wildmanconcert

         MMC co-founder and Professor Emeritus Joan Wildman presented an informative and engaging presentation on the art of improvisation. Performing on piano and synthesizer, she was joined by Emeritus Professor Richard Lottridge and Willy Walter (bassoons), Ben Karetnik (drums) and Laurie Lang (bass).
         Joan began by dispelling any preconceptions of improvisation as something mysterious and inaccessible, reminding us that we all improvise in our daily lives. In fact, the first music was pure improvisation.
         Joan also dispelled any preconceptions that improvisation is exclusive to jazz, pointing out that European classical music was rich in improvisation. Unfortunately, this tradition has been all but lost today, aside from a few European schools of organ improvisation. In the twentieth century, however, improvisation has emerged in different genres of American music, in particular, blues and jazz. She and other members of the group went on to discuss and demonstrate various styles of improvisation, based on the primary structural elements of music--melody, harmony, rhythm and form.
         Melodic improvisation was first demonstrated by the two bassoonists. One played a written melody while the other improvised a countermelody. Joan described how a keyboardist in the 18th century would end a concert by improvising in counterpoint. Joan took on the challenge, improvising from her own melody in a contrapuntal style.
         For a discussion of rhythm, Ben Karetnik provided a brief demonstration of the evolution of jazz drumming: (1) the early New Orleans sound, with an oversized bass drum and simple rhythms; (2) the Kansas City sound of Count Basie's drummer, Papa Jo Jones, with swing rhythms over an expanded trap set; and (3) bebop drummer Kenny Clarke with more cymbals and a more complex, interactive rhythmic style.
         Joan introduced harmony by describing the "figured bass" of the Baroque era, similar to the chord symbols on a jazz musician's lead sheet. In the bebop era of the 1940's, musicians often lifted the chord progression from a composition to improvise new melodies. Joan demonstrated on piano with Fats Waller's "Honeysuckle Rose." First, she played the original piece in stride style; then she played Charlie Parker's bebop melody with the same chord progression, called "Scrapple from the Apple." This time, however, she improvised complex melodies and countermelodies with more intricate rhythmic structures. Joan showed how one harmonic progression could be the source for two totally unique improvisations.
         Finally, Joan discussed form as a structure on which one improvises, but that is shaped individually by each improviser. Richard and Willy demonstrated their two unique perspectives on bassoon by improvising on a twelve-bar blues form. Then the entire group performed a Wildman composition in which Laurie Lang was featured in a bass solo to demonstrate how she would shape a melody. Joan contrasted this with a nineteenth century Romantic style of improvisation on piano.
         The program ended with another Wildman composition in which everyone improvised. The mood was subdued and spacious, underscored by a slow minor bass pattern on Joan's synthesizer, described by Joan as "some weird sounds that I like." It gave the improvisers plenty of room to explore, allowing the audience to experience sounds and styles converging within the ensemble. Richard played a beautiful extended blues solo on bassoon, not traditionally a jazz instrument. The blending of the nontraditional instrumentation—bassoon and synthesizer, in particular--was striking! In conversations in the audience afterwards, the common reaction went something like: "I closed my eyes and wondered if that was bassoon way up there, or synthesizer...."
         No matter if you were a musician or not, everyone learned something new about improvisation—about what it is, where you find it or how you do it. Joan and the other musicians showed us an expanded view of improvisation in a way that we can all understand, opening the door to wanting to find out more.
         Joan Wildman is performing with many of the same people at the Isthmus Jazz Festival in early June, featuring new compositions and more improvisations.
reviewed by Jane Reynolds