For full details, please visit HyReviews.com.

Julie Sharbutt and other luminous theatre actors -- including several Tony nominees -- perform classic theatre scenes that are invaded by hilarious world-class improvisors tonight at Gravid Water

Tonight’s recommendations for the best in New York City comedy (in chronological order, with top picks noted and shows over $10 marked with $) include:

6:30 pm & 9:00 pm (no cover, 1-item min.): The perfect show for short attention spans—open-mic stand-up with 4½ minutes per set and 25 comics crammed into 2½ hours—at John Morrison’s Ochi’s Motel

[FREE] 7:00 pm: Stand-ups Mike Drucker, Pat O’Shea, Christian Polanco, Jason Saenz, Gabe Pacheco, and guest host Ray Marshall performing at a free weekly show in the Manchester Pub produced by Phoebe Robinson: Case of the Mondays Comedy

[TOP PICK] 8:00 pm ($5): Broadway & off-Broadway stars Stephanie D’Abruzzo (Sesame Street; Tony nominee for Avenue Q), Jared Gertner (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Ordinary Days), Jonathan Kaplan (Tony nominee for Falsettos), Marc Kudisch (Tony nominee for 9 to 5; Thoroughly Modern Millie, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang), Julie Sharbutt (Shakespeare In The Park: Twelfth Night) mixing it up with some of the best improvisors in the world—Scott Adsit,Tara Copeland, Michael Delaney, and Tami Sagher—as they crash improv into classic theatre scenes at actor/director Stephen Ruddy’s Gravid Water

[TOP PICK] 8:00 pm ($5): Wonderful stand-ups Christian Finnegan, Ophira Eisenberg, Joe DeRosa, Adam Lowitt, Fiona Walsh, and Streeter Seidell, plus musical guest Patrick Salt Ryan, performing in the Lolita Bar with producer Liam McEneaney at Tell Your Friends

9:30 pm ($5): Michael O’Brien (Saturday Night Live) and Peter Grosz (The Colbert Report) debut at UCBT the latest version of their acclaimed 2-man sketch show: Misled

[TOP PICK] [FREE] 11:00 pm: A blowout gathering of some of the most brilliant and hilarious comics in the country—movie & TV comedy superstar Janeane Garofalo, genius beatbox improvisor Reggie Watts, world-class storyteller Chris Gethard, and humor author Bob Powers—hosted by the wonderful Leo Allen (Saturday Night Live, Conan O’Brien, HBO, Comedy Central) at Whiplash

For full details, please visit HyReviews.com.

Musicians who improvise know this on some level. But Jonah Lehrer (whose valuable writing has been referred to here before) writes in a new article of some studies of damaged frontal lobes that put improvisation in the realm of confabulation, or a kind of lying with no immoral implications. In it he refers back to an earlier article in which he told us that

The first study, led by Charles Limb of the NIH and Johns Hopkins University, examined the brain activity of jazz musicians as they played on a piano. The musicians began with pieces that required no imagination such as the C-major scale and a simple blues tune they’d memorized in advance. But then came the creativity condition: The musicians were told to improvise a new melody as they played alongside a recorded jazz quartet.

While the musicians riffed on the piano, giant magnets whirred overhead monitoring minor shifts in their brain activity. The researchers found that jazz improv relied on a carefully choreographed set of mental events, which allowed the musicians to discover their new melodies. Before a single note was played, the pianists exhibited a “deactivation” of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), a brain area associated with planned actions and self-control. In other words, they were inhibiting their inhibitions, which allowed the musicians to create without worrying about what they were creating.

But it’s not enough to just unleash the mind — successful improv requires a very particular kind of expression. That’s why the fMRI machine also recorded a spike in activity in the medial prefrontal cortex, a fold of frontal lobe just behind the eyes. This area is often linked with self-expression — it lights up, for instance, whenever people tell a story in which they’re the main character. The scientists argue that this part of the brain is required for jazz improv because the musicians are channeling their artistic identity, searching for the notes that best summarize their style. “Jazz is often described as being an extremely individualistic art form,” Limb says. “What we think is happening is when you’re telling your own musical story, you’re shutting down impulses that might impede the flow of novel ideas.”

In the second experiment scientists at Harvard investigated the varieties of musical improvisation. They recruited 12 classically trained pianists and had them spontaneously create both rhythms and melodies. Unlike the Hopkins experiment, which compared brain activity between improv and memorized piano melodies, this brain scanning experiment was primarily designed to compare activity between two different kinds of improv.

As expected, both improv conditions led to a surge in activity in a variety of brain areas, including parts of the premotor cortex and, most intriguingly, the inferior frontal gyrus. The premotor activity is simply an echo of execution — the novel musical patterns, after all, must still be translated by the fingers. The inferior frontal gyrus, however, has primarily been investigated for its role in language — it includes Broca’s area, which is essential for the production of speech. Why, then, is it so active when people create music on the piano? The scientists argue that expert musicians create new melodies by relying on the same mental muscles used to create a sentence; every note is another word.

We have all learned, to one degree or another, not to lie — or at least not to get caught at it. In improvisation, we need to get caught at it. I have long contended that education in music is more a matter of freeing up capabilities than it is acquiring them. Picasso says something like that, as Lehrer quotes:

“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.” From the perspective of the brain, Picasso is on to something, as the frontal lobes (and the DPLFC in particular) are the last brain areas to fully develop. And so the super-ego settles in, and we become too self-conscious to create. Obviously, we need the frontal lobes to function – just look at the tragic life of SB – but every talent comes with a tradeoff. When we repress our urge to confabulate we also repress the urge to create. To quote Picasso once again: “Art is a lie that makes us realize truth.” But it’s still a lie.

For full details, please visit HyReviews.com.

Star stand-up Lynne Koplitz headlines with Pete Correale tonight at the Comix Comedy Club

Tonight’s recommendations for the best in New York City comedy (in chronological order, with top picks noted and shows over $10 marked with $) include:

[TOP PICK] 7:30 pm ($10) and 9:30 pm [FREE]: UCBT’s signature improv comedy extravaganza, which typically includes stars in the improv world, and sometimes even TV & movie stars such as Amy Poehler and Horatio Sanz: ASSSCAT 3000

[FREE] 7:30ish pm: Typically superb stand-ups performing at a free weekly LES show at Pianos hosted by Greg Johnson: The Comedians

[$] 8:00 pm ($25 & 2-item min.) Star stand-ups Lynne Koplitz (NBC, Comedy Central Presents) and Pete Correale (David Letterman, Comedy Central special The Things We Do For Love, Sirius Satellite Radio) headlining at Comix

[FREE] 9:00 pm: NYC comics Sean Donnelly, Allison Castillo, and Dan Mintz, and Ronald Reagan (80’s Sax Attack from Boston), performing in the East Village’s Beauty Bar at Vince Averill’s & Jesse Popp’s free weekly show Beauty Bar Comedy

[FREE] 10:00 pm: Stand-ups Ali Wong, Jessimae, Susan Alexander, and Danny Siegel performing at a free weekly gay-themed show at Therapy hosted by Brad Loekle: Electro Shock Therapy Comedy Hour

[$] 10:00 pm ($31.25 & 2-drink min.) A provocative comedy star who’s written for Richard Pryor, Red Foxx, and Saturday Night Live, and performed on Chappelle’s Show and David Letterman, headlining at Carolines: Paul Mooney

For full details, please visit HyReviews.com.

“The spirit of profound anarchy […] is at the root of all poetry”—Antonin Artaud, The Theater and Its Double.

A shakuhachi improvisation.  Meditation #13

For full details, please visit HyReviews.com.

Pat Baer hosts the semi-finals and finals of tonight's spectacular annual event running from 8:00 pm to midnight: 3-On-3 Improv Tournament

Tonight’s recommendations for the best in New York City comedy (in chronological order, with top picks noted and shows over $10 marked with $) include:

7:30 pm ($5): John O’Donnell tells lots of comedic stories in his long-running one-man show The O’Donnellogues

[TOP PICK] 8:00 pm, 9:30 pm & 11:00 pm ($10 for the entire evening; hang onto your ticket and go to the stand-by line for each subsequent show): The not-to-be-missed two semi-final rounds at 8:00 & 9:30 pm, and the finals at 11:00 pm, of a beloved annual tradition pitting the top improv trios in NYC against each other until one champion emerges at Pat Baer’s way fun 3-on-3 Improv Tournament

[$] 8:00 pm & 10:30 pm ($49.00 & 2-drink min.) One of the most memorable characters on Chappelle’s Show, and the writer/star of feature film Norbit, performing with comedy friends tonight at Carolines: Charlie Murphy’s Crash Comedy

[$] 8:00 pm ($40 & 2-item min.) Wonderfully sharp and vibrant rising star Ophira Eisenberg as the opener, and a 1960s comedy icon as the headliner, tonight at the elegant Comix Comedy Club: Ophira Eisenberg and Robert Klein

[$] 8:00 pm & 10:00 pm & 11:45 ($22 & 2-drink min.) A razor-sharp comic who’s performed on HBO, Comedy Central, and IFC headlining tonight at the Gotham Comedy Club: Joe DeRosa

9:00 pm ($5): Organic & energetic improv by the four guys of 4 Track!

[TOP PICK] 9:30 pm ($10): Always fresh and imaginative world-class sketch troupe that uses song, movement, and clever scenarios to turn familiar rituals on their head (for a video about awkward goodbyes at the end of a party, please click here): The Harvard Sailing Team

[TOP PICK] [$] 10:00 pm ($15): Ted Greenberg (Emmy-winning David Letterman
writer) performing a fun, quick-paced theatrical comedy show—complete with audience rides home!—at The Complete Performer

[TOP PICK] [$] [DISCOUNTED] 10:30 pm ($15 both online and at the door using discount code BECKYD, otherwise $20): A Chicago-based troupe that’s wowed audiences around the world with their skill at creating a completely improvised hour-long musical. The plot and characters, the musical accompaniment; even the song lyrics and the “choreography” are made up on the spot, with no pre-planned structure. Come see why BWC won a FringeNYC Award this August for Outstanding Unique Theatrical Event at the magical Baby Wants Candy

10:30 pm ($5): Vibrant improv from Nick Kanellis & Peter McNerney (Statues of Liberty) and Leslie Korein, who’ve formed the new troupe Trike

[$] 12:30 am ($31.25 & 2-drink min.) A provocative comedy star who’s written for Richard Pryor, Red Foxx, and Saturday Night Live, and performed on Chappelle’s Show and David Letterman, headlining through Sunday at Carolines: Paul Mooney

For full details, please visit HyReviews.com.

there’s nothing else like the ongoing struggle of dealing with contradictions! just from knowing this, my days have been highly interesting, fun, and free:

Clutch Master. Free as can be. Letfy

everything you see here was in order from the summertime days in july/august to now.
this year:
-LFS is more important than ever
-So is… going Home. “..City of the Angels but no I’m not from LA / Angeles City birthplace play the field like Elway!”
-Still writing/freestyling. got lots to work on
Oba T’Shaka, a leader from the San Francisco CORE movement, explained

A Choice Between Two Cultures (1995) where many [Insert an ethnicity here] are moving way from our rich [And another 1 Here] culture for a destructive Euro-American culture.

haha pretty simple right!

Elvis was a herto to most
but he never meant shit to me you see
straight out racist, that sucker was
simple and plain
M F him, and John Wayne
cause i’m black and i’m proud
i’m ready and hyped plus i’m amped
most of my heroes don’t appear on no stamp

- public enemy, “fight the power” (1989)

this shit was golden like my eye in 99!

T’Shaka also concluded, improvisation is a form of liberation.

i’ll get on with more deets later

I’d been planning Thanksgiving since before we moved here. There was no question that I was going to make as traditional a dinner as possible. I could have just signed us all up for one of the Thanksgiving dinners put on by expat organizations, but I wanted to make my own.

We invited the American couple who live next door to Mildew Towers, but Thursday’s their soccer night. We couldn’t hold it Friday—at the same time our families would be eating it in the US—because Rick’s department had an evening event scheduled. The Emergency Department is full of Americans, but they’re a close-knit group and had their own dinner arrangements. So Rick invited his Icelandic colleague, whose three children were looking forward to eating one of the holiday dinners they’d seen often on TV.

I had only seen turkey as cold cuts here, so I enquired (one enquires, rather than inquires) three weeks ahead of time at the closest butcher shop. No worries—I could get a six kilogram (13.2 pound) bird to be picked up on the very day, since, as I explained, I didn’t have enough room in the refrigerator to store it, but it should fit into our little oven to be roasted during the afternoon.

Because I was going to be making the whole meal (usually I just make the cranberry sauce and the pies for a large cooperative meal at my sister’s house), I had to choreograph cooking time for the roast vegetables, mashed potatoes and gravy, rolls, turkey, stuffing, and apple, pumpkin, and pecan pies.

I started on Wednesday, roasting the vegetables and making the cranberry sauce. It was easy to find frozen local cranberries; they grow them at the north end of the south island, and harvest them in the fall, which this isn’t. Half of the sauce was lightly cooked—I like it runny, so the juice soaks into the turkey or stuffing—and half cooked until stiff, for Emily, who likes the jellied kind that comes out of the can with ridges, which we couldn’t find here. Ocean Spray imports a lot of cranberries, but apparently just for juice drinks.

Emily made an apple pie with Granny Smiths, an Australian variety which is the only baking apple we could find. The crust was made just with butter, no shortening. Of the three different kinds of shortening available, one is made from coconut oil, one is mainly suet, and one, intended for deep frying, of processed beef fat. I know that butter is saturated animal fat, but I simply couldn’t bring myself to buy any of those three white goos.

Thursday morning I made the stuffing, and the pumpkin and pecan pies. I’d been surprised to find pecans—so American!—readily available in a bulk bin. The only corn I’ve seen is frozen cobs; no sign of corn syrup. (There’s also no high fructose corn syrup, as far as I can tell, so Coke tastes better here.) I used golden syrup, which is made from sugar cane. It’s so viscous I decided to replace a quarter of the granulated sugar with water, which worked very well. The pie baked rapidly, rising at least an inch above the crust, and becoming a little singed on top, like Emily’s apple pie. I puzzled over that.

Suddenly, to quote Peg Bracken from the I Hate to Housekeep Book (which, along with The I Hate to Cook Book, The Appendix to the I Hate to Cook Book, and I Try to Behave Myself, comprises a hugely entertaining domestic tetralogy), “with the lightning-swift grasp of fundamentals that has long marked my slightest move in the household arts,” I realized what the problem was. I wasn’t baking in an American oven; I was baking in a New Zealand oven which had only one element, on its ceiling. Hence the over-tanned baked goods. I put the pumpkin pie on the rack at the bottom of the oven, and covered its crust with foil while it was still golden. Success.

After lunch I went to fetch the turkey. The young butcher I’d spoken with before brought it out proudly. It was wrapped in purple and white—a bird fit for royalty. “Six KG, right?” “Right.” He put it on the counter, and I noticed a bit of shaved ice. Worrisome. I poked the turkey. Yup, frozen solid. And my guests would be arriving in less than six hours. “It was supposed to be fresh,” I said. “Today’s Thanksgiving. I can’t roast a solidly frozen turkey.” His face fell. He looked at the order sheet. He’d forgotten to write down that I needed a fresh turkey. He called his wholesaler and all the butcher counters and butcher shops in town, but no one had fresh turkey of any sort. No leg, no breast, no nothing.

An elderly customer who was eavesdropping said, “Thanksgiving? Isn’t that the Fourth of July?” No, that’s Independence Day—hamburgers, hot dogs, barbecued chicken. “We’re over the International Date Line. Can’t you thaw it and have it tomorrow along with everyone in America?” No, it has to be tonight.

Finally the butcher said, “The best I can do is chickens. I’ll sell you two for the price of one.” Done. We bought a pair of four-pounders, and then went to a deli counter for some thick-sliced smoked turkey, just to cover as many bases as possible. Emily roasted the chickens, and I made gravy. We had all the trimmings; we just didn’t have a real turkey.

2010 est l’anniversaire de sa naissance. J’aurai le plaisir au cours de cette année de présenter la conférence

“Oser Chopin. La quête du héros”

pour plus d’informations jbgenest@yahoo.ca

Lorsqu’il présente ses 2 concertos pour piano, Chopin n’a que 19 ans. Il étudie le piano à Varsovie avec …un professeur de violon. Le jeune Chopin n’apprécie pas la mode “mécaniste” de l’époque.  La Pologne est sous domination Russe et ça le révolte. Sa patrie ne connaîtra l’indépendance qu’en 1918 avec un pianiste premier ministre ” Ignace Paderewski”.

Chopin exprime l’énergie de la jeunesse et sa révolte surtout dans son  concerto en mi mineur. Le feu et l’eau s’affronte et la virtuosité est omniprésente. Mais la virtualité l’est aussi. Cette oeuvre évoque la vie,  le combat et les souffrance du héros polonais imaginaire avec grande éloquence. On doit oublier l’objet musical classique pour aller dans le paysage sonore épique de Frédérique. Le combat, l’échec et la queste spirituelle (analogue à celle du Graal) sont suivit de l’affrontement final, fort, brillant, fier et…humoristique, puis la victoire à la Mozart. Oui, ici non seulement Chopin affronte ses démons mais les tourne en dérision tout comme Wolfgang dans le k488! Écoutez les 2 dernières pages du 3e mouvement. Je me suis demandé longtemps pourquoi il avait inséré 2 pages d’exercices et de gammes aussi grotesqueS dans une œuvre si merveilleuse  et…biologique?

En fait, il se moque, oui il se moque de la musique classique mécaniste qui est en vogue à Varsovie. Il se moque des faiseurs de gammes et des pianistes automates qui n’ont rien compris à la musique. Puis il  quittera son pays où les polonais sont  à genou devant leur Dieu et devant les brutes russes. Notons que Chopin est moitié français d’où un certain athéisme. Reviendra-t’il de son exil? Malheureusement, malgré le feu qui le dévore, Chopin ne vaincra pas ses démons et sa santé ne le mènera guère plus loin que l’orée de la quarantaine.

Mais il nous laisse un outil merveilleux. Le modèle de la guérison du héros.Pourquoi lui-même n’a t’il pas guéri? Trop d’eau, de tristesse. Trop de Pologne dans son sang. Entouré de femmes, l’eau aurait dominé le feu? Pourtant Georges Sand, quel feu! Trop peu, trop tard?  Comme Marie Curie (polonaise) sa recherche l’aura intoxiqué? On en reparlera.

Il présentera ces concertos sans orchestre: “La version de Varsovie”

D’ailleurs, de son vivant on ne connait pas de partition d’orchestre. Celle-ci est attribuée à son élève violoncelliste: Auguste Franchomme. La plupart des musiciens d’orchestre connaissent cette partition pour son total manque d’intérêt. En fait le piano y fait tout le travail ne laissant que quelques miettes pour l’orchestre. Chopin n’avait pas besoin d’orchestre. A t’il jamais joué ses concertos avec orchestre? Une critique de concert à Paris l’évoque mais où sont les partitions? Aucune partirtion n’existe de son vivant. Avec ses élèves, il se met au piano et improvise un accompagnement. Oui, ne l’oublions pas,  Chopin était un grand improvisateur!

L’orchestre brise le climat intime et profond du concerto.

En fait on a ici une des plus grandes sonates de tout les temps. Si ce n’est la plus grande.

La sonate des sonates!

pour plus d’informations jbgenest@yahoo.ca

For full details, please visit HyReviews.com.

Charlie Murphy, who became a comedy icon on Chappelle's Show, performs stand-up tonight with friends at Carolines

Tonight’s recommendations for the best in New York City comedy (in chronological order, with top picks noted and shows over $10 marked with $) include:

7:00 pm ($10): A new sketch show from Chris & Rebecca Smith, two members of world-class sketch troupe The Harvard Sailing Team who are married to each other: The New York Smiths

8:00 pm ($10): Nick Ross performing a show about his combating cancer, with a deliciously vibrant and adorable performance by actress Leslie Meisel as a variety of secondary characters (including the cancer itself…); and Ryan Karels (stellar improvisor in troupes Krompf, Decoster, Creep, and more) detailing the travails of riding a bike in NYC, in the double-bill Highly Evolved Human and Don’t Honk at Me

[$] 8:00 pm & 10:30 pm ($49.00 & 2-drink min.) One of the most fun characters on Chappelle’s Show, and the writer/star of feature film Norbit, performs with comedy friends tonight and Saturday at Carolines: Charlie Murphy’s Crash Comedy

[$] 8:00 pm ($40 & 2-item min.) A 1960s comedy icon headlines tonight and Saturday at the elegant Comix Comedy Club: Robert Klein

9:00 pm (no cover, 1-item min.): NYC stand-up comics performing stand-up in Ochi’s Lounge at a gay-themed show hosted by the lovely Jenny Rubin: The Back Room

[TOP PICK] 9:30 pm ($10): Some of the finest improv in NYC from the comedy genius members of The Stepfathers

[TOP PICK] 11:00 pm ($5): The last quarter-final round of a beloved annual tradition before the not-to-be-missed semi-finals and finals Saturday night—Pat Baer’s 3-on-3 Improv Tournament

[$] 12:30 am ($31.25 & 2-drink min.) A provocative comedy star who’s written for Richard Pryor, Red Foxx, and Saturday Night Live, and performed on Chappelle’s Show and David Letterman, headlining through Sunday at Carolines: Paul Mooney

For full details, please visit HyReviews.com.

The American sociologist Howard Becker has just written a book called ‘Do you know…’ which is a study into how jazz musicians improvise. Becker is himself a jazz pianist. He was interested to know what happens when jazz musicians, who may not ever have met before, start playing. He noticed that negotiation is the beginning, middle and end of the improvisation process, as the musicians draw on a shared background repertoire.

Similarly, in an article on reflection-in-action, a term coined by the architect-cum-organisational theorist Donald Schon, academics Yanow and Tsoukas wrestle with what it means to improvise with others in a professional context. In the article they argue against the more individualist and cognitive aspects of Schon’s theory, although they go on to point out how influential and helpful it has been. Improvisation is a collective enterprise drawing on skills and knowledge which have been learnt in social settings. It draws on a repertoire which has been rehearsed and practised over time, although it may look to onlookers like it has been made up in the moment. The French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu made a similar point when he remarked that excellence is improvisation on collectively understood norms and standards. Although experts appear to be making things up on their own, actually they are responding to collectively constructed codes of practice and professional norms.

The authors make the distinction between feedback, a term ubiquitously used in organisation denoting a cognitive process of reflection on action, and backtalk. As an example the authors draw the distinction between a lecturer asking for feedback from his students after a lecture, and the prereflected backtalk that he notices as he is giving his lecture, as the students communicate their responses to what is being said through the way they hold themselves and the small physical clues that they give out without intending to. Improvisation partly depends upon successive layerings of people responding to each other’s  backtalk. GH Mead would add an extra dimension to this process: that we call out in ourselves the response that we are calling out in others and find ourselves responding to self and other both at the same time. We notice our response to what we ourselves are saying and doing as we are noticing other people’s responses.

Yanow and Tsoukas argue that improvisation requires a permeability of self, a continuous openness to the backtalk of others and the resistance of the materials that are to hand.  The idea, then, is that it is not just people who talk back, but inanimate objects do too. There are limits to what it is possible to do when designing a particular building, or even making a plan: organisations are constrained in their possibilities.

Additionally, actors talk of the need for a yes-and approach, which invites the continuous opening up of experience. Once when working with a theatre troupe I was advised always to make my improvisation partners ‘look good’. What the troupe leader meant by this is that is possible to close down an improvisational gesture of a colleague by making them look foolish: instead, seizing what they offer and trying to work with it an open it up and return a gesture that is easy for them to work with keeps the dialectical process of gesture and response open and fluid. It is the equivalent in tennis to knocking up pre-match with a tennis partner and returning the ball just in front of them so that they can easily return it, so that they can loosen up and prepare for the game.

Another important aspect of improvising is the public ability to acknowledge not knowing, of being open to the improvisatory gestures of others. According to Yanow and Tsoukas, in so openly relinquishing the desire to control one will be forced to live with one’s own anxiety about not knowing, as well as the anxiety one is likely to evoke in others.

A number of themes arise from this discussion of improvisation which are important for managers. The first is the necessity of remaining open to the attitudes of others, of adopting a disposition towards enquiry rather than closing things down with positional authority that tries to establish certainty and control. This will raise questions about the way that power is habitually exercised in any particular organisational context, especially in the current managerialist discourse where management is often understood to be about knowing, choosing and controlling. Simply asserting authority may well close down the opportunity of collective improvisation. The second is the importance of understanding improvisation as a social practice which draws on a background of evaluative theories of the good and a history of improvisation and a rehearsal of routines. People will improvise well together if they have developed a history of working well together. A number of commentators, including Leonard Cohen in a previous post, have drawn attention to the importance of being prepared, of developing a repertoire of routines with others.

Thinking about management as a kind of improvisation expands our sense of what we might be looking for in managers and perhaps in management education. Rather than thinking of management as a kind of professional expertise that a manager ‘has’, a stable body of knowledge somehow locked up in an individual which the manager calls on at will, we could begin to think of management practice as a form of social awareness, an openness of self to the influence of others and of a particular context. It is a collective practice which requires individual submission to a discipline but also an openness to the patterning of the interpretation of others of the same discipline partly achieved through negotiation.

This week on Laptop Musicianship classess we were doing our improvisations again. Some people did better than last time. In my opinion some did a bit worse. My group did better I think, even if two of our team members were missing. So here’s a short description of the improvisations we heard on tuesday.

1. The Donuts.
The Donuts group did a bit worse than last time in my opinion. They were not synchronized much. Basically all I heard was the beat. They were adding more sounds but I just couldn’t hear it very clearly. Maybe it’s the laptop speakers fault. Anyway last time I liked there piece much more.

2. The Chaps.
This group was again very good. Good process music example. Gradually evolving, adding more sounds, nice pace. I really liked it. This time were as good or even better than last time.

3. The Memory Sticks.
Very good improvisation. Good beginning. Started slowly but went faster later. They had a really nice sample there, kind of like a violin. They made a creepy composition again, very dark. Julio said that they were the only group that added some dynamics in their piece, by playing some sample in the middle that changed the pace of the piece in that moment. Slow ending. They did better than last week. I liked it a lot.

4. The Tres Pendejos
We did maybe slightly better than last week. Mainly because we got rid of the beat and we slowed down a bit. We could be better if people from our group were showing up to practice with us. We need to work more on our structure and find some good sounds. We’ll be okay. I think this week we could get 2 points instead of 1 : ).

5. I forgot the name of this group. They’ve changed their piece this week. There was more going on. There were moments when I felt it’s too much going on. They used a lot of sounds and this way made their piece really rich. Guys were synchronized as usual. It was unpredictable piece, scary, disturbing, in a good way. Good job.

I think everybody will be just fine with their second task for Laptop Musicianship. I just have slight worries about my group but a new member just joined in, so we should be able to continue and finally create some good stuff.

For full details, please visit HyReviews.com.

Tonight’s recommendations for the best in NYC live comedy are sparse,
as most of the usual suspects are dark for Thanksgiving.
If you aren’t at home with loved ones, though, there are a few shows to consider:

[$] 8:00 pm ($26.75 & 2-drink min.) A comedy potpourri of stand-up comics who, for whatever reason, are skipping turkey dinner to be on stage making you laugh: Carolines Thanksgiving Day Show

[$] 10:00 pm ($15 & 2-item min.): A stand-up who’s performed at Showtime at the Apollo, Def Comedy Jam, and BET’s Comicview bringing along some of his pals to entertain you at the elegant Comix Comedy Club: Drew Fraser and Friends

[$] 10:00 pm ($31.25 & 2-drink min.) A provocative comedy star who’s written for Richard Pryor, Red Foxx, and Saturday Night Live, and performed on Chappelle’s Show and David Letterman, headlining through Sunday at Carolines: Paul Mooney

For this site’s typically more extensive listings, please tune in here again on Friday. Meanwhile…

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Festival d'improvisation théatrale

Vous ne le savez surement pas (c’est même sûr), mais je fais de l’improvisation théâtrale et étant nouveau parisien (si si je suis lillois à la base…vous savez …le NORD!)

Une pratique passionnante qui mêle spontanéité, relations humaines et humour , bref c’est super sympa que ce soit à pratiquer ou à voir,alors je vous invites tous à allez voir le spectacle ce week end au kremlin bicètre!

Pour ma part je jouerai avec les malades de l’imaginaires, une troupe que je viens d’intégrer et qui est super sympa!

Alors si vous hésitez entre une soirée télé, une resto avec votre copin(e), faire le tour du monde ou encore découvrir une nouvelle civilisation perdu, venez à la soirée et vous arriverez à cumuler tout en un grâce à ces improvisateurs de talents !

Ceci n’est pas un biai sponsorisé

… … … ah ah ah que je suis drôle…. … …

Part I talked about the fun and benefits of working together with another player, as coaches, mentors, and playing partners, especially in playing duets with the great benefits of sight-reading and transposition, among others.

There is another kind of duet and another kind of benefit to be had if you make up the duets yourselves. That is: improvising them.

Improvising means “thinking in music,” something that is nearly never done is traditional pedagogy of horn or any other instrument. More’s the pity. Now, why would you want to do something like that?

One great thing about improvisation of any kind is that brings together all elements of music: performance, theory, history, composition, ear training – you need it all to invent music on the spot.

What, me, improvise? [you say] I can’t do that! I can’t play 16th notes at MM=220!

Neither can I. But what I can do is revise my definition of what improvisation is so that I can do it.

First of all, improvisation does not have to be jazz. I’m not a jazz player. I’m a classical player. So I’ll play something that is like the stuff I play all the time. You don’t have to be able to play Donna Lee to make up your own music. A sarabande will do just fine. Start with some long tones. Start with one long tone. Listen to it. See where it wants to go next. As a duet, perhaps start with a common scale and listen to the interval between the two voices. Consonant or dissonant? If it’s dissonant, hold it a moment, then resolve it up or down. If it’s consonant, hold it until you take a breath. Then pick a new note and start again.

You very quickly find out two things when you do this: 1) It’s easy. 2) It’s fun.

And perhaps 3): why didn’t I do this years ago?

You discover that improvising duets is like having a conversation, except in music. You use what you know to discuss subjects that interest you in ways that are familiar and comfortable. Conversing doesn’t have anything particular to do with playing fast; if it did, auctioneers would be the most sought-after conversation partners. It just matters that it’s interesting and that it makes sense. If you recite something, you just need to know how to pronounce the words. If you converse about something, you also need to know what the words mean, both individually and in context, and you can use everything you know – vocabulary, grammar, history, jokes, expressive speaking ability, etc – to make your content and delivery more interesting. In a conversation you must also listen, and spontaneously react to and develop what your partner comes up with in the moment. It’s really fun, and improvising music is just like having a conversation except that at no time in our music training did anyone every give us training or encouragement to have a musical conversation.

But you don’t have to wait for someone to give you either permission or training.

Just do it. And get in on the fun and musical and technical benefits of making up your own stuff.

Making up your own duets is a perfect complement to a session of reading duets, both musically and technically. Here are a few more ideas to get you started:

•Player 1 (P1) plays some kind of I-V repeated bass (like an oom pah tuba) and P2 makes up a march. Here and forever more, always switch parts and do it again.

•P1 plays one low long tone – a drone. P2 experiments with making melodies using one scale above it. Start with the drone being the tonic, then see what’s like for the drone to be other scale degrees.

•Pulse the drone: give it a rhythm. Put some pep in your step!

•P1 plays a simple bass line, e.g. C-B-A-G, or in minor: C Bb Ab G. P2 solos over it.

•Players make up a piece based on the rhythm of their names.

•Players choose a familiar (and simple!) tune and figure out the melody via ear & error. After you can play it in C, play it in all other keys. Then repeat in minor. Then repeat, with P1 on the melody and P2 on 1) harmony 2) chord roots 3) countermelody.

•Just start playing: there are always rules, but here you have to figure out the rules as you go. Hint: arrive at a common pulse and key as quickly as possible. Hint #2: Recycle material. Find one simple, strong idea and develop it in all kinds of ways.

If you need more ideas, check out my book, Improvisation Games for Classical Musicians (GIA).

Have fun!

La leçon… de piano

Voici une histoire assez impressionnante qu’a partagé monsieur Tom Kenyon
lors d’un atelier.

« Une pianiste professionnelle, début quarantaine, venait d’apprendre qu’elle était atteinte
d’un cancer du sein. Son médecin lui avait annoncé que la maladie s’était propagée dans tout
le corps et qu’il n’y avait malheureusement aucun traitement possible.

De retour chez elle, en état de choc, elle s’installa au piano. Ses yeux se posèrent sur une œuvre de Brahms qu’elle était censée apprendre pour un futur concert. Mais cela n’ayant plus aucun sens, elle referma la partition. C’est alors qu’elle sentit que la partie d’elle qui souffrait cherchait à s’exprimer et à se faire entendre. Elle qui n’avait jamais osé improviser se mit à jouer… et à jouer. Les sons qui sortaient du piano étaient cacophoniques, laids et disharmonieux,
mais elle poursuivit… et poursuivit.

Elle joua ainsi tous les jours durant des mois. Avec le temps, ses douleurs diminuèrent et
elle remarqua qu’un semblant de mélodie était apparut. Plus elle jouait, mieux elle se sentait
et plus la musique retrouvait harmonie et beauté.

Vous devinez la suite?…. Quelques mois plus tard, après examens, son médecin
lui annonça que toute trace de cancer avait disparu. »

Une bien belle leçon… de la vie.

Between 1996 and 1998 I put down a few songs in a rather spur of the moment on my 4-track recorder. Lyrics were made up basically on the spot while the tape was rolling. The sounds are pretty lo-fi and the clanging of metal in some of the songs were spoons, pots and pans that made up our primitive percussion. Jim Seagroves helped out on the racket kitchen percussion sounds as well as general chanting or making a nuisance out of everything.

Back then Jim and I called ourselves “the Gidds”. Basically, it was our little gang name growing up. We listened to NWA in high school and wanted to be white thugs. We had our own language and mockerized the neighborhood. Some of the songs we speak in German.

I play the acoustic and electric guitar, sitar and sing the songs. My brother Bob Guittard played bass and guitar on a few tracks as well as beat on a hand drum. Warren Barry played the organ on Once Around the Moon as well as added to the weirdness.

I used a Dr. Groove Drum machine. I hope you like these weird songs. At the time of the recording I was listening to a lot of Beck’s Odelay. Please enjoy and make comments.

Here is the link where you can listen and download the album for free:
http://www.jamendo.com/en/album/55876

I wish Word Press would allow a widget here so that you could listen. Not at this time.

Being a little busy as my Graphic design class ends on December 22nd. Can’t wait for Christmas, woot!

In the meanwhile, I thought you’d like to see a poster I did for the Café Robert Improv group. I drew the 4 comedians with the Grinch for their Christmas special. 

The sketch was drew and inked on paper, then scanned and colored in Photoshop & Illustrator.

For full details, please visit HyReviews.com.

Samm Levine (Inglorious Basterds, Neil on Freaks & Geeks) joins fellow comedy TV/film stars Nick Kroll, Jason Nash, Seth Herzog, and more tonight at Sweet

Tonight’s recommendations for the best in New York City comedy (in chronological order, with top picks noted and shows over $10 marked with $) include:

[TOP PICK] 8:00 pm ($5): Joe Rocha of top Web film site Atom.com joining in on a lively & hilarious discussion about four-color pop culture at Comic Book Club

8:00 pm to midnight ($5): Four full hours of improv for only five bucks—tonight featuring UCBT house troupes Penthouse Riot, DeCoster, The Law Firm, Bastian, and Scootch followed by UCBT advanced students improvising a movie—all at Harold Night

[TOP PICK] [FREE] 8:30 pm: Comedy genius & TV/movie star Nick Kroll (I Love You Man, Cavemen, The Life & Times of Tim, The League, Reno 911, Human Giant), wonderful sketch comic & comedic performer Kurt Braunohler (co-creator of Penelope Princess of Pets, Comedy Central), Morgan Murphy (staff writer for Jimmy Fallon), and stand-up comedy icon Judy Gold performing at the Housingworks Bookstore Cafe for a free weekly show hosted by brilliant stand-ups Jessi Klein (Comedy Central, VH1, NBC, CNN, Adult Swim) and Pete Holmes (Comedy Central Presents, VH1’s Best Week Ever, ComedyJuice, The New Yorker): Punch Up Your Life

[TOP PICK] 9:00 pm ($5): Comedy genius & TV/movie star Nick Kroll (I Love You Man, Cavemen, The Life & Times of Tim, The League, Reno 911, Human Giant), comedy genius & longtime Conan O’Brien writer Andy Blitz (also recently a writer for Important Things with Demetri Martin), TV/movie Samm Levine (Neil in Freaks & Geeks, Inglorious Basterds, Entourage), popular LA stand-up & TV actor Jason Nash (House, Reno 911), and more performing at The Slipper Room for the LES weekly show hosted by the wonderful Seth Herzog (Jimmy Fallon, VH1): Sweet

9:00 pm (no cover, 1-item min.): Delightful stand-ups Leah Dubie and Amy Beckerman in Ochi’s Lounge hosting guest comics Desiree Burch, Jessimae Peluso, and JC Alvarez at Dykes on Mics

9:30 pm ($5): Stand-up comics who are also TV and/or print writers—and tonight include Hannibal Burress (Saturday Night Live), John Knefel (The Onion), and host Mike Drucker (SNL, The Onion): Writers Room

[FREE] 11:00 pm: Free open-mic stand-up show that’s seldom much fun for audience members but is a nice opportunity if you want 4-5 minutes to test out your comedy material on stage: Bring It

For full details, please visit HyReviews.com.

De flesta föreställningar har varit utsålda sedan länge, nu pga ett avhopp, finns det biljetter kvar till den 26/11 och 4/12. Först till kvarn! Kika in på http://www.impro.a.se/schlager.php eller ring 08 – 30 62 42

Hur går det egentligen till, en Improviserad Schlagerfestival? Testa vår nya Impro-bandit (gärna flera gånger) http://www.impro.a.se/schlager.php

I will be accepting students for private drum lessons beginning in December. If you are interested, please send me a message here at the blog or at: timothydaisy@warpmail.net. You can also call me directly at (312)823-5642

Thanks!

AllAboutJazz.com’s Managing Editor John Kelman posted his review of vocalist/composer Fay Victor’s latest release, The FreeSong Suite (Greene Avenue Music), over the weekend.

“Once again,” he writes, “Victor’s soulful, emotive delivery combines with avant-tinged invention, placing her alongside great vocal innovators like Betty Carter, Jeanne Lee, Sheila Jordan…a truly creative singer with the chops to accomplish whatever she wants, but the good taste to ensure that substance always trumps style.”

He adds, “With an ensemble that twists and turns the music in response to, and as a catalyst for, Victor’s own unbound improvisational acumen, The Freesong Suite is a vocal album that stands well above the pack; a welcome respite from the unwieldy preponderance of unimaginative vocal jazz albums hitting the market.”

For full details, please visit HyReviews.com.

Thoroughly wonderful comedy superstar Janeane Garofalo performs stand-up tonight at Tell Your Friends

Tonight’s recommendations for the best in New York City comedy (in chronological order, with top picks noted and shows over $10 marked with $) include:

6:30 pm & 9:00 pm (no cover, 1-item min.): The perfect show for short attention spans—open-mic stand-up with 4½ minutes per set and 25 comics crammed into 2½ hours—at John Morrison’s Ochi’s Motel

[FREE] 7:00 pm: Stand-ups Pat Stango, Blaine Perry, Ray Marshall, Travis Irvine, Julia Lundy, and Aalap Patel performing at a free weekly show in the Manchester Pub hosted by Phoebe Robinson: Case of the Mondays Comedy

[TOP PICK] 8:00 pm ($10): A spectacular and unforgettable demonstration of the artful power of mime when combined with a wickedly sharp modern sensibility, executed with great wit and style. Street performers have given mime a bad rep; but if you think about it, what mime does is boil a situation down to its essential elements, and then express those elements in a manner that’s instantly and universally understood. That’s really what art is all about; and that’s also what Billy the Mime does, often brilliantly. (For my review of his FringeNYC show in 2006, please click here.) Don’t miss this special event at UCBT: Billy the Mime

[TOP PICK] 8:00 pm ($5): Movie & TV comedy superstar Janeane Garofalo, The Daily Show’s Wyatt Cenac, guitar comic Rob Paravonian, and more performing in the Lolita Bar with producer Liam McEneaney at Tell Your Friends

9:30 pm ($5): “A parody jukebox musical that gives new life to the most popular songs of Tupac Shakur. Join us for a romp through all the themes held most dear to Tupac’s heart: economic oppression, dreams deferred, and mall food courts” and ” Characters! Impressions! Breaking News! Audience Interactions (the classy kind)! Stephen Soroka and Mamrie Hart are Best of Friends, and they are taking their hit Web series to the stage” in 2Pac: The Musical and BoF in This Old Thing

[TOP PICK] [FREE] 11:00 pm: A blowout gathering of some of the most brilliant and hilarious stand-ups in the country—Nick Kroll, Andy Blitz, Pete Holmes, Brooke Van Poppelen, and Sean Patton—hosted by the wonderful Leo Allen (Saturday Night Live, Conan O’Brien, HBO, Comedy Central) at Whiplash

For full details, please visit HyReviews.com.