[Harp-L] Spontaneous creativity

["John F. Potts" <hvyj@xxxxxxx>]

So, the guitar playing jazz band leader with the Masters in Music  
I’ve been playing with for a while tells me this week he’s going to  
use a vibes player instead of a drummer.  The vibes player is VERY  
good, (I’ve played with him before, but always with a drummer). So  
for this gig it’s vibes, string bass, and electric jazz guitar,  
joined by me on amplified diatonic harp for the last set.

We do “Equinox” and a couple of other jazz tunes. The crowd loves it.  
Then the leader decides we should do “All Blues” which we all know  
pretty well. But with the unusual instrumentation, and no drummer,  
the arrangement was spontaneous and somewhat loose, with a lot of  
interplay interspersed with solos and either the vibes player or me  
laying out quite a bit before coming back in.

Then, at one point, the guitar player (who’s playing a fat blond jazz  
style guitar) gets out his slide (!?) and plays an extremely  
tasteful  solo using the slide. Totally spontaneous and unplanned.   
It sounded PERFECT! The vibe, the groove, the unusual instrumentation  
--everything just sounded right and the slide solo fit perfectly.  
Then he put the slide down and played without it for the rest of the  
tune.

Incredibly aesthetic musically artistic statement by the guitar  
player who, I learned afterwards, just decided to do it on the spot  
because he felt like it and thought it would sound good at that moment 
—and it sure did.

When we got done, the vibes player (who has never played with a  
harmonica player before playing with me) tells me that he really  
liked what I had been playing and thought it was a “really unique”  
sound. Of course, it’s always easier to sound good when you are  
playing with really good musicians.

I guess the moral of the story is that there’s very creative and  
artistically compelling music that can be played when musicians  
interact and are not caught up in trying to imitate some recording or  
another.  I mean, this sure as hell wasn’t like anything anyone has  
ever recorded that I’ve ever heard, but it worked so well, and  
sounded so good, I was thrilled to have been part of the  
performance.  And it was all made up on the spot. And the applause in  
the small venue when we finished made it abundantly clear that the  
audience really liked it, too.  Better to play what you feel, IMHO,  
than try to imitate what someone else has already played before.

FWIW,

JP