Saturday, Bill Neil and I performed a great concert with Hanah Jon Taylor. Hanah’s a truly gifted improviser and flautist/saxophonist.
There were many, many great moments – even if I do say so myself. Pianist Bill Neil is really making amazing music right now – there’s an urgency and richness to what he plays that is definitely worth checking out! Add to the that, Hanah’s great spontaneous improvisations and I hope you start to understand what I’m so excited about. It was truly enjoyable to perform with like-minded players who are open and able to play in the moment, to uncover the music that needs to be heard.
A perfect example of that was a new piece Bill composed for Hanah. It’s called Soul Drifting and was essentially a duet for flute and what Bill calls an audio soundscape. Hanah had never heard the piece before the performance. Bill just gave him a print out of the audio wave – which, as it turns out, is a pretty good way to visualize the emotional curve of the piece. Hanah cranked out a masterpiece! It was breathtaking to behold. His flute playing is among the best I’ve ever heard.
Fortunately, we recorded it – hopefully we’ll post it to the web soon and you can share in the joy of the moment!
The music was certainly deep, spiritual and meaningful. But I’ve also been completely blown away by the response from the audience! They really got into and have been lavishing praise upon us. This was a really adventurous concert (which I had wrongly assumed would be difficult for the audience to fully enjoy) but they really got into the spirit of the moment. Which, of course, is what this music is all about: drop our prejudices and just enjoy the moment. Hmm…could even be a maxim for living our lives as well…