Fools Folly

This is an instrumental band I started several years ago, with a focus on improvisation. It was important to me that the improvisation not be based on blues or jazz, or on repeated chord progressions, like in a jam band. I wanted this to be different- with the focus on dynamics and intensity as well as tempo. Harmonically, many bands rely on static chord progressions to solo over, which to me get tiring to listen to.
What I found is that some people are great at making things up. Some people not so much. I also like different instrumentation than most people might find in a rock band. With this band I use my guitar/guitar synth/looping setup.

The other idea of this band is that I would use musicians that could trust without having to rehearse. Since booking a show without any kind of set list and a sound that varys from show to show is a hard sell to most clubs, we play much smaller places for very little money. So I can’t expect people to get together to rehearse (which I hate doing) before hand- they just have to come ready to play.

This is the hard part. Sometimes making stuff up for a few hours is hard. You have to practice being creative. Once 10 minutes goes by, most musicians don’t know what to play. Some play variations of those first 10 minutes. Others listen, react, lead, follow and dig deeper. These are the types of musicians I look for.

This band has taken a break from performing, due to my committments to Julie Black’s band and my acoustic music. I have recently resurrected the band though with a handful of shows at a local coffeehouse. The shows so far have started off a little shakey, while we all get an idea of what we sound like. Many of the musicians have not met before the show, but so far, there has been a willingness to create, which in the end, is all I ask for.

It is funny to me, though…some people I ask to come on out are really unsure of what to do, and once the show is over, they can’t wait to do it again. It is pretty freeing to improvise as a musician, especially with no ties of what it is supposed to sound like. I don’t give the musicians much instruction while playing, except sometimes I might specify a particular tonal center. Take D minor for instance. We can play in any D minor based key, which includes any chords in the key of D minor and it’s relatives, like D harmonic or melodic minor, D dorian or phrygian, etc…you get the idea. I will say, if a musician doesn’t know their instrument, or at least where the notes are and several minor and major based scales and modes, it can be frustrating for them as well as the other musicians.

But when it works, which currently, is about 30% of the time… it rocks, baby. It will get higher as we all get more comfortable and we take on bigger shows and more stable lineups.

It is a weird concept, but it works. It would be awesome to find an improvising vocalist at some point too. I am not adverse to vocals, but again, I don’t want it tied to any type of genre, like blues or jazz or rap. The more we play, the more musicians we meet, so I am sure the lineup will grow as the music does.