A lot is going on, these days. The hearts are filled with excitement and joy during the Berlin summer. This time is no exception. On Wednesday, at Jako’s Jam “Neue Zukunft”, it was beautiful to see how everyone is progressing musically, and it was a joy to listen to. It is particularly, when the musician feels embedded within the music, yet relaxed enough to explore the possibilities of the moment that they play at their best. Of course its that well known “in the zone” feeling I am talking about. Jazz was always rooted well enough so that any intellectual take is instantly exposed as a low quality chat show. 

Today I am having the joy to be a listener and also player for a good friend of mine who is recording an album for his bachelor thesis. I am writing these lines as the instruments and microphones are being set up. 

The recording was splendid. Four different themes, four different improvisations. It it my first entirely “free” performance on an Album. It is the music, which answered the question of musical direction. Within the confines of a given “premise”, like “searching”, “finding” or plainly “free”. The musician is a listener himself, and as much as he or she knows about theory, we are all surprised what comes out of the horn, the strings or the reeds sometimes. At least that’s the Jazz I like – not talking about genres, yet.

The day before (same studio – Garden505) I had the pleasure on joining seven to eight musicians on an electronic Jam. I love how the stability of a drum and bass hi-hat, plus a stable bass drum sound in combination with a live-played Moog bass. Now I just need some hall (honestly, I never play with it, in electronic music the hall is a strong candidate to make the blending better. We are dealing with a complex problem here – we do not have a “real” drummer (the machine will never be a substitute for what my colleagues can pull off, I promise). That means we have a strong, a tightly stretched band which restricts us within our movement as a band, but it is exactly this tension that can make a groove juicy.

Above you can see what I sometimes like to do, because it is fun and it does connect me to the music, and stimulates my mind. You cannot see chords because it is a version of the sheet without them (but there are chords). This one is an introduction to a piece. It is very minimal, but it has valleys and mountains and because of that, it does work, indeed.

That’s it for my short little blog debut, keep riffi’n everybody!