Selling Soul: a Bb Blues

Score PDF

Technically speaking this is a head written over a Bb Blues form based on the major 7ths that arise from each dominant chord's diminished scale. For example the possibilities over a Bb7 chord would be Cb & Bb, D & C#, F & E, and Ab & G. Culturally and politically speaking, I think it's ironic how black folks have generally existed at the bottom of America's socioeconomic strata since its inception, but in modern times black musical traditions have constituted the main mediums in which ideology is disseminated. Commercialization changes the nature of the music to reflect the interests of the ruling class. This was written for the AACM.

Sound Mass

Score (Zine) PDF

Sound Mass is a text based score presented as a zine that includes a reflection on how individualism shows up in the arts, and an exercise for any group of people to sonically meditate as a collective unit. Excerpt and videos below.

Excerpt. Full zine in the PDF above:

There is a particularly insidious brand of bootstrap individualism that permeates various art and music communities. This is characterized by a belief that the “best” naturally rise to the top, that music and art production exists above socio-economic processes, and that the fundamental way to grow culture is to compete and economically succeed as an individual.  

There are also insidious and misleading faux-radical reactions against bootstrap individualism. These reactions can be characterized by an ironic artistic practice and detachment from the human need for culture / ritual; individual / identity based representational politics that do not take into account flows of resources and fail to challenge the fundamental nature of institutional power; and/or the reduction of political ethics to artistic aesthetics (i.e. where the most radial artistic practice is judged by the characteristics of the artistic product, rather than by the efficacy of organizing for democratic power against structures of oppression).4 

While superficially different, these both enable uncritical relationships to how art and music function and are valued under capitalism. Either implicitly or explicitly, they validate the reified notion (i.e., abstract idea falsely made to be real) that maximizing exchange value is the best way to nurture artistic practice. This turns the necessities that capitalism imposes on cultural activity into virtues…

These tendencies are insidious because they generally appear as obvious, yet unstated underlying assumptions — “of course this is the way things are and should be… he’s really telling it like it is…” The full implications of these modes of practice are psychologically repressed in the practitioner as unconscious beliefs. This is the definition of ideology.6

Soon We Will All Be Free to Fuck Around

Score

Written and recorded during a very short period of time in January when my friend Billie Howard gave me access to the High Concept Labs space (for about a week no one was using it). I was fascinated with the reverb in the space. I tuned my bass to an open D major chord (D-A-D-F#) and came up with this. As far as one can talk about a difference between improvisation and composition, this is not an imprivsation. This was written for Gerard Grisey and Cornelius Cardew. Reflecting on my access to the resources of that nice space, the original title of this piece was going to be Someday We Will All Be Free to Fuck Around. While I disagree with Cardew's political conclusions, reading Stockhausen Serves Imperialism was definitely a big influence. As for Grisey, I just think his music is dope. Everyone should have the freedom to explore his - or whoever else’s - musical ideas, unrestricted by the limitations of economically exclusive institutions.