improvisors’ pool

Monday night, again

2009-03-01T14:29:00.002-05:00

The Improvisors’ pool is taking place on Monday nights again starting on March 2, 2009, at the usual location (see sidebar).

Wednesday night

2008-01-27T16:55:00.000-05:00

The Improvisors’ Pool reopens. It now takes place on Wednesday nights. See you there!

The improvisors’ pool takes another nap…

2007-11-18T11:07:00.000-05:00

…and reopens on Monday, December the third. See you there.

Monday Night

2007-01-24T17:16:00.000-05:00

The Improvisors’ pool now takes place on Monday nights, at the usual location (see sidebar).

The improvisors’ pool takes a nap

2006-11-12T14:21:00.000-05:00

The improvisors’ pool will take a little break and reopens on Monday, January 8, 2007. See you then!

AIM Toronto’s Large Ensemble

2006-08-27T20:19:00.000-05:00

An exciting new initiative from AIM Toronto: an improvising ensemble of orchestral size! This ambitious project will draw from a vast pool of talented musicians who are connected to AIM Toronto as members or friends. The palette includes all the traditional instrumental families, voices, electronics, found and homemade sound sources.
The ensemble is committed to exploring a whole range of formats, from fully notated compositions to free improvisation.

Quote of the day: Toop

2006-08-20T08:43:00.000-05:00

The best improvisors realised that their music demanded constant awareness. As the history of automatism shows, spontaneity attracts the inevitability of collapse into repetitious themes and behavioural tics, stasis and empty chatter.

David Toop

Search and Reflect some more

2006-07-28T22:19:00.000-05:00

Rod Campbell will lead another free workshop at the NOW Lounge, as part of AIMT’s NOW series. Once again, we will work on exercises from Search and Reflect by John Stevens. All musicians are invited.

Employee of the month: Andrew Chan

2006-07-23T19:52:00.000-05:00

The improvisors’ pool welcomes Andrew Chan. Andrew is a wonderful young harpist from Vancouver who came to Toronto to study with Judy Loman. At the improvisors’ pool, he played diatonic harp, piano, flute and even singing saw! Here’s a short recording of a duo with Rod Campbell on trumpet (mp3, 252K). Bravo Andrew, hope to see you soon.

Who played at IP?

2006-06-27T21:32:00.002-05:00

The following is a rather incomplete list of people who played at the improvisors’ pool’s latest incarnation along the years:

Paul Newman: tenor and soprano saxophone
Scott Thompson: trombone
Janine McLeod: harp
Arnd Jurgensen: guitar, saz, trumpet
Jack Vorvis: percussion
Vanda Cordier: voice
Luciano Porto Gonçalves: percussion
James Bailey: too much stuff to list
Andy Yue: synth, piano
Watson Jennison: soprano saxophone
Dougal Bichan: fiddle, flutes, percussion
Stuart Broomer: guitar, piano
Paul Waggoner: drums
David Wilcox: drums
Grahame Beakhurst: tuba, double bass
Elliott Chapin: flute, cornetto, microtonal guitar, theorbo, alto saxophone, clarinet
Rod Campbell: trumpet, voice, homemade clarinet
Michelangelo Iaffaldano: homemade instruments, accordion, clarinet
Dwight Chalmers: trumpet
Alan Bloor (Knurl): metal constructions, bass guitar
Dominique Banoun: voice, laptop
Colin Anthony: piano
Paul Dutton: soundsinging
John Oswald: alto saxophone
Michael Snow: piano
Harry Simpson: drums
Guy Leblanc: trombone, bass clarinet, percussion
Mike Hansen: turntables, electronics
Tomasz Krakowiac: percussion, electronics
Rose Bolton: violin
Alan Glicksman: synth
Paul Kolinski, drums, guitar
Pessi Parviainen: guitar
Andrew Chan, harp, flute, singing saw
Dave Cuff, percussion
Tim Cuff, percussion
Thomas Charmetant, cello
Kim Gravelle, shakuhachi
Tilman Lewis, cello
John Gilbert, flute
Marcinku Kedzior, piano
Jason Hall, Guitar
David Sait, Guzheng
Melody MacKiver, viola, percussion
Cathy Campbell, clarinet
Mike Lynn, bass
Dave Hamilton, tenor sax
Chris Worden, guitar
Audrey Patton, french horn
Bryan Dennis, percussion

Christina Kubisch: Sound Walks

2006-06-03T13:49:00.000-05:00

In 2003, Berlin-based sound artist Christina Kubisch began an ongoing project called “Electrical Walks.” This project employs specially built headphones that receive electromagnetic signals from the environment and convert them into sound. Kubisch maps a given territory, noting “hot spots” (ATM machines, security systems, electronic cash registers, subway systems, etc.) where the signals are particularly strong or interesting. She then loans the headphones to the public, allowing participants to undertake an auditory dérive through the invisible network of electromagnetic information.

Read the whole story and listen to some amazing real audio streams of Christina’s recordings from around the world on Cabinet Magazine.

Quote of the day: O’Brien

2006-05-21T10:40:00.000-05:00

He sat down at the piano and after some slow phrases, erupted into what Mick with inward wit, would dub a headlong chromatic dysentery which was ‘brilliant’ in the bad sense of being inchoate and, to his ear at least, incoherent. A shattering chord brought the disorder to a close.

Flann O’Brien, The Dalkey Archive, 1964

Nice Workshop!

2006-05-20T08:42:00.000-05:00

The workshop was a success. Aside from Rod Campbell who was leading and playing trumpet, the participants were Rob Piilonen on flute, Aaron Lumley on guitar, Brandon Valdivia on drums, Paul Newman on soprano sax, John Wilson on voice and Michelangelo Iaffaldano on accordion. The exercises were challenging and lots of fun. The process of trying to follow the instructions and failing would occasionally lead to some sort of crazy rhythmic counterpoint, almost à la “moutons de Panurge”.
These activities will continue at the pool with whoever feels like dropping by. See you there.

Critical Studies in Improvisation

2006-05-13T16:11:00.000-05:00

While taking a short break from playing beautiful music on his trombone, IP friend Scott Thomson would like to draw your attention to the online journal Critical Studies in Improvisation / Études Critiques en Improvisation. (Yes, they have a splash page, but we don’t hold that against them). Scott contributed a review of British percussionist, theorist and pedagogue Eddie Prévost’s second book, Minute Particulars to the current issue (Vol 1, No. 3, 2006: “Asian Improvisation: a Primer in the Politics of Recognition”).

While you are there, have a look around: you will find scads of interesting content, such as this enlightening piece by John Napier on improvisation in North Indian classical music.

Free workshop at NOW Lounge

2006-05-06T16:59:00.000-05:00

On Sunday May the 14, at 2 PM, our man Rod Campbell will give a workshop based on John Stevens’ exercises. The workshop is free and it is open to all musicians. It is part of AIMT’s Now Series, which is held at the Now Lounge (189 Church St.) every Sunday afternoon. As usual, the workshop will be followed by performances by some of Toronto’s finest improvisors.

Burning keyboards give you so much more

2006-03-21T20:26:00.000-05:00

Sound artist Bill Thompson has set a harpsichord on fire and videotaped the proceedings (thanks Pessi). Judging from the mp3 file, it sounds like any old burning log. As much as we endorse instrument destruction (just kidding—we love harpsichords), we were a little disappointed that no one was playing the instrument at the time: with that heat, can you imagine the changes in tuning? Also, by wearing oven mitts the performer could avoid burns and at the same time strike interesting clusters.

Quote of the day: Strindberg

2006-03-20T22:07:00.000-05:00

I’ve been told that the Malays drill holes in the bamboo stalks that grow in their forests. When the wind blows, they lie on the ground to listen to the symphonies produced by these gigantic Æolian harps. The strange thing is that each listener hears a unique tune and a unique harmony, all according to the whim of the wind.
…
It is a fact that weavers use a kaleidoscope to discover new patterns, leaving it to chance to arrange the bits of colored glass.
…
Here is an idea for the manufacturers of the barrel organs now so much in vogue! Have some holes drilled at random in the round melody disc, in any old way, and you will have a musical kaleidoscope.

August Strindberg, On Chance in Artistic Creation, 1894, republished in Cabinet Magazine.
Makes you wonder about what sort of rad Cagean experiments may have taken place in the 19th century or even earlier, which vanished without a trace, in the absence of notation or recordings.

Raphe Malik passes on

2006-03-14T11:41:00.000-05:00

More sad news to report. Raphe Malik, the trumpeter Cecil Taylor once stated was the only one worth talking about in America has passed away. Though not a leader of many of his own sessions, Mr. Malik was a long-term member of the Cecil Taylor Unit and appears on the monumental live set One Too Many Salty Swift and Not Goodbye.

Search and Reflect

2006-03-09T12:54:00.000-05:00

Today, and for the next few weeks, we will work on some of John Stevens’ exercises. These are not “compositions” as such, but rather a means of getting improvisational activity started, which can then go off in any direction. John created them throughout the years in his practice with musicians such as Evan Parker and Derek Bailey. Later he collected them in a volume for the Open University, Search and Reflect (1985).

Ivor Cutler dies at 83

2006-03-08T15:37:00.000-05:00

The Scottish poet, singer and songwriter Ivor Cutler died on March the third, 2006. If you are not familiar with his work, we highly recommend that you look up his records and books as it is wonderful, funny, absurd stuff. You can read Cutler’s obituary on the Guardian.

Quote of the day: Beresford

2006-03-06T23:42:00.000-05:00

Being involved in improvised music was the single most important factor in developing my understanding of music. Playing improvised music was a liberating force, a culture where you could ignore conventional rules, build up and formulate your own individual technique

Steve Beresford

A4 compositions for The Great Learning Orchestra

2006-03-04T20:23:00.000-05:00

From our friends in Sweden:

This is an invitation to write a piece for the Great Learning Orchestra, an ensemble which consists of anything from two to one hundred musicians, and that has performed many pieces from the experimental catalogue. You can read more about the orchestra at the GLO website.

Performance duration, instrumentation and the number of players for the piece that you write are left open. The only restriction is that the piece must be written on one side of A4 paper only, and is signed by you at the bottom right-hand corner. The compensation we can offer is a recording of the work and a promise that we only will play it in the name of GLO. It is envisaged that several of these pieces will be performed in a forthcoming A4 festival.

This invitation is being sent to a number of composers, musicians and sound artists, and can be freely distributed, simply by copying this text and passing it on.

The Great Learning Orchestra
Leif Jordansson

Music and jollity!

2006-03-04T20:04:00.000-05:00

Here we go: like everyone else and their dog, the improvisors’ pool has a blog! There is no denying that we chose the blog format because it is amazingly easy to manage; however we hope it will allow us to publish relevant content and encourage discussion among the participants.
We are pretty sure this image has nothing to do with improvised music but we love it; it is from the always fascinating Bibliodissey.