From: ladasky@netcom.com (John J. Ladasky II)
Newsgroups: rec.music.synth
Subject: Re: Team Metlay 1992: Screaming Into The Aether (part one)
Date: 25 Aug 92 18:08:42 GMT
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest)

In article <1992Aug25.160228.16824@eagle.lerc.nasa.gov> bgood@sundagger.lerc.nasa.gov () writes:
>In article <9208242258.AA11038@minerva.phyast.pitt.edu> metlay@PHYAST.PITT.EDU (metlay) writes:
>>
>>
>>Hi gang. We did it again....
>
>(Tales of Team Metlay deleted...)
>>
>>1. Most importantly of all, I wish to re-emphasize the basic message
>>behind the Team sessions: there is *nothing* special about this particular
>>group of people that made it possible for us and only us to do this. You 
>>all can and should give it a try if you're tired of playing Emusic alone
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
>Funny you should mention that.  We're doing exactly the same thing in Detroit
>this weekend.

	I've held three all-electronic jam sessions myself.  Thus far, we've 
only had one computer in the rig, though.  My clunky old Atari 1040.  Load
a few desk accesories into the system, and five minutes of live MIDI jamming
by four people will precipitate an "out of memory" error.  We managed to save
some good bits, though...

>I'd be interested, Mike, in finding out how much advanced planning you all did
>(musically, not logistically);

	My own sessions have been completely unplanned, musically speaking and
logistically speaking.  When we start to record, someone takes the role of 
"conductor" and starts calling out moods, dynamics and tempi.  We'll jam for
about ten minutes and start all over again.  There may be a few patches 
selected in advance of the piece, but we have no problems with somebody stop-
ping to load up new sounds while the remaining musicians continue to play.

	Actually, we've had so much fun at these sessions that we've talked
about converting it to a more permanent, band-type organization.  If we do
this, logistical preparations will become extremely important.  We'll also
(gasp!) be writing sheet music - the general flavor of our jam sessions has
been orchestral in nature, so knowing twelve-bar blues and "just playing"
won't cut it if we decide to formalize this.

[stuff deleted]

>Anyway, we're goign to try some completely free-form improvisation, which will
>probably fall flat on its face;

	Not necessarily!  See above.  We've gotten some wonderfully weird,
film-score sort of stuff by improvising.  Not all of it is great, but large
sections of the jams just seem to "click."

>So: if anything interesting happens, and if anyone wants to hear about it,
>I'll post a summary.

	Please do!  I think that emusic jam sessions are an idea whose time
has come at last.  I'd really like to hear what other people are doing.

>brian good


-- 
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 John J. Ladasky II ("ii")				(ladasky@netcom.COM)
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"Great composers do not borrow - they steal."  - John Ladasky		~ -	
(At the urging of fellow netter Lon Amerman, I stole the above		o o
 quote from Igor Stravinsky, who stole it from a statement made		 >
 by Pablo Picasso about painting, who stole it from...)			\_/
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"Talking about music is like dancing about architecture." - Elvis Costello(?)
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