What do you think?
Rate this book
Perpetual Frontier: The Properties of Free Music
Explains what free music is and describes several different methodologies (eg Unit Structures, Harmolodics, Tri-Axiom Theory, European Free Improvisation).
- GenresMusicNonfiction
179 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2012
6 people are currently reading
121 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
December 8, 2023
Quotes
"The idea of moving through a structure or musical environment with evident innate worth, but without the obligation to conform to any particular reading or form decided in advance seems to me one of the greatest legacies of the jazz tradition." - Simon Fell
"Improvising is 100% subjective—this creates a responsibility for each individual artist to use their skills in the service of creating something for the greater good of mankind. Sometimes this means difficult, challenging, barrier breaking, complex, intellectual, even offensive music, sounds, and words. Sometimes this manifests as soothing, pleasant, deep, trancelike, music with softer edges. Both serve the idea of repairing the world through art and sound and the transformation that each path fosters. The improviser is thus charged with creating something that repairs and heals society. It is the search for material that works in the service of Tikkun Olam that drives great artists." - Jamie Saft
"When improvising, form is not important to me. Flux is. I think the concept of form comes from the musical composition field, from thinking of the music as an object. Something that you can prearrage, as when you decorate an apartment: here the coach, here some flowers, here the TV set. But I think of the music as a process, so the form is not that important. What is the form of a cloud? of a kiss? of the relationship with our parents? When time comes into the playing field, as in music, form doesn't exist, only flow exists, with its highs and lows." - Augusti Fernandez
"When I come across a piece of music that is inspiring to me, I consider what exactly I find inspiring and how I can build upon that particular element in a personal way. I try to avoid direct interpretations. Most likely I will take influence from a broader idea (i.e. the overall feeling or mood created in the piece), rather than a more literal idea (a specific note, rhythm or chord structure). Conversely, when I hear something I dislike, I try to consider what is missing or what could be improved upon. Interpreting things from a wider and/or more abstract lens helps me focus my aesthetic sense, thereby making it easier for me to confidently channel smaller ideas into a tangible whole." - Mary Halvorson
"The history of jazz and improvised music can be perceived as a series of creative shifts in the phrasing of time; initially with a steady pulse or beat, then moving toward music where the pulse oscillates against a central focal point, to playing that leaves pulse and creates phrasing in an open, chronological field." - Ken Vandermark
"As far as combining one's quest as stated above with one's imagination to invent one's work, that is the crux of the whole matter, and I would not know how to qualify that. That is where you take the food in and it gets converted to flesh and blood. In other words, the imagination becomes a sacred crucible where language goes through some type of alchemical process and some type of magic thing happens, and a body of work is born into the world." - Matthew Shipp
"I think of the other players as objects that are spinning. Players A and B have material. It spins at a certain rate and in a certain direction. I, as player C, am aware of the material and the speed in which it's spinning, and I choose to present my own material at my own rate of spinning, but I can also be affected by your material and can make musical statements that act in a musical way to speed up or slow down or change the direction (material) of how player A or B is spinning. That way, everything moves like an organism, each player projected their own specific idea, but also being affected by the other players involved in evolving the organism." - Nate Wooley
"What the question, "Can you play the saxophone?" means is put other player. Practice is for its own sake and not as means to an end. To project the end in advance, as techniques you are obligated to acquire, is to preclude discovery, or at least that which is open-ended and may not any professional or performance-oriented purpose. Especially is this true if the end is a given, such as exercises learned in school, governed by standards set by a tradition that is always ready to judge the player as unworthy. This is mostly what "practice" and even "wood-shedding" has come to mean: a reversion to one's youthful subservience to instrument teachers and the reinforcement of conventional ideas of what it means to be a musician.
For free playing, practice needs to be redefined away from negative memories; instead we have the option to borrow and reinterpret what is useful for an open form and discard the rest. Practice will still be the material ground where our relation to the instrument is established, where we are alone with it and must struggle with what resists us. [...] With a consciously designed practice we truly face ourselves as judge and not internalized standards irrelevant and even hostile to our personal aesthetic.
[...] In spite of talk like that I think of myself as working to become a better saxophonist and continuing the broad saxophone tradition, quaint as that sounds. Without practice and research I feel I have no right to think of myself as a peer of other saxophonists. I conceive of the instrument as transcending me and all who put their hand sand mouths to this amazing machine, beginning with Adolphe Saxe. It is partly from love of this instrument, which first received my touch and breath sixty years ago, that makes me want to squeeze and coax all the richness I can from it." - Jack Wright
"The idea of moving through a structure or musical environment with evident innate worth, but without the obligation to conform to any particular reading or form decided in advance seems to me one of the greatest legacies of the jazz tradition." - Simon Fell
"Improvising is 100% subjective—this creates a responsibility for each individual artist to use their skills in the service of creating something for the greater good of mankind. Sometimes this means difficult, challenging, barrier breaking, complex, intellectual, even offensive music, sounds, and words. Sometimes this manifests as soothing, pleasant, deep, trancelike, music with softer edges. Both serve the idea of repairing the world through art and sound and the transformation that each path fosters. The improviser is thus charged with creating something that repairs and heals society. It is the search for material that works in the service of Tikkun Olam that drives great artists." - Jamie Saft
"When improvising, form is not important to me. Flux is. I think the concept of form comes from the musical composition field, from thinking of the music as an object. Something that you can prearrage, as when you decorate an apartment: here the coach, here some flowers, here the TV set. But I think of the music as a process, so the form is not that important. What is the form of a cloud? of a kiss? of the relationship with our parents? When time comes into the playing field, as in music, form doesn't exist, only flow exists, with its highs and lows." - Augusti Fernandez
"When I come across a piece of music that is inspiring to me, I consider what exactly I find inspiring and how I can build upon that particular element in a personal way. I try to avoid direct interpretations. Most likely I will take influence from a broader idea (i.e. the overall feeling or mood created in the piece), rather than a more literal idea (a specific note, rhythm or chord structure). Conversely, when I hear something I dislike, I try to consider what is missing or what could be improved upon. Interpreting things from a wider and/or more abstract lens helps me focus my aesthetic sense, thereby making it easier for me to confidently channel smaller ideas into a tangible whole." - Mary Halvorson
"The history of jazz and improvised music can be perceived as a series of creative shifts in the phrasing of time; initially with a steady pulse or beat, then moving toward music where the pulse oscillates against a central focal point, to playing that leaves pulse and creates phrasing in an open, chronological field." - Ken Vandermark
"As far as combining one's quest as stated above with one's imagination to invent one's work, that is the crux of the whole matter, and I would not know how to qualify that. That is where you take the food in and it gets converted to flesh and blood. In other words, the imagination becomes a sacred crucible where language goes through some type of alchemical process and some type of magic thing happens, and a body of work is born into the world." - Matthew Shipp
"I think of the other players as objects that are spinning. Players A and B have material. It spins at a certain rate and in a certain direction. I, as player C, am aware of the material and the speed in which it's spinning, and I choose to present my own material at my own rate of spinning, but I can also be affected by your material and can make musical statements that act in a musical way to speed up or slow down or change the direction (material) of how player A or B is spinning. That way, everything moves like an organism, each player projected their own specific idea, but also being affected by the other players involved in evolving the organism." - Nate Wooley
"What the question, "Can you play the saxophone?" means is put other player. Practice is for its own sake and not as means to an end. To project the end in advance, as techniques you are obligated to acquire, is to preclude discovery, or at least that which is open-ended and may not any professional or performance-oriented purpose. Especially is this true if the end is a given, such as exercises learned in school, governed by standards set by a tradition that is always ready to judge the player as unworthy. This is mostly what "practice" and even "wood-shedding" has come to mean: a reversion to one's youthful subservience to instrument teachers and the reinforcement of conventional ideas of what it means to be a musician.
For free playing, practice needs to be redefined away from negative memories; instead we have the option to borrow and reinterpret what is useful for an open form and discard the rest. Practice will still be the material ground where our relation to the instrument is established, where we are alone with it and must struggle with what resists us. [...] With a consciously designed practice we truly face ourselves as judge and not internalized standards irrelevant and even hostile to our personal aesthetic.
[...] In spite of talk like that I think of myself as working to become a better saxophonist and continuing the broad saxophone tradition, quaint as that sounds. Without practice and research I feel I have no right to think of myself as a peer of other saxophonists. I conceive of the instrument as transcending me and all who put their hand sand mouths to this amazing machine, beginning with Adolphe Saxe. It is partly from love of this instrument, which first received my touch and breath sixty years ago, that makes me want to squeeze and coax all the richness I can from it." - Jack Wright
December 21, 2022
love joe morris, what an inspiration !
May 26, 2022
Joe Morris's ideas about "free music," and the components (or not) for making such music (or not). Invention, interpretation & synthesis are important pieces of the entire "free music" body of work(s).
He provides a concise overview of his opinions about the historical development of "free music, in perception and reality. This has a nice comprehensive flow in his discussion about elements present (or not) in the wide range of what is labelled as "free music."
He provides an academic analysis of four "example methodologies":
UNIT STRUCTURES - Cecil Taylor
HARMOLODICS - Ornette Coleman
TRI-AXIOM THEORY - Anthony Braxton
and EUROPEAN FREE IMPROVISATION, in various guises.
The final part is answers to his questionnaire about "free music" from fifteen current musicians, which provides a wide range of thoughtful answers.
This is interesting to those who have been captured by "free jazz," "free improvisation," or other types of "free music."
He provides a concise overview of his opinions about the historical development of "free music, in perception and reality. This has a nice comprehensive flow in his discussion about elements present (or not) in the wide range of what is labelled as "free music."
He provides an academic analysis of four "example methodologies":
UNIT STRUCTURES - Cecil Taylor
HARMOLODICS - Ornette Coleman
TRI-AXIOM THEORY - Anthony Braxton
and EUROPEAN FREE IMPROVISATION, in various guises.
The final part is answers to his questionnaire about "free music" from fifteen current musicians, which provides a wide range of thoughtful answers.
This is interesting to those who have been captured by "free jazz," "free improvisation," or other types of "free music."
December 14, 2021
If musicians like Cecil Taylor, Anthony Braxton, Joe McPhee, and others are familiar to you, and you have knowledge of the art of free improvisation in music, then this text, "Perpetual Frontier" by Joe Morris is a must-read. Morris pulls back the curtain and provides descriptions, methodologies, and the underlying fundamental approaches to performing, listening, appreciating and ultimately, understanding what has been termed "difficult", or "free jazz" music. Of particular emphasis are the the concepts: synthesis, interpretation and invention.
Unfortunately, however, the book is plagued with numerous typos and misspellings that detracted from my enjoyment - particularly troublesome was the the word "from" when "form" was intended, and vice versa. The copy I have is the 1st Edition, so hopefully the typos and misspellings have been corrected in subsequent edition(s).
Unfortunately, however, the book is plagued with numerous typos and misspellings that detracted from my enjoyment - particularly troublesome was the the word "from" when "form" was intended, and vice versa. The copy I have is the 1st Edition, so hopefully the typos and misspellings have been corrected in subsequent edition(s).
June 17, 2020
If it wasn't for the interviews section, i'd give this book maybe one or two stars. The descriptions of free improvisation are tedious, repetitive, and overly academic. Maybe I'd appreciate them more if i was less familiar with the music it they describe. However, the interviews are brilliant, and it's nice to gain insight into some of the philosophies of "major" figures in the world of contemporary free music.
May 10, 2018
couldn't finish it. while there might be some helpful points here and there, i found the writing to be laborious and static. free improvisation is active, ever changing, exploring. would be nice if this book took its cue from the source.
February 19, 2013
I suppose that this is as close as one can get to a sequel to Derek Bailey's book on musical improvisation, but it is, as the author notes, completely different. This book focuses on free improvisation and tries to formulate a description of the process. The author consciously eschews emotional descriptions (e.g. "feel the spirit") as well as philosophical motivations, of which much has been written in other books. He aims instead to impart a practical description, targeted ostensibly at young, practicing musicians who are interested in free music. As I am neither young nor a practicing musician, I am perhaps not the target audience of this book. Nevertheless, I pursued it out of a general interest in non-idiomatic improvisation. It almost seemed from its description as a kind of practical handbook. Having read it, I see now that, if indeed it is a handbook, it is a very speculative handbook. There is little on specific technique and a lot of descriptions and definitions of ideas that he found relevant to free music. For example the three tools he describes are synthesis, interpretation and invention. All in all, this book walked a fine line between ambiguity and specificity, tending toward the former out of necessity. I know of no other book like it. For that reason alone, I gave it five stars, because the author set out to do something that hadn't been done before, reflecting the ideal that the value of a book like this depends not on its relative success or failure, but on the fact that an experiment was attempted.
The Poison Pie Publishing House has published an experiment in which the process of non-idiomatic improvisation was used to write a novel. Interested readers should check it out. It's titled The Sutra of Reverse Possession: A Novel of Non-Idiomatic Improvisation by David J. Keffer.
The Poison Pie Publishing House has published an experiment in which the process of non-idiomatic improvisation was used to write a novel. Interested readers should check it out. It's titled The Sutra of Reverse Possession: A Novel of Non-Idiomatic Improvisation by David J. Keffer.
October 5, 2014
This book is valuable for anyone interested in the history or performance of experimental, progressive, improvised music.
In particular, I found his recounting of a four free-music methodologies (Unit Structures, Harmolodics, Tri-Axiom Theory, and European Free Improvisation) both historically and musically informative.
The only notable criticism I have of the book is of the writing -- both its style and its clarity.
To be sure, Joe Morris is a fantastic musician, and I get a sense from his work here that he is a talented teacher -- someone who effectively draws on an extensive background to help students develop appropriate to their skill and approach. But... something about that talent doesn't quite tranfer to clear, scintillating prose. Ultimately, however, that doesn't really detract from the book's effectiveness as a whole. It gets the job done.
In a sense, I suppose vivid prose isn't even the point of this book, and that's OK. He even says that this is basically an expansion of some lecture notes he developed years ago, and should be read as such. So, an alert and interested reader should be able to draw a great deal out of this resource in spite of the criticism above.
In particular, I found his recounting of a four free-music methodologies (Unit Structures, Harmolodics, Tri-Axiom Theory, and European Free Improvisation) both historically and musically informative.
The only notable criticism I have of the book is of the writing -- both its style and its clarity.
To be sure, Joe Morris is a fantastic musician, and I get a sense from his work here that he is a talented teacher -- someone who effectively draws on an extensive background to help students develop appropriate to their skill and approach. But... something about that talent doesn't quite tranfer to clear, scintillating prose. Ultimately, however, that doesn't really detract from the book's effectiveness as a whole. It gets the job done.
In a sense, I suppose vivid prose isn't even the point of this book, and that's OK. He even says that this is basically an expansion of some lecture notes he developed years ago, and should be read as such. So, an alert and interested reader should be able to draw a great deal out of this resource in spite of the criticism above.
November 4, 2012
A worthy addition to the still anemic selection of serious writing about free improvisation. A practice that is employed at a high level by so many of my favorite musicians that has yet to see its fair share of thoughtful words. Joe Morris's unique position as one of its great practitioners (along with an outstanding pedigree of collaborators) combined with his role as an academic gives him the much needed insight to bring this book to light. And even for him, it remains a squirrelly topic. His ability to distill improvisational methodologies into a format that practicing musicians can apply (or at least study at greater depth) bears the signs of having been applied to real-life teaching for a number of years. If anything, it's a little too distilled. My thirst for learning more about Unit Structures, Harmolodics, Tri-Axiom and European Improvisation was hardly quenched by the precious few pages devoted to each. Much of this material begs for a longer treatment. But it does open the door to those later writings and sheds much needed light on a living body of music that needs greater understanding.
October 24, 2012
Need some time on this one. Real review to come soon.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews