Seen from a particular point of view,
music is simply the art of focusing attention on one thing at a time.
John Cage

Free improvisation is difficult to describe or evaluate, if one attempts to talk about music at all.  It is impossible to assess it “objectively,” for in order to enjoy it one must enter the ineffable experience when time disappears, or – becomes vertical. Enter is the right word. You enter the experience of music, or – you let the music enter you. Every word in this sentence can be questioned – experience, you, self, and even music, but enter is true.

Entering – you dissolve, or – the music dissolves in yourself once it enters you. But this only works when improvisation is genuine – when an artist aspires to listen to the eternity of music that exists out there – on the other side of the universe of sounds, and has the capacity to transcribe it for our human ears. Delivering “out there” through the sound “over here.”

On Wednesday, June 8th, 2011, at 10 pm Peter Brötzmann (sax, clarinet), Ken Vandermark (sax), Mars Williams (sax), Kent Kessler (double bass) and Paal Nilssen-Love (drums) performed at Abrons Arts Center. It was the fourth set of the fourth day of the 16th Vision Festival, and the third performance for Brötzmann on that day, right after he was awarded “A lifetime of achievement” prize. The musicians have enjoyed playing together before, and the air was already electrified with the previous sets: readiness to resonate topped with technical virtuosity allowed it to happen.

As any genuine improvisation, Brötzmann’s music allows the listener to achieve an almost palpable physical pleasure building up into complete cosmic unity. The closest possible image is a boundless immensity entering at perineum, sweeping away everything (in a pleasant way), walking up the spine from the inside as a glowing stream of light that hits the crown and finally knocks it up – into the sky, stars and the universe.

How does it work?

Music is magical, but it’s not magic. The musical experience just described is similar to a deep state of meditation when an experiencer achieves complete presence and keeps focusing on the image for a very long time. Being challenging in an abstract setting, it often comes easier with an appropriate music. Complete presence of the listener comes as a result of complete freedom of the sound that nevertheless has a center and a form – the attributes very characteristic of Brötzmann’s improvisation. This evening musicians started with sonorous cacophony resembling chaotic running about of ants that grew in intensity and chaosity, but never to an unbearable state, being intertwined with contemplative calming streams of sound. This capacity for focused musical conception and the ability to carry it through with any group of good musicians from duo to tentet is what allows Brötzmann to hold the listeners’ attention, leading them to a height of musical pleasure. Losing the sense of time completely, the listener can wander in the complete unknown, while still being relaxed with no fear of getting lost, knowing that in the end she or he will arrive at the right place.

And the doors will open for them to enter.