RE: SOME THOUGHTS ON THE STATE OF THE LOOP

[Warren Sirota <wsirota@wsdesigns.com>]

I can identify with what Ted is saying (but I draw some different
conclusions - see end), although I had substantial performance skills 
before
encountering electronics. When I moved from the SF Bay Area to Oregon in
'92, I was coming off a stint writing the "weird column" for Guitar Player
and graduating from Mills - I had a reputation in the Bay Area as being 
"the
best guitarist for really weird stuff", but my bottom-line skills as a
guitarist and (somewhat lesser skills) as a composer were widely overlooked
(even though I'd performed widely throughout the Bay Area in the Electric
Guitar Quartet, orchestrating and performing string quartets for custom
electric guitars - pretty non-trivial chops territory). When I moved, I
vowed to not develop that reputation in my new locale.

In Oregon, I played in a Reggae/rock band for a couple of years (channeling
my electronic explorative tendencies into sound design, both in my guitar
synth sounds and in my multi-effect presets). I made private tapes that
captured the weird things I was doing when testing products for Musician's
Friend. I woodshedded (and started the World Wide Woodshed, and created
practicing tools). I spent 2 or 3 years accompanying a solo (alto)
clarinettist at jazz gigs, taking unaccompanied solos. I followed that with
a few years leading jazz/swing duos and trios so that I could develop my
"leader" skills more.

Then I moved to NYC. I started sitting in on some of the jazz jams in
Brooklyn, and I have to admit I was out of my league (not so much with the
other guitarists there, of which there were surprisingly few, but when
compared to the unbelievable horn and keyborad players). It didn't last
long. At the same time, I hooked up with my old percussionist buddy (and
kindergarten classmate), Steve Rubin, who I'd played with in freeform 
improv
groups in and around 1970, and who had an interest in restarting something
like that. I brushed off the EDP to fill out the duo for several reasons,
but the biggest one is that looping struck a balance between two "problems"
of freeform improv (at least for me): (1) we needed more than 2 instruments
to fill out the soundscape enough for my taste (2) adding another tonal
instrument would be inhibiting for me - it pretty much limits the possible
tonalities to modal things, pre-arranged chord changes or utter chaos,
because my ear is just not good enough to pick up a rapidly-shifting chord
structure implied by, say, a bass or piano player running free.

So, I know for myself that I am a middling-level jazz guitarist, but an
excellent guitarist of unknown genre. I am a better creator of vocabularies
and idioms than a user of others' vocabularies. Based on my listening of 
the
works of other members of this forum, I would say that this might be a
deeper shared characteristic than the fact that we all used looping devices
at some times. Or perhaps we're all developing a new musical vocabulary 
that
incorporates the characteristics and capabilities of electronic and
electronically-enhanced instruments, and we just don't have a good name for
it yet. (Maybe this "place" is where all(?) the free-improvers came who
weren't that interested in the Coltrane-ish way of doing it...)

YET here we are, congregated together in this very interesting and, I would
say, vital community, under the banner of "Looper's Delight". For whatever
reason, this list has more the feel of a community than anything I've seen
since the early days of the WELL (probably has a lot to do with the F2F 
that
we get at live looping festivals like Y2Kn). There are some things that we
have in common here, although I'm sure that categorizing them would be
difficult. I kind of think that the smart thing to do, from a marketing
standpoint, would be to all form a record label together and start 
promoting
the "Live Looping" concept in media all over the world, making it into the
next "pseduo-big" thing (if you're not making music suitable for
20-something clubs, "big" thing is probably overly ambitious - but there 
are
exceptions - Norah Jones did become a certifiably "big" thing without 
that).

Even though probably a lot of us here would feel that "Loop Music" is a
reductionist way of looking at what we do, reductionism can be a very good
thing from a commercial standpoint. I say, embrace and extend the usage of
the term to add to public recognition.

Best wishes,
Warren Sirota


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Per Boysen [mailto:per@boysen.se] 
> Sent: Monday, January 23, 2006 3:32 AM
> To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
> Subject: Re: SOME THOUGHTS ON THE STATE OF THE LOOP
> 
> 
> On 23 jan 2006, at 00.43, ArsOcarina@aol.com wrote:
> 
> > Hi there, 8< 8< 8< 8< 8<.......
> 
> 
> I agree with the opinions on looping posted by Ted. As I have  
> repeatedly said in threads touching the looping community etc I  
> regard looping as both and instrument and a performance technique,  
> but not being a musical style. I really never thought anyone was  
> serious with this "being a looper" talk and still regard it as a  
> funny community jargon on this list. It's cool and in fact 
> many of us  
> share similar musical tastes and artistic expression in what we do.  
> What really matters though, is what story the music tells the 
> listener.
> 
> My own life looping has been an instrument that has been with me  
> since around 1983 to extend my traditional instruments, tenor 
> sax and  
> stratocaster electric guitar. One year ago I began to learn a new  
> instrument, the traverse alto flute.  I choose that traditional  
> instrument because I had a vision of it being a suitable 
> extension of  
> my instrument Looping.
> 
> Greetings from Sweden
> 
> Per Boysen
> www.looproom.com (international)
> www.boysen.se (Swedish)
> --->  iTunes Music Store (digital)
> www.cdbaby.com/perboysen
> 
> 
>