What follows is my response to some of the ensembles that emerged in this February's Freedom session at the Vortex Jazz Club.
February
Create - repeat - vary - abandon - create - repeat - vary - abandon - …
Cyclones and Anticyclones - the vortex turns on and against itself, spinning in a paradox of contrary motions
Trio
Doodles straight from the moment - the leading edge of the instant
sliding into a stasis
Long threads of tones weave a blanket, held up and over
Tiny points emerge and start to star the scene
They cluster,
peaking through the twilight of fading luminosity
until star studded becomes pointillistic figures in Ivory and gold
Tap Dancing
Speaking with the feet
Gestures roll and mumble, trickle and tumble
Counting the pulses the body can produce
Patterns of skeletal spatterings
Metatarsal scatterings
Tap tempo - mark the time, subdivide and multiply into multifarious permutation
Strings and Things
Taut hair bounces on taut steel
Scrape and slide -
A struggle to rise into a glide
When finally a sweet intensity sings with the breath from an ebony neck
and corporeal curves that shape and amplify
Microtonal dissonance & perfectly pure consonance
Unison drones
Such delicate touches, touching details and such
Breaking the scale - no steps, floors or platforms
From depth to ascent
From the apex until you kiss the floor
Voces
Distinct
Each to their own
In a crowd - meeting, passing each other by -
A hat tip - a conversation - a consensus
Ornamentation of another’s line
Whilst she paints the spaces within your lines