[NewMusic] Booking / 'Usual Suspects'

[weasel walter]

> It's a very different dynamic that a large number of "one offs" with
different  
> people each time. The "promiscuous" scene promotes a different  
> modality of development- a more individualistic one (which fits with 
> the more libertarian philosophy of many of it's practitioners, and  
> the times themselves, really). It tends to concentrate more on "what 
> do I bring to this particular group of individuals," rather than  
> being a member of an ensemble where the playing of each member is as 
> intimately familiar one's own.

well, i am promiscuous only to a degree. i also had at least 2 regular
"working" free improvisation groups at a time as well as a handful of
favorite core people that i work with regularly (albeit in different
combinations). when i play in ad hoc groupings i'm looking at a few
things when i put them together:

1) am i interested in the combination of instruments?
2) am i interested in the combination of personalities?
3) does there seem like a potential to make good or interesting music
with the combination of personalities and instruments?

"what do i bring to this particular group of individuals" has almost
nothing to do with it whatsoever. "what is the potential for this
particular group of individuals" to make something interesting and, god
forbid, entertaining (to ourselves as well as the audience) is more
crucial to my motivations. 

i have a very catholic set of interests. i have played lead guitar with
no pants on in glam rock bands and my idol is xenakis - there's a lot of
stuff in between. the same goes for improvisation. i relate to so many
different threads in improvised music, that i would be frustrated and
unhappy not being able to sew my seed in so many different fields. this
is not the way everyone feels. all i know is that in this neck of the
woods i've had very few clinkers as far as ad hoc gigs go. there must be
something right with this concept of promiscuity. of course, most of the
people criticizing improvisational promiscuity haven't seen hardly any of
my gigs (if any), so posit they wouldn't really be in a position to
decide if the paradigm i'm perpetuating is a success or failure.

the last weasel walter quartet gig (a regular working group) that i
played at 21 grand a few days ago was far inferior musically than either
the quartet gig i played shortly before it with damon, james fei and john
ingles or the one shortly before that with winant, allbee, josephson and
lindsay. in those cases, groups that i put together for promiscuous,
one-off gigs happened to totally blow away a gig by a group i've been
working on a language with for 2 years. go figure. 
 
ww