More Miles.

I want to write more about Miles Davis, because (as Janet Toney commented in my previous post) so much of what he says applies to any creative endeavor.

I read a book once that had interviews with a lot of very diverse but equally famous musicians. Miles really stood out as someone lived right on the cutting edge, as he said...always moving forwards, never looking back. As he said in the book...."when I first played Jazz, no one wanted to hear us. No one liked it". He made a point that jazz today is about staying in a proven comfort zone of an established genre, and judging music according to prescribed standards, but when he and other musicians first started changing all the rules, they had very little support.

In that sense, jazz today is very reliant on the past, rather than the fresh, innovative cutting edge experiment that he represented.

I'm not quoting passages from the book word for word here, because I don't have a copy to refer to, so I'm relying on my memory for the essence of the stories it contained.

It's always hard for any truly original artist to break from the known and move into the new and take the public with them.

What stood out about Miles was that he never took the safe path, preferring to remain current, - always exploring new territory.

I remember one story from the book...he was saying..."everyone wants to go back to the past, I hate the past...I like it much better now. I used to have to go from bar to bar all over town looking for the drummer or the bass player, because they didn't turn up for the gig...now I just use a machine!"

(ok so that's my version...his actual words may have been a little different!)

Why am I writing about Miles Davis on a fiddle blog?. Because anyone can learn a lot from Miles. He's a huge example to me of someone who lived the creative process. Other peoples blogs will help you to play exactly as others have played before. My blog is to support people who want to find their own unique style. Who want to understand the creative process. Who are the risk takers and adventurers of music...but also those who, when they play something loved and familiar... make it their own.

You don't have to make the impact of a Miles Davis to contribute to the evolution of music and art, but you do have to listen to the urging that comes from within. I personally worship at the alter of originality and creativity.... As a fiddle player, I love many traditional songs and fiddle pieces, some of my favorites are hundreds of years old. But even if I'm playing a piece note for note, I like to find what the piece says to me and play that. The subtle interpretation of dynamics, or a slight change of emphasis of certain notes, or a reinterpretation of the rhythm or beat, make a piece fresh and new. I'm always discovering new possibilities as to how to interpret pieces of music that I've played forever. The notes may stay the same, but what I love about the violin is the subtlety of inflection that the violin more than any other instrument is capable of, that can shift the mood or feeling or groove of a piece and take it to a new realm.

I try and tell a story with a piece of music, & tell my own story with it, with subtle nuances that are unique to me. At the moment my technical capacity is holding me back from playing everything that I hear inside me...so that's why I'm taking time to really work on patterns, scales etc so that my fingers and bow can create what my mind can hear. The violin can be a frustratingly difficult instrument...and progress can be slow...but as long as you are making progress...then the rewards are always worth the effort put in to achieve them.

This blog isn't about telling anyone the "right" way to do anything, because I'm hardly qualified to do that, what it is about is sharing my discoveries, and maybe finding that someone else can relate or gain something from my journey (and maybe I can gain from you sharing yours :-)

As a fiddle player, I haven't found a lot of people who share my perspectives, I've felt I've been fighting a battle to be me. I have found some wonderful musicians to share the journey, that support, encourage and inspire me,and I'd love to find more.

At the moment, living in a very remote little town pretty much in the middle of nowhere, far away from the cities where my musical soulmates live and play, I've found that, deprived of a musical life provided by others,I'm starting to go within and use the freedom I have to really explore who I am and whats important to me musically. The other major drive is too increase my skills so that when I move on from this quiet sleepy little town, I can be at a whole new level of freedom on my instrument, so that when I finally reconnect with other like minded muso's to play with, there is that much more we can do together.





( Just did a bit of a search on the net and came up with the book, this book has fantastic, revealing interviews with many music legends...it's a rare gem that goes beyond what they did when, and gives real insight into the inner workings of musical genius. Here it is:

The Dark Stuff - Selected Writings on Rock Music 1972-1993 )
Author: Nick Kent
Publisher: Penguin Books, 1994, ISBN 0-14-023046-7
Synopsis: A collection of articles by Nick Kent, a former writer for New Musical Express. Includes an article called The Cracked Ballad of Syd Barrett. Also includes articles on Brian Wilson, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roky Erickson, Brian Jones, The Rolling Stones, The New York Dolls, Lou Reed, Sid Vicious, Elvis Costello, Morrissey, Shane McGowan, Guns n' Roses, Stone Roses, Iggy Pop, Miles Davis, Roy Orbison and Neil Young.)