Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Solo Gig: Longevity of the Unpredictable



Longevity of the Unpredictable

They say that familiarity breeds contempt. Usually it only breeds indifference. For example, over time a type of familiarity-bred indifference can drastically lower attendance at a regular gig.



Overexposure in the same venue. "I just heard him last week and he's there every week anyway." One logical way to circumvent this familiarity problem would be simply to do something completely different every gig.



In theory, if the performances are sufficiently compelling, you certainly can sustain a serial interest from an audience. Like a variety show on television.



Inviting guest musicians (or non-musicians), altering the paradigm one way and another (including in your own playing); so that you in fact are doing something different each time.



(This suggests a conundrum: Hypothetically, an audience would not logically decline to attend the gig this week because of something they didn't like about last week's gig, since they probably won't hear it again anyway. On the other hand, they would not go to the because of something they did like last week, since they probably won't hear that again, either.)



Regardless, you must be prepared for that familiarity syndrome to kick in anyway. "He's there every week." Except that you're not, beca use by now your audience consists of a handful of diehard empty chairs (who, it must be acknowledged, will sit stoically through any gig, no matter how dismally attended).



Note: if the venue is a pub, the chances are good that this television-like gig will in fact be effectively preempted by a real TV, which wIll be showing sports. Anyway, soon enough the owner of the club will make it possible for you not to play there so often.


It's not really a music town, you know.

Paintings by Clyfford Still
 Dave Williams



SOLO GIG


01.- CALL IT ANYTHING YOU WANT 
02.- CONCERNING ACCIDENTS 
10.- WHEN IT'S OUT OF OUR HANDS
11.- GLAD WE DIDN'T ORDER THE SPECIAL
12.- WORKING JUNG'S RIFF
13.- KNOW THE ENEMY
14.- THE MUTABLE FORM 
15.- CONCERNING INMORTALITY
16.- MACH NUMBERS
17.- CONDITIONALITIES OF QUIETUDE
18.- THEN AND NOW
19.- WHY NOT SNEEZE
20.- WE PASSED JUPITER and THEN HEADED NORTH
21.- PRODUCT PLACEMENT 
22.- COMING UNDER FIRE



Based in a noted musician's decades of personal experiences, his book Solo Gig: Essential Curiosities in Musical Free Improvisation (CreateSpace  Independent Publishing Platform, 2011) examines some crucial and  far-reaching aspects of musical free  improvisation, with particular  regard to live performances.  In this  illustrated collection of  narrative essays, the author looks both into  and from inside this  uniquely paradoxical, challenging and rewarding way  of making music,  within the context of an inherently eccentric milieu. 

Available here. (U.S.A.) (Europe)



Publicado por en