Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Solo Gig by Davey Williams




MACH NUMBERS





Piston engines are sometimes "supercharged," or "turbosupercharged." Sorne of the exhaust gases are compressed and fed back at high pressure into the functioning of the motor, making the engine much more powerful than before. 


There's a symbiotic irony in this: an engine feeding off itself to go beyond itself. Playing music live can be like this. The ensemble generates so much energy that it seems to become fueled by something more powerful than the players and their instruments. Unlimited horsepower goes self transcendent and takes the band up for sorne new aerobatics.

This can be particularly energizing at one of those bar gigs where the audience consists of two loud-talking drunk guys who have been there for six hours already, both of whom are sure that they know more about music than you.
 Art by Edgar Degas
Dave Williams
SOLO GIG

01.- CALL IT ANYTHING YOU WANT 
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


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)