Bridgforth would agree that Finding Voice is about more than growing
vocabulary and transcribing history in order to tell ones story. Moreover, this is just the beginning, as story sets up house, living in the cells of its creator.
The flesh on my bones instinctively dances in harmony with my voice. My body calls people into my music making. Movement is added, seemingly for performance, but not so. It is this physical involvement that cements ones words on a metaphysical level as mind, body and now soul, take its songs story ever deeper. Ever higher.
Kathleen Stein states that central to creativity is its transformational ability to take existing pieces of information and by newly combining them in ways that grant greater awareness of reality; we birth more new ideas and actions.[1]
When a star is born, the cataclysmic event surges with energy, reacts, combusts, explodes with new information and new life. This purposeful risk taking, experiencing time outside of self-perception and the knowledge of what’s to come, houses the energy that propels me towards the freedom I seek. I’ve found this precognitive exhibition to be rich, full of expressive moments that would not be the same, if composed ahead of time. Reflecting both the now and the past succinctly; collectively. With the understanding that this time is santi sanct, its space is set alive with new revelations and connections. All are free and all are created equally...equally created.
Within these creative moments, and without much thought, all make peace with themselves and the differences that prior, separated us economically, politically, physically or spiritually. Opening and interacting, and responding to the ideas of the group, this common ground supports the leaving behind of differences and upholds the discovery of unity, allowing for the building of a new community of ideas and expressive language; wholly integrated in a nurturing environment. Within this new viewpoint, aside from angst, disappointment or history, all can experience new vision and insight.
When Jazzers finish a song, it’s common that they turn to each other and laugh, talking about what went on during the tune...discussing surprising connections, mistakes, great lead-ins or endings. Hearing the applause, they’re brought back to the performative aspect of the piece recognizing the need to respond to the audience’s external participation. Deeper judicial effects of art can be found within the phrase, “holding space” for someone. A friend recently made comment that there was a lot of space within a particular tune for them to play; basically addressing the added dimension or place of time or pace in which he could insert his creative thoughts; new thoughts...finding a place for experimenting and implementing what he’d imagined. Sitting with another creative offered him space to invent exciting new sounds, vocabulary. Whether this space is located in music, the rebuilding of a car engine, the exchange of poetry or finding new expressions within movement, this space is the place that all find themselves as equal participants. In this space, all are contributing in a viable, equal, creative manner; stepping outside of stereotypical responses, enabling movement around blockages that prevent spontaneity and flow.
“Spontaneous thought is still thinking but uncontrolled conclusions can emerge. Spontaneously occurring conclusions, then, may be based on prior experiences, wherein the temporal cortical memory structures reach out and “seduce” the anterior prefrontal cortex with their powerful personal content. And something “suddenly occurs” to you.” [2]
It is quite possible, that the formidable statement disseminated during the unification of spontaneous space, is simply; we exist. We are here (a thought that makes sense in context of its global importance, for those of us whom have found this form so meaningful...a form that embodies a fully articulated being). Who could question or wonder, the dance forward, the running towards, this home...this act of freedom? The improvisation I employ, as a way of exploring value of self, my environment and others, is an equally sensible connection of the improvisational me/we/us. This demonstrates, in a unifying manner, our void that reveals and results in a sonic substance of a significant nature. There is an inescapable value in its doing...not planning. Collectively, a statement rings out that this nothing is something, when forces are joined and articulated through this art of void. This nothing, we equally have in common. In this, we allow the music to reveal ourselves...to ourselves. This could/is done in many ways - it just so happens my experience is through sound.
[1] The Genius Engine: Where memory, reason, passion and creativity intersect in the human brain, by Kathleen Stein (2007), John Wiley & Sons Inc., Champlain Library, NY.
[2] The Genius Engine: Where memory, reason, passion and creativity intersect in the human brain, by Kathleen Stein, (2007), John Wiley & Sons Inc., Champlain Library. NY. pg. 100
No comments:
Post a Comment