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Principle of Sufficient Irritation

some pieces you ‘compose’ and other come out fully formed. “Principle of Sufficient Irritation” (POSI) is one of those pieces that sprang out of me almost fully realized almost exactly 4 years ago.  even though i’m just a part-time adjunct teaching monkey, fall has always been very busy for me and not really a good time to compose and by the time november rolls around i’m itching to get some new pieces written. thinking back in 2005 it’s pretty telling that i remember most of the details around this piece.

Background

i know i had some rehearsals coming up with the PBE and really wanted to get some pieces written, especially something modular and improvisatory. besides having played terry riley’s “In C” the lloyd rodgers group had been performing many of his very simple and effective ‘black book‘ improvisations. i had already written one decent modular improvisation (tong aesthetics from the music from summerland CD), and i really wanted to explore another approach than the large through-composed pieces that were common in the late 60′s and 70′s.  the funny thing is that when POSI was created (we originally referred to it by the day it was created. 11/25/05 was the original title)  the particulars really didn’t matter anymore, i just needed a piece for a rehearsal and using improvisation as process sounded like a great way to create something new in a short time.

Writing Process

the process creating POSI was pretty simple; play a lick on my trombone, plug it into the sequencer and loop it while i improvised another one. i pretty quickly realized that the first gesture worked so well in canon that it was almost a piece by itself and after the initial inspiration my only goal was to “make it change”. my luck/the god(s)/karma must have been smiling on me that day b/c although i have never been good at writing canons, that day i figured out that i’m pretty good at improvising them (at least in this modular style). the rest of the piece pretty much wrote itself and needless to say i was pretty excited for my upcoming rehearsal.

1st rehearsal

well… here’s where i tell you that i took it to rehearsal and the group ‘got it’ and we played it down the first time. but actually the group was pretty stumped and it took us 3-4 rehearsals to get the hang of it. and it took a few tries of figuring out how to move from section to section and what the “rules” of the piece are.  the main thing i remember is that when we finally played it like it was in my head i had that feeling of completion and pure joy that i experienced when i first wrote it and immediately became the piece that we ended all rehearsals with promising a frolicking good time at the end of every rehearsal (and performance)

Improvisation, Performance and Recording

even though the licks are written out, one of the best feeling of performing a modular improvisation (like POSI) is the ability to not worry what to play, but how to play it. each performance is like you get to visit something musically familiar, but each time you can experience it differently. i think performing a modular improvisation is very similar to giving actors an outline for a scene and telling them what needs to occur.

this recording of POSI was our last take of a two day  session and in which we were all pretty mentally tired and loopy. if you were listening to the piece while looking at the score i’m sure it would be pretty hard to follow along, but if you listened a few times you should be able to hear that we are basically playing variations of variations of what was originally written down.   i think its a great example of the pure improvisatory and musical joy that the PBE creates during many of our live show and i know that getting it on tape in a semi-artificial studio setting (in which the vibes and clarinet were recorded in separate rooms without being to see anybody else) is a testament of the great musicianship of scott, ryan, carl, bruce and eric. overall the way we were playing that afternoon i think we could have recorded the album over the phone and still have captured a great performance.

enjoy,

paul

Principle of Sufficient Irritation (originally 11/25/05)

* Paul Bailey, Trombone
* Bruce Gallego, Electric Guitar
* Eric Hendrickson, Keyboards
* Scott McIntosh, Clarinet
* Ryan Nunes, Vibraphone
* Carl Stronach, Bass Guitar

Recorded and Mixed by Paul Bailey and Marlon Luna
Recorded at California State University Fullerton and Swing House Studios Hollywood 

Nov 10, 2009 | Categories:Uncategorized | Tags: black book, bruce gallego, carl stronach, comp, creativity, eric hendric, in c, lloyd rodgers, modular improvisation, principle of sufficient irritation, rehearsal, ryan nunes, scott mcintosh, terry riley | Leave A Comment »