My drum set and the vibraphone are two remarkably different musical environments. My drum setup, on one hand, has evolved gradually through the years of my practice as an improviser. Cymbals, bells, skins, and wood in various formats and shapes, are placed and organized to an idiosyncratic musical environment which is distinctly my own. The vibraphone, on the other hand, is an extremely standardized instrument, with a merciless lack of flexibility of timbre and pitch. If I would describe my bonds to these instruments in an emotional vocabulary, I would say that my relation to the drum set is like a deep friendship where we adjust to each other, grow and evolve together. My body is in tune with the tactile responses from skin, wood and metal. My bond to the vibraphone, on the other hand, is more of a love-hate relation. The unambiguous pitch and timbre of the vibraphone, and the predictable and uniform envelope of its sound creates in me an urge to move on, musically speaking. It is as if the quality of the sound makes it hard to find a satisfying resting point. As soon as I have hit a note I need to go on to the next one, creating an idiosyncratic flurry of notes. The drum set and the vibraphone become in my mind two diametrically opposite members of the percussion family. As an improvising musician, I find them both indispensable. (from liner notes)
PhD DISSERTATION!
I finished my doctoral dissertation in October 2018!
'Why Do You PLay The Way You Do?': Musical Improvisation, Identity, and Social Interaction
For abstract and download - check Research page
My committee (left to right): Roshanak Kheshti, Anthony Davis, (me), David Borgo, Amy Cimini, Steven Schick. (Michael Dessen on the computer screen!)