This is the very first of my monthly blogs designed for sharing what I'm learning with students of music
(especially those at the Royal Northern College Of Music where I am a Fellow).
I am a great advocate of eclectic listening as many would easily guess. A few nights ago I caught the LSO performing Elgars second symphony with Sir Colin Davis. Yes, enigmatic, nostalgic, dedicated to the late king it would have to be. I felt jolly English all the way home, but it reminded me of the peculiar way we English traditionally express fundamental feelings of belonging.
Right now I'm listening to Bobby McFerin's "Vocabularies", - an absolute world away, but one I feel I belong to even more. If you like the human voice you will love the joy in this music.
I am excited to announce that my trio Storms/nocturnes is reforming after a gap of over seven years.
There will be video footage of us on tour and of creating this project, with various asides that students of the music might appreciate. Next year I record again with Chick Corea and I'll be keeping a little diary for you of this too.
My biggest concert appearance approaching in the UK is in London on 17th November:
www.timgarland.com has more.
Below is an article I have written for the latest edition of BASCA magazine, many future blogs I feel will be in response to the challenge of negotiating the labyrinth of global music by young creative musicians.
Chasing the Peak Experience
What led us to risk our necks on the precarious tight-rope of professional music-making? I’d take a guess that for all of us it was a few early listening experiences that touched something fundamental inside.
With the vast proliferation of media and ready access to the entire planet’s musical output, are we engendering a “breadth not depth” approach to our musical consumption? If so, what is at risk?
I was surprised to find myself one afternoon clicking through my play-list in search of a quick fix, and in so doing impatiently ignoring the musical development and the narrative at the core of each offering from the likes of Ravi Shankar, Benjamin Britten, John Coltrane, Joni Mitchell, Bach (lots more…). Should they really be providing me with merely a soundtrack, “selling” a quick, on-the-go emotional underscore that I’m unlikely to hear through to the end?
Composers have always used the power of suggestion to help steer the listener’s mind, whether it be to inspire spiritual rapture, youthful abandon or cue comic innuendo. When a musical language becomes less familiar however, and the references less readily accessible to us
, it may shed its ability to function as a selling device, but it likely will be an invitation to really listen.
, it may shed its ability to function as a selling device, but it likely will be an invitation to really listen.
Most of us cherish peak experiences when this has happened. With me, it’s been through classical and jazz music. Jazz as a commodity has had success at selling everything from cars to food . Jazz as an approach
is different; it’s a vital, visceral energy that can illuminate a broad range of subjects and doesn’t seek much else but the passion of the moment in which it is played. It probably won’t infer too many ready references, or fire off enough well-worn synapses to help sell that quick image. At its best, it is all-absorbing, a peak experience like the ones I had as a kid, where in every instance, I had to make a genuine investment of my time.
is different; it’s a vital, visceral energy that can illuminate a broad range of subjects and doesn’t seek much else but the passion of the moment in which it is played. It probably won’t infer too many ready references, or fire off enough well-worn synapses to help sell that quick image. At its best, it is all-absorbing, a peak experience like the ones I had as a kid, where in every instance, I had to make a genuine investment of my time.
The appreciating of the developmental, unfolding side of music can be celebrated through many genres. There is of course much worthy music that is not designed to be stand-alone with its own narrative, but if we allow ourselves to start looking to all music with a quick
-fix agenda, the peak experience we love may become lost due to impatience. My 13 year old self clutching his vinyl would hate that future vision.
-fix agenda, the peak experience we love may become lost due to impatience. My 13 year old self clutching his vinyl would hate that future vision.
We can value the industry of Music-as-Commodity all the more when we value its roots; the explorative, emotive celebration of self expression which takes time to perform and listen to and is surely the life-blood of our precious profession, and the surest guarantee of its perpetuation.
