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No Net was a series of
seven weekend workshops
of improvisers I organized from 2004 to 2005, with a significant
pre-history of two
groupings I've
included in the No Net history. Now
after ten years it seems like there are reasons for beginning
the project again, mainly the interest and availability of
more players than ever before, and their skill in handling
large ensembles. The difference is that these are not weekends--today
few can afford to spend an entire weekend playing music together.
The series of seven groupings of around
nine players each were held in Philadelphia, specifically
at the Spring Garden Music house, by then the residence of
free improvisers exclusively. On the
third floor is a large room with rich acoustics, and
enough space to accommodate players for the entire weekend.
Playing began on
a Saturday noon and continued through Sunday night, with breaks
for eating, socializing, and sleeping, and for a public performanceat
least one of the nights.
The music we came up with differed
from one No Net to the next, depending on the players and
instrumentation. But the main result was a form of improvisation
in which playing is informed more by listening than by technique,
musical concepts, or the desire to make a good impression,
as often found in solo playing and performance. Our starting
point was a music of quiet dynamics--at times barely a whisper,
joined by sounds from the street below-- sustained textures
and spaces, and a slower pace than was
normally associated with free improvisation. If the foot-tapping
beat or pulse is often hard to find in free jazz, here it
is non-existent, at least slowed to the length of a long breath.
This kind of music focuses on the sensuality of sound, exploring
and opening the imagination of the players and listeners.
I had been interested in large groups
since the
eighties, occasionally putting out calls for all sax players
in a city 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 2015 after
a long hiatus I organized one in Philadelphia--eleven saxophones
in a huge, "wet" acoustic, which produced a near-deafening
roar (here).
In 1984 I invited musicians to perform in the First Annual
East Coast Free Music Festival, and the next year came the
second. In the early nineties, while living in Boulder,
I organized several weekends called “Improv Campout”
in Questa New Mexico, at the home of some musician friends,
drawing from the
Front Range and the West Coast. Also there were sessions
in Boulder that included as many as twenty-five people not
distinguished as “musicians, dancers, artists”
but simply coming together for a full afternoon of free play
and expression—sound, visuals, movement, words. These
went in very wild directions, both frightening and exhilarating,
as psyches were let loose and dramas were constructed spontaneously.
There was no pressure to do anything, so people participated
to the extent they wanted, which was fully.
I later made attempts with large groups
of musicians in Philly and NY, but these became free-for-alls
without subtlety
or musical value, in my opinion. If only one person thought
of it as a blowing session the entire group would be compelled
to go that direction. After this I felt the
need 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.
In
2000, while
on tour with saxophonist Bhob Rainey, I organized
a session of nine Bay Area improvisers which accomplished
this. It was recorded and then released on John Shiurba's
Limited Sedition label.
(Later that spring Rainey went
on to organize the BSC in Boston, which unlike No Net was
a band with continuous
personnel.)
The number felt dangerously close to producing cacophony,
so it was an experiment to see what would happen. The
recording was made and released by John Shiurba on his Limited
Sedition label as the Jack Wright Large Ensemble .
It was followed by a
weekend in Boulder/Denver in July
2002, where I began to see the value of musicians coming
together for more than a performance or a recording session;
just for playing. Eight
players came, and since many were coming from a distance--Seattle,
Salt Lake, Chicago, Questa, and Minneapolis--it made
sense to make a weekend of it. It was recorded by Bob Falesch
and an edited version
made by Aaron Hansen and available online
here.
After I moved back east in 2003 I was
inspired to bring the large group idea to the east coast largely
by the four-day No Idea festival in Austin Texas in which
I participated in April 2004 (and later
helped finance by paying for a double CD of that name, now
out of print). 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. After
a couple days of playing in different combinations
we grew musically, and in our sense of community. As it happened,
by the end of the weekend the festival moved to Houston, where
we were able to take that culmination of listening and playing
to a significant audience of non-players, who responded beyond
our expectations. The evolution meant that the end of the
festival was far more free-flowing than the beginning, as
happens on the best tours. Even the most solo-oriented player
became an equal contributor to the group.
I saw from this how a
large workshop could be a completely different kind
of event than a festival, not the conventional spectacle but
a rewarding playing experience for the musicians. Each gathering
would take a different configuration of players through a
process of discovery, each one an idea of where the musical
imagination could
go. And when we put ourselves in front of listeners for a
performance, they would get the benefit of a fully centered
group of players, for we would not be distracted by our conventional
performing selves.
In the original statement of intent
I used lower-case
music as a guideline--sparse,
quiet, and with possible "empty" space. I soon
found that I didn't feel the need to point to any known aesthetic.
This is not for every player,
but those
I invited also wanted to go in the direction of careful
playing, not fearful
of making a wrong move but taking care about what we do and
carving out a space where spontaneity can yield
connected playing. This is where we can first discover
and then drop our sense of what makes good music—or
a good impression. Improvisation is not about “good
music”, for once it’s found it’s gone.
The public may not know this but the players do.
I organized these weekend sessions
for my own musical benefit, which is to play in a focused
and strong collective atmosphere with just the right people.
This has included professionals, but oriented as they tend
to be towards performance they are often not the ones who
will fit into this kind of situation. The
project was neither social work on my part, nor the
promotion of an avant-garde concept, nor an advertised workshop.
Musicians—we--need time for ourselves, for our playing
and personal relations, a time focused on what we do musically
and not to satisfy anyone else. The social pressure is heavy
on everyone these days, especially the young, to be performers
in every aspect of their lives. Musicians are expected to
personify the performer and only that, as if we were creating
music first of all for the needs and demands of others. As
a result, the ratio of sessions to performance has become
way out of balance, with
sessions dependent on the prospect of performance.
No Net was not about achieving the
successful performance--the audience count and applause, the
money gig “next time”--but as if we could play
one extended session our entire lives. This is what the No
Net weekend approached, broken up by periods of boredom with
the playing, meals, talk, sleep, and walking around the neighborhood—then
coming back with something fresh, bold and intimate. Given
the extended time, we created
an atmosphere where we disrupted the unspoken rules
and expectations we inevitably set up between ourselves and
were confronted with a new, even destabilizing situation.
I make no claims for what we accomplished
in a conventional sense, for as a player I know how difficult
and rare it is to be truly open to the sounds of others—and
I mean absolutely everything that happens--and to respond
with humility and without judgment.
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 and dependent on musical choice. It
is not a membership or contact/resource organization with
goals, functions, and a progress chart, but based solely on
actual playing and friendship. Playing with others, simply
enjoying each other through the pleasure of sounds, wherever
they come from, is like letting the other reach around and
play one’s own instrument. Of course, we must work hard
on our own, face our limitations and push through technical
challenges. But that is not yet the music, not the quality
and excellence that music can be.
The reason I stopped organizing No
Net after 2005 is partly that I became disillusioned as I
saw musicians turn away from open group improvisation towards
career and closed, performance-oriented groups. Free improvisation
lost much of the
elan it had around 2000 and was
beginning to lose some of the organizers who had struggled
for it on the East Coast. It
would soon be the work of those who clearly saw it had no
great future in terms of media presences and careers, at least
not the kind of community that No Net gathered.
Now,
as of 2016, it seems to have entered a new phase, where groups
of experienced players are again possible that have the quality
of listening and adventure of the No Nets. The most recent
grouping was eight players in April 2016, listed below, most
in Philadelphia. A high quality video recording is available
here
The players:
March 7, 2000 Mills College,
Oakland CA
Jack Wright, saxophones
Matt Ingalls, clarinet
Bhob Rainey, soprano saxophone
Morgan Guberman, contrabass
Matthew Sperry, contrabass
Tom Djill, trumpet
Ron Heglin, tuba, voice
John Shiurba, guitar
Karen Stackpole, percussion
July 12-13, 2003 Boulder and
Denver CO
Jack Wright - Alto Saxophone, Tenor
Saxophone, Contra-alto Clarinet, Piano, Trombone
Aaron Hansen - Tenor Saxophone, Bass Clarinet, Eb Clarinet,
Short Sax, Calls
Gust Burns - Piano
Davu Seru - Percussion, Piano, Contrabass
Jonathan Fretheim - Viola, Voice
Michael O’Neill - Guitar, Voice
Bob Falesh - Metapiano
Ben Wright - Contrabass, Baritone Tuba, Saw
July 17-18, 2004,
Philadelphia
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, Bologna, Italy
Vic Rawlings, cello and electronics, Boston
Nate Wooley, trumpet, Jersey City NJ
Jack Wright, saxes, Easton PA
The concerts were described in the
fall issue 2004 of Signal to Noise as "a festival resplendent
in great moments."
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
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
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
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
Chris Mueller, cello, St. Louis
Morten Nottleman, drums, The Hague, Netherlands
Mark Sarich, cello, electronics, St. Louis
Jack Wright, saxes, Easton PA
August 20, 21
Jonathan Chen, violin, Middletown NY
Rob Dietz, computer electronics, Bloomington IN
Andy Haleck, saw, bowed cymbals, Baltimore
Leonel Kaplan, trumpet, Buenos Aires Argentina
David Kendall, computer electronics, Los Angeles
Rachel Thompson, violin, Middletown NY
Jack Wright, saxes, Easton
Jonathan Zorn, analogue electronics, Middletown NY
Dec. 16-17, 2005
Maria Chavez, turntables, Brooklyn
Bryan Eubanks, electronics, Queens
Andy Hayleck, saw, Baltimore
Bonnie Jones, electronics, Baltimore
Andrew Lafkas, double bass, Queens
Wade Matthews, clarinet, flute, electronics Madrid, Spain
Paul Neidhardt, percussion, Baltimore
Jack Wright, saxes, Easton
April 12, 2016, Rotunda Concert,
Philadelphia
Bob Marsh double bass and electronics,
Pueblo CO
Jack Wright saxophones, Easton
Ilan Gold double bass, Phila.
Ben Bennett percussion, Phila.
Elizabeth Meredith viola, Baltimore
Alban Bailly cello,
Phila.
Zach Darrup guitar, cello,
Phila.
Mick Ricereto, B-flat clarinet, alto clarinet, Phila.
June
4 and 5, 2018, Third Annual East Coast Free Music Festival,
Philadelphia
Ben Bennett, percussion (Philadelphia)
Ed Cho, guitar (Easton PA)
Patrick Crossland,trombone(Baltimore)
Zach Darrup, guitar (Philadelphia)
Joel Kromer, modular synth(Bethlehem PA)
Evan Lipson, double bass (Chattanooga)
Toshi Makihara, percussion (Phoenixville PA)
Andrea Pensado, electronics and voice (Salem MA)
Ron Stabinsky, piano and electronics (Wilkesbarre)
Matt Tomlinson, bass guitar (New Philadelphia PA)
Jack Wright, alto/soprano saxophone (Easton PA)
Walter Wright, electronics (Lowell MA)
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