Stop Multitasking
4 A’s worth sharing this week: bringing improvisation to the center of music ed, the problem with Miles Davis’ voice, being a better listener, new music, and more…
Here are four things (A’s) we thought were worth sharing this week:
A1. Bringing improvisation to the center of music teaching and learning.
In his 2011 TEDx Talk, Christopher Azzara, Professor & Chair of Music Education and Affiliate Faculty of Jazz Studies and Contemporary Media at the Eastman School of Music (and close friend of Foray), illustrates how focusing so intently on rote reading in music education not only impedes our ability to feel and understand what we’re reading, but ultimately limits our creativity.
The problem is that most formal music instruction uses notation as a point of departure for learning music. Now, notation isn’t bad but it’s a symbol for music. And so what happens is that students have these experiences where they’re not invited to improvise or create so much and in fact much of what is taught actually impedes someone’s natural inclination to improvise.
Socrates would say we have the illusion of wisdom rather than wisdom itself if we can pronounce [the words] but not really have a conversation. And that’s a problem when we are talking about music learning.
Watch the talk here and read more from Azzara here.
A2. Listening to people the way we listen to music.
In his August 2021 TED Talk, What You Discover When You Really Listen, Hrishikesh Hirway, of Song Exploder fame, first encourages the audience to listen to music with intentionality in order to gain a deeper understanding of the music. Then extrapolates this idea to encompass listening to other people with the same intentionality in hopes of gaining a deeper understanding of them.
His tips include:
Be open to new ideas
Stop multitasking
Show you’re engaged (without bringing the attention back to you)
Every conversation has the potential to open up layers in order to experience the depth and richness of other people and other people’s music.
A3. Miles’s famous (speaking) voice from musician and author Lewis Porter on his Playback substack.
Everybody loves to imitate Miles Davis’ famous hoarse voice, usually in the context of something funny that the jazz master (allegedly) said to another musician. But it turns out he didn’t find it funny at all. In fact, he was so deeply hurt emotionally by the sound of his voice that he considered quitting the biz altogether.
In the liner notes to Miles’s album Blue Moods, Bill Coss wrote:
Just recently ... the bother and anxiety about a growth in his throat had made the cat-slight Miles speak and walk in such whispers that his always present, kind-of-nose-thumbing withdrawal seemed nearly complete.
Miles struggled to find a surgical cure for his voice right up to the end of his life. But here’s the kicker: By March 1957, he had not only told Leonard Feather (a leading jazz journalist, and the only one who was also a professional musician) that he planned to give up performing altogether, but he was making specific plans about what he would do for a living in music. Ian Carr, in his Definitive Biography of Davis, speculated simply that Davis was exhausted by the pace of his recent success. It hasn’t occurred to anybody, apparently, that having lost his voice had a huge impact on Miles personally.
The Miles Davis legend is typically one of extreme confidence, bravado, and even dominance (though the real story is obviously much more nuanced). So it’s a bit shocking to hear how extremely sensitive he was about something some would consider relatively trivial. A notable example of a perceived weakness eventually becoming a signature aesthetic trait.
A4. New music this week from Kenny Beats, brahm masla, and the Joshua Redman Quartet.
Beat-maker and producer Kenny Beats released his solo debut album, Louie, last week. Pitchfork called it, “a dynamic record bursting with soul samples and complicated emotions.” The 31 year-old Ableton ninja/Berklee grad is known for collaborations with Vince Staples, Denzel Curry, FKA Twigs, and Ed Sheeran, among others.
“I always said that I wouldn’t do a solo album because I didn’t have anything to say,” he wrote in advance of Louie, his full-length debut. “Finally, I did.” After his father was diagnosed with cancer in 2021, he found the inspiration he’d been looking for. Louie pays homage to Kenny’s father—a former broadcaster—through radio-DJ-style transitions and old recordings of his voice, but the album’s no requiem; it’s a joyous, funky, and texturally dynamic record bursting with soul samples, warm studio instrumentation, and a range of complicated emotions.
And We Were Names is the debut EP by drummer and singer-songwriter (and another friend of Foray), brahm masla. In the long and hallowed tradition of accomplished drummers striking a solo creative path away from the kit (think S. Carey, Father John Misty, even Phil Collins vibes), masla has established something really special on this new EP. Highly recommended.
This EP is a vulnerable and personal album that deals with the five stages of grief. Each stage of grief correlates to a different track, 1-5. As the songs weave together a complex story of friendship, love, death and rebirth, the EP takes the listener on an emotional journey through combining a wide variety of my musical influences, from indie-folk, to electronic, rap/hip hop and modern jazz. — brahm masla
The return of the mid-90s powerhouse quartet in tenor saxophonist Joshua Redman’s much anticipated new record, LongGone (featuring Brad Mehldau, piano, Christian McBride, bass, and Brian Blade, drums). After a year on the road, the quartet recorded an album that not only encapsulates the metamorphosis of each individual, but also the strength of their roots as defining figures/young lions of the 90s jazz scene.
Most of LongGone feels deeply organic, with Redman and his bandmates feeding off each other and working to build something cohesive and bigger than their individual contributions. — All Music
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