12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 46
Date: 02/15/2013
Instrument: Tenor saxophone
Location: A room in my mothers house. Edmonds, WA
Notes:
With the release of my new solo saxophone album tonight, my spirits are high and my energy is coursing. I recorded this improvisation today without any kind of pre-scripted model or preparation before hand. This is an energy piece centered around small motives, and developed with a steady line of intensity throughout.
A few weeks ago I performed Roscoe Mitchell’s amazing composition Nonaah in which I played a transcription of the piece verbatim from his landmark recording “The Solo Concert.” The moment I began this improvisation today I was struck by the spirit of this piece. Unlike Roscoe’s recording, which maintains repetitive traditional note themes with crystal-clearn precision, I approached this improvisation with smaller melodic fragments. There is some melodic repetition, but this is done very little. I use false fingerings to mute at least 50% if the pitches, which, when overblown, these muted tones often speak mulitphonics. Instead of allowing these multiphonics to resonate, I clipped them off with my tongue to create a harsh, halted action on each pitch. This created the puckish sound heard throughout.
-Neil