During the first recording session for the album that became Letters to George, we decided to record five improvisations just for fun. We had never done this before, having started our work as a band by rehearsing my compositions only a few days earlier. (I also decided to drink a can of Heineken – which I would estimate was only the fourth time I had done that, but that is another story!)

I forgot about these recordings for a while, but recently I was missing GEORGE so I took a listen to them. While the improvisations were ok in my opinion, it was far more fun to listen to the individual stems, i.e. the individual instrumental tracks, which was possible in this case because we were all isolated in the recording studio. As I became particularly attracted to certain parts of the stems, I started to reconfigure and combine them outside of the original improvisations. I felt like I was composing, but using the fragments of our five improvisations as raw material, something I had never done before! It was exciting to hear newly formulated GEORGE pieces and fascinating because it allowed me to imagine new ways our improvisations/band could sound in the future!

It also led me to certain improvisational aesthetic goals or principles which I must believe in but have not codified before. Here are a few of these goals that became apparent to me during this process:

1) Play strong! I distinctly remember hearing Roscoe Mitchell talk about and demonstrate this concept about 30 years ago at Banff – that if each individual in a group played something strong, then the group would sound strong. It is almost the opposite of what musicians think they should do when they start out improvising. Taken alone (and especially if the group is large) this principle can create narcissistic, monotonous cacophony in my experience as a listener. But as one of several guiding principles, it is helpful. And it also gets you thinking about “strong.” What sounds “strong?” Can something be really soft, spacious and “strong?” (Yes!)

2) Leave space! This one can be difficult because you might think you are letting the others down by not supporting them. It is counter-intuitive that not playing is actually proactive support. Miles Davis for one demonstrates the power of leaving space and its joyous repercussions!

3) Don't be reactionary! Another Roscoe and Muhal Richard Abrams advisory from Banff times! This is usually what a beginning improviser does because it demonstrates that you are listening, you can play what you hear, and you are supporting others. I remember musically following Mark Dresser around many years ago on an improv. gig. Every time I got close to him he would jump to something else, which leads me to the next goal…

4) Dig counterpoint! Mark was showing me how much hipper it could sound if we were complementing each other by NOT playing in the same zone. Trust or courage is needed when playing with musicians you don’t know well, but in my experience, great musicians all recognize this musical decision and enjoy the space that it brings.

5) At the same time, look for ensemble hook-ups and don't be afraid of unisons of all kinds! I know that certain improvisers actually don’t want to play anything that sounds like a composed piece, so they might avoid this. But for me, regardless if it is improvised or composed, there is nothing like the power of a unison. They can be elusive in a group improvisation, but it pays off to always be on the lookout for them.

6) Don't be afraid to repeat ideas, either at the original moment or later (AKA "call back" or “recap.”) Similar to unisons, I think this is not prevalent in improvisational music because it is difficult and requires forethought. You must mentally “record” your own playing so that you can remember and recall it. One reason why I love this in improvisation is that it can make the music sound more like a composed piece, which I personally love (and again, I respect those who don’t!)

7) Look for form. Another example of bringing elements of composed music into improvisation! This can be helpful as an antidote to the much-used improvisational form where the piece starts soft, builds up and then fades out.

8) Be aware of foreground and background. I have heard too many improvisations where everyone is in the foreground. Many years ago I heard Evan Parker in NYC on an improvisation series that featured him with guests. He did a gig with Joe Lovano and mostly played softly, sparsely, supportively. It seemed like it surprised everyone! A far cry from the battling sax marathon many were probably expecting!

9) Don’t be afraid to hang out in a “room” for a while. This is a lesson I learned from playing duo with Theo Bleckmann and listening back to our improvisations together. In the moment, we usually thought, “this is boring, we should move on to something else,” but when listening back, we almost always thought, “we could have stayed there for 10 minutes and bathed in that environment.”

10) Don't be afraid to stop! After hearing thousands of improvisations, one of my pet peeves is the ending where everyone wants to be Elvin Jones and get the last word. I know sometimes you want to support others, so you keep playing and then they do the same and what follows is minutes of lame music. Isn’t shorter always better than longer? (INSERT JOKE OF YOUR CHOICE HERE…)

I would not expect or want everyone to agree with me on this, perhaps it is the beginning of a nice discussion? (I think it would pair nicely with an English breakfast tea with good amounts of milk and sugar.) GEORGE has not had the chance to discuss this, but I would guess even some in the band would have alternative ideas, so I look forward to that discussion. But it was interesting to notice these improvisation goals crop up for me while working on something that, while it was based on recordings of improvisations, was not improvisation anymore. Is it now composition? It doesn’t really matter to me because I believe they are same thing, only separated by time.

I hope you enjoy these! I enjoyed putting them together! And thanks to Aurora, Anna and Chiquita Magic for letting me take their raw improvisations so I could explore new territories!

– John Hollenbeck