurate to refer to the improvised section as “free”, since there was something still there from the piece as we entered the improvised section, in the form of a repeated chord. In the same conversation, Michael Duch pointed out how the improvisation was still, to a high degree, colored by the piece that it was a part of:
MD: It [the improvisation] is free, yes, but it was very much defined by the song, right? So there's a freedom in it, of course, without question, but it affects how we play. That's what you were talking about [Tor].
TH: Yeah, absolutely.
PK: Right, you're constantly in a space of what you've heard before, in a way, that lingers in your ears. (Listening session with en en en, 2023-06-06)
[MD: Den [improvisasjonen] er fri, ja, men den ble veldig definert ut fra låten, ikke sant? Så det er jo en frihet i det, selvfølgelig, det er ikke det, men det påvirker hvordan vi spiller. Det var det du snakket om [Tor].
TH: Absolutt.
PK: Ja, man är hela tiden i ett rum av det man har hört tidigare, på något sätt, som hänger kvar i öronen.]
Similarly, Danemo in a later conversation referred to the composition as the room:
PD: A composition, it's a room, so you can't just clumsily walk around like an elephant and knock over all the stuff in this room... and that's what it's all about, I feel. So, as long as everyone knows what room you're in, you have total freedom really. (Conversation with Danemo, 2024-02-20)
[PD: En komposition, det är ett rum, och då kan man ju inte klunsa runt som en elefant och bara välta alla grejer i det här rummet... och det är det handlar om, känner jag. Så att, så länge som alla vet vad man är i för rum, så är det ju total frihet egentligen.]
We also talked about what sort of approaches might be seen as conflicting with the idea of ‘adapting to the room’, for instance an over-emphasis on patterns or lick-based playing. Danemo raised a risk that musicians in a jazz context sometimes take for granted that improvised sections are spots for their self-realization, places to demonstrate one’s improvisational proficiency, rather than creating something that relates to the piece that is currently being played. Similar concerns were expressed in an earlier conversation with Svante Söderqvist:
SS: Well, in all the genres you play … you play in an idiom somehow, you can't just … it's highly inappropriate to start playing a lot of blues licks, or something like that. (Listening session with Söderqvist, 2022-10-07)
[SS: Alltså, i alla genrer man spelar … man spelar ju i ett idiom på något sätt, man kan inte … det är ju gravt opassande att börja lira massa blues-licks, eller något sådant där.]
The idea of ‘licks’ – i.e. pre-existing phrases in the improviser’s repertory of ideas, that he or she introduces into a musical situation – as potentially conflicting with the musical language of the repertoire in question was something I had discussed with other participants also. Although relying on a pattern-orientated or ‘lick’-based form of improvisation can be limiting in any musical context, the incompatibility of such approaches seemed be more tangible when the patterns bear a strong character of a particular jazz style – such as bebop – and the composition in question differs significantly from that idiom, such as a piano piece by Ravel or Hindemith.
When asking Anders Jormin about their approach for Bobo Stenson trio, he stressed the importance that the improvisation is based on the material at hand, so that it isn’t just a matter of playing a piece and then going into free improvisation:
AJ: I hope that in our best moments … we somehow manage to improvise over the material we have. … Where it will go next, as we know, that we can't really control. But that we might also have a determined ending. (Interview with Jormin, 2022-01-20)
[AJ: Jag hoppas, att i våra bästa stunder … så lyckas vi på något sätt improvisera över det material vi har. … Vart det sen tar vägen, det vet vi ju, det har vi inte riktigt koll på. Men att man kanske också har ett bestämt slut.]
The idea of genuinely basing improvisation on the composition – as opposed to, for instance, taking a detached sheet with chord changes extracted from the music – was also addressed in discussions surrounding the preparations of scores. These conversations led me to raise the topic with the septet that I was working with, as a starting point for our sessions together; that the improvisations should, in some way, be connected to the compositions that they were based on. This way of thinking, then, seemed to pervade our sessions together, that improvisations were not seen as separate from the framework of the composition, but drawing on its particular language. This topic was raised in the panel discussion after our concert, as one audience member asked what we focused on in rehearsal, when there’s such a high degree of improvisation involved:
KH: We have to become familiar with the material. You want to play the melodies that are there, so that we know them. So that … you know how they interact, where you should add, how much intonation, how you should tune into a sound, or a chord. But above all … the improvised sections, that we try to connect with the compositions. And that was something that you [Peter] brought up at the beginning, it's a fun experiment too. (Panel discussion, 2024-03-08)
[KH: Vi måste bekanta oss med materialet. Man vill ju göra melodierna som finns, så att vi känner dem. Så att … man vet hur de samspelar, var man ska lägga till, hur mycket intonation, man ska stämma in i en klang, eller ett ackord. Men framför allt, … improvisationsdelarna försöker vi ju återknyta till kompositionerna. Och det var ju någonting som du [Peter] tog upp i början där, det är ju ett kul experiment också.]
The question also came up what would happen with the music if one of the members might start “showing off” all of sudden, i.e., focusing on displaying his/her technical skills. In her response, Karin Hammar pointed out that such issues are less of a concern if one’s focus is on the needs of the music:
KH: We have a focus that we try to hear what the music wants us to say, and then it’s not that difficult. Then you always try to go inward and get a feel for it. And … things that you react to and are inspired by. (Panel discussion, 2024-03-08)
[KH: Vi har ett fokus att vi försöker höra vad musiken vill att vi ska säga, och då blir det inte så svårt. Då försöker man alltid gå inåt och känna efter. Och … sådant som man reagerar på och inspireras av.]