RICK VANMATRE / Creando variedad en la improvisación libre (Video non authorized)
Rick VanMatre
from USA Rick VanMatre is Adjunct Professor of Saxophone and Professor Emeritus of Jazz Studies at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. In addition to jazz performances and recitals in the US, Europe and Israel, concerts and recordings have included unique crossover works featuring art installation, aleatoric computer music, organ, vocal ensemble, Indian music, drama, poetry, dance, and with diverse artists such as John McNeil, Tim Hagans, Roland Vazquez, Duke Ellington Orchestra, and Cincinnati Pops Orchestra with Manhattan Transfer. He has appeared with James Conlon's Linton Series, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and as concerto soloist with the New York Repertory Orchestra. Educational performances and lectures include NASA, WSC, IAJE, Jamey Aebersold, and universities in Europe, China, and Brazil. He has written for Saxophone Journal and served as Jazz Coordinator for NASA. As Director of the CCM Jazz Program from 1983-2010, he was responsible for expanding the BM in Jazz, creating the MM in Jazz Studies and the DMA in Saxophone, establishing the Jazz Recording Studio, and running the CCM Visiting Artist Series, one of the most extensive in the nation. Many of his former students are active performers and university professors. Mr VanMatre is an endorsing artist for Selmer Saxophones. |
Creating Variety in Free ImprovisationThis lecture/demonstration will present an examination of aesthetic concepts and practical devices used to create variety in free improvisation. Examples will apply to “free jazz” and “classical” improvisation using both non-harmonic vocabulary and elements of functional harmony. Motivic development, rhythmic “feel”, melodic contour, and implied harmonic sequences will be demonstrated within solo pieces, aleatoric sections, and cadenzas. In addition to artistic ideas for interpretation, this clinic will present tangible exercises to achieve more contrast. In particular, concepts such as tension/release, activity/passivity, dissonance/consonance, chromaticism/diatonicism, and repetition/variation will be examined, emphasizing finding subtlety of expression. (It is important to find a balance between boring predictability and manneristic exaggeration.) Specific saxophone techniques also will be demonstrated, including tone and articulation methods. As with any form of musical art, intuitive reaction and development of the ear through listening to the great masters is more important than intellectual analysis. Nevertheless, the techniques studied in this presentation may help the student to develop more quickly the ability to emulate the highest examples of improvisation. Even for the advanced performer and teacher, these ideas will hopefully provide inspiration for experimentation for the sake of achieving contrast, the hallmark of every artist. |
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