No Net is a series of weekend workshops/performances, which evolved over the five years, from 2000 to 2005 and is about to resume. The aim is an orchestra of nine, though in reality it has ranged from seven to ten. From 2003 to 2005 these have been held in Philadelphia, specifically at the Spring Garden St. house in West Philadelphia, where there is a large room with good acoustics, and accommodations for out of town players.

The music we explore differs from one No Net to the next, covering much of the territory of free improvisation. But it seems that the main focus has been a form of improvisation in which playing is informed more by listening than by impressive technique, as found in solo playing.  Our starting point is a music of quiet dynamics--at times barely a whisper, joined by sounds from the street--and a slower pace of sustained textures and spaces than is normally associated with free improvisation. If the foot-tapping beat or pulse is hard to find in free jazz, here it is non-existent, at least slowed to the length of a long breath. This is a music focused on sound, exploring its sensuality and opening the imagination of the players and listeners.

In its present form No Net could be said to begin with that first session I organized in 2000 at Mills College in Oakland CA, which was recorded and then released on John Shiurba's Limited Sedition label. But even before that, in the 80's I had been interested in large groups, occasionally putting out calls for all sax players to come together for a concert or session. I called those Saxophone Soup--the idea being that the sound of the saxophone alone would be a unifying element. In the late 90's I made attempts at large groups in Philly and NY, but was disappointed that they became free-for-alls without any restraint or musical value as I could determine. A spirit partly derived from free jazz was part of the problem, since a couple of people thinking of it as a blowing session could turn the playing in that direction. After this I felt I needed to restrict numbers and select players who could be attuned to something like a large group composition, but relying on the players' ability to do this without suggested or imposed direction.
 
The Mills session accomplished this. It was followed by two No Net weekends in Boulder/Denver in which I began to see the value of players coming together for more than one concert. Basically, it seemed that if people were coming from a distance it made sense to make a weekend of it.
 
I was spurred to bring the No Net to the east coast largely by the No Idea festival in Austin where I had played in April 2004. I was impressed that the first night of the festival most of the audience consisted of the other players, making it more like a session of players in rotation than a conventional performance. As the days wore on, the balance shifted, such that by the end of the weekend that community of players had grown musically. And somewhat accidentally, we could bring the culmination of listening and playing to a significant audience of non-players, since the festival shifted to Houston where there was a significant audience. The evolution of music and the players' friendships meant  that the end was different than the beginning. Even the most solo-oriented player became an equal contributor to the group. I felt the NoNet could be something of a festival in this sense; each gathering taking a different configuration of players through a process of discovery. Each one will be another exploration of where the musical imagination can go. And at the end, we would all be playing together in a large group.

 In the original statement of intent I pointed to lower-case music as a guideline, but now I don't feel the need to point to any known aesthetic. Still I am trying to make it clear that I want No Net to go in the direction of careful playing, which doesn't mean cautious, it means taking care about what you do and creating a space where spontaneity can flourish. This is, as I often say of free improvisation in general, not for everyone; it is play that is also hard work. For many the essence of free playing is release-- self-expression, and "blowing", and these players would probably be frustrated or just not have the skills for a No Net. They would tend to fast playing, and bring the volume levels up and keep them up, or create the familiar waves of high and then low intensity. That is not what I want to spend my time and efforts on. I want to clear a space for something else, more sparse, sound-oriented, and at least a sense of quiet that will prevent loudness from becoming the necessary high emotional point.
 
On the east coast I've increasingly been aware of another need that No Net serves for musicians of the region, and that is, a time for ourselves, for our playing and personal relations, a time focused on what we do musically and not performance. The normal ratio of sessions to performance is way out of balance, to my thinking. So I've stressed to players that this is not about performance, and size of audience, (certainly not pay), but internally focused like one extended session, broken up by meals, talk, sleep, and visiting the area, but whose musical purpose predominates. We are placed in an atmosphere where the unspoken rules we inevitably set up between ourselves over a period of time are disrupted, and we are confronted with a new, even destabilizing situation. I make no bold claims for what results, for as a player I know how difficult and rare it is truly to be open to the sounds of others, and to respond with a degree of humility. But No Net hopefully creates the best conditions where this can happen.
 
I've found that No Net is very attractive to improvisers, and many people have asked to be included. This has led me to stress that I am not creating an advertised, public workshop, with goals and selection committee and fee, open to applicants, nor something to be added to a bio. It is a gathering (the word I've preferred) of players I myself have played with or can imagine a good playing experience with. It is not even a rehearsal, but an extended private session, one that includes one or two performances of the group. I suggest to those who are disappointed at not being invited that they should do something similar, and set up sessions of their partners.
 
I consider No Net broadly as an outgrowth of Spring Garden Music, which I created in 1982  to express a vision I had of a player-based community that was widespread and open, yet personal. It is not like a membership or contact/resource organization with goals and functions but based solely on actual playing and friendship relations. I have long stressed this as the basis for the music I want to play, rather than performance or career.
 
There has been some writing published about No Net performances, and it has made me aware of how different is the perspective I hold from the normal critical viewpoint. I do my best to get the players I want, but first of all, the best for No Net are those who I myself would like to play with AND those who would mix well and get into the spirit of it. However, once everyone is there, in place, I am not judging anyone as an individual player in terms of ability. Basically the idea is, this is the community of players we've got, this is the world we've got. So when an outside observer and not "in the mix", comes up with a judgment later about who was good and who wasn't, I have to say that No Net is a different kind of thing, that can't be judged only by what is heard. Of course we all have judgments, but the critical perspective is only musical; mine is also a judgment about the experience from the players' point of view. I'm not going to have only musical standards for this, like I was standing outside the experience. The whole point is to create a space outside the music world, which can't help but foster a persistent, nagging drive to judge and rank each player. Instead I want us to just do the best listening and playing and relating we can do, learning from each other. So when the players say, that was a great No Net, it refers to the bundled ensemble of factors, community and musical. And it hopefully connects in our lives with similar events. I've had other No Nets that were exceptional musically but really nothing special happening between the players.

It was Wally Shoup in Seattle who, years ago, sent me James P. Carse, Finite and Infinite Games, and said that free improvisation could be described as an infinite game. That is one where the goal of the players is not to win or be ranked according to how well they have done, as in a finite game, but  to keep the game going. As much as musicians, including myself, are engaged in the finite game of the music world, the most valuable effort is somewhere else, to keep the game going, which means changing and opening. This is not the game of the music world, dominated by the marketplace even if the monetary rewards are nil.  In the infinite game we still choose who we want to play with, but not according to the ranking of the player, not even whether we think his or her music is outstanding and superior.  It is rather the simple question of whether this is someone we want to play with, maybe through a conversation or one sound we've heard. I can't say this will be the "best" music, because I don't know what that word means. But it is the kind of game that No Net is intended to encourage.

The reason for the hiatus of No Net after 2005 is that I became disillusioned as I saw musicians turn away from sessions and the desire for group improvisation towards a focus on career and the creation of performance-friendly groups. Free improvisation seems to have moved into a more institutional phase of its history, considered now as a musical genre rather than a communal activity. After three years I am now reviving No Net to see if this activity can survive in this period, perhaps as an antidote to groups and individuals competing for a place in the performance market. And I need this antidote for myself as well, as I become enmeshed in that struggle and need to get back to the roots of what improvisation is all about.


Past No Nets:

Dec. 16-17, 2005
 
MARIA CHAVEZ, turntables, Brooklyn
BRYAN EUBANKS, electronics, Queens
ANDY HAYLECK, saw, Balimore
BONNIE JONES, electronics, Baltimore
ANDREW LAFKAS, double bass, Queens
WADE MATTHEWS, clarinet, flute, electronics Madrid, Spain
PAUL NEIDHARDT, percussion, Baltimore
JACK WRIGHT, saxes, Easton

August 20, 21

JONATHAN CHEN, violin
ROB DIETZ, computer electronics
ANDY HAYLECK, saw, bowed cymbals
LEONEL KAPLAN, trumpet
DAVID KENDALL, computer electronics
RACHEL THOMPSON, violin
JACK WRIGHT, saxes
JONATHAN ZORN, analogue electronics

June 18-19, 2005

ALBAN BAILLY, guitar, France and currently Philadelphia
 ANDREW DEWAR, soprano sax, Middletown CT (Weslyan)
 TOM DJLL, tpt, Santa Cruz, CA
 MICHAEL JOHNSEN, electronics, Pittsburgh PA
 CHRISTOPHER MUETHER, cello, St. Louis
 MORTEN NOTTELMAN, drums, The Hague, Netherlands
 MARK SARICH, cello, electronics, St. Louis
 JACK WRIGHT, saxes, Easton PA

April 17, 2005--Rotunda Concert

MIKE BULLOCK, double bass, electronics, Boston  
GUST BURNS, tapes, Seattle WA
TUCKER DULIN, trombone, electronics, San Diego, CA 
CHRIS FORSYTH, guitar, Brooklyn, NY
DAVID GROSS, saxophone, Boston
ANDREW LAFKAS, upright bass, Queens, NY
CATHERINE PANCAKE, dry ice/cymbal percussion, Baltimore
NATE WOOLEY, trumpet, Jersey City NJ
JACK WRIGHT, soprano and alto saxophone, Easton PA

April 10-11, 2005 :

Gust Burns, piano, tapes, Seattle WA
Andrew Drury, percussion, Queens, NY
Evan Lipson, double bass, Philadelphia (Spring Garden House)
Carlos Santiago, violin, Philadelphia (Spring Garden House)
Dave Smollen, percussion, electronics, Philadelphia (Spring Garden House)
Ben Wright, double bass, Questa NM
Jack Wright, saxes, Easton PA

Aug. 21-22, 2004 :

 Gust Burns, piano and tapes, Seattle
 Bryan Eubanks, sax and tape recorder, Portland OR
 Andy Hayleck, amplified gongs, Baltimore
 Michael Johnsen, electronics and saw, Pittsburgh, PA
 Andrew Lafkas, bass, NYC
 Evan Lipson, bass, Phila.
 Toshi Makihara, percussion, Phila.
 Gregory Reynolds, alto sax, Seattle
 Jack Wright, saxes, Easton PA

July 17-18, 2004, ten of the following appeared the first day and nine the second:

    Ricardo Arias, balloons, NYC
    Mike Balistreri, bass, Albuquerque, NM
    Dan Blacksberg, trombone, Phila.
    Dan Breen, mechanical electronics, Baltimore
    Charles Cohen, buchla music easel, Philadelphia
    Mazen Kerbaj, trumpet, Beirut, Lebanon
    Paul Neidhardt, percussion, Baltimore
    Anna Troisi, electronics and amplified objects, Italy
    Vic Rawlings, cello and electronics, Boston
    Nate Wooley, trumpet, Jersey City NJ
    Jack Wright, saxes, Easton PA--www.springgardenmusic.com

The concerts are described in the fall issue 2004 of Signal to Noise as "a festival resplendent in great moments."