I sit at the piano many times. By my calculation I must have recorded around 3000 improvised pieces. There is a dialogue of energy that frequently emerges, as good as an angelic, familiar yet growing, presence.
The first time I became aware of it (the presence) was in playing the piano at the home of a friend. It was as if there was (perhaps there was) a separate yet not separate being standing over and behind me, gently helping me hold steady a conduit of energy flowing through my playing.
It was uncanny because one normally experiences the other as an entity with energies that are not the same as one’s own, however close they may be, and this being was as good as a heavenly extension of my identity.
This experience seeded an outpouring of music since that time (1976 – 34 years ago this July). The house was in Woodberry Grove in Manor House, North London. My dear friend living there who inspired the playing is Ron Wildego, with whom I have been in touch ever since. He now lives in Feuilla, in the foothills of the Pyrenees, in the South of France.
At that moment in my life I understood without any reservation how the energy in reflective music is primary, and the music ornaments the energy – not the other way around. Sometimes I have sat at the keyboard for hours, playing/recording.
Sometimes the energy around me can go very dark, very heavy. I feel it as an echo in my tissues and muscles, and sometimes it feels like a discomfort or a pain, although I can see that’s an illusion, because it clears, sometimes in a moment.
Sometimes it doesn’t so much clear as suddenly becomes so enfolded by a different energy, finer, higher, sharper, lighter, that although its still there, it has no disturbing effect on me. These experiences of large energy changes whilst playing were revelations, not only musically but also in a way spiritually.
On the surface level the improvisations have evolved in form, and after I started playing for my wonderful friend Andrew Jamieson (an orchestra impressario and also classical music afficionado and big collector) I found a way to create spontaneous sonata forms in several movements as a single improvisation.
Andrew has also continued, like Ron to be an incredibly consistent friend. To imitate classical form for me is not enough, there MUST also be a sense of space in the music, to allow everyone (and me!) to find themselves reflected back to them in the way that angel (or higher me?) helped me see the way to.
In recent years, through the help of 2 more dear friends sarod player Lisa Sangita Moskow in San Francisco and South Indian raga tradition singer Manickam Yogeswaran (from Sri Lanka) who I meet in London, I have learned many North and South Indian raga scales and have played in duo with both these wonderful musicians in concerts over several years.
My palette has many influences and tonal colours but the still centre mirror being presence transmutational experience is still the most essential to me.
Sitting at the piano, expecting waterfalls of melodic cascades, being alert for new territory, its very like this process, blogging, in fact I have a feeling one of my next blogs will feature a piano improvisation on camera, fresh from the creating.