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Communication, Improvisation, Uncharted Territory

View Flipped Out Jazz - Digital Painting - 2005 

Like my first attempt at portraying jazz (Jazz 1)in a visual medium, I used the obvious references to jazz instruments, sun glass coolness, and fingers and strings.

What I did in this piece which is actually a bit more jazz-like is that I went somewhere with the piece I had never explored before. I landed upon some uncharted territory which is the ultimate in improvisation.

Jazz pianist McCoy Tyner is quoted in the Telegraph Arts  "I can’t predict the directions my music will go. For me, all music is a journey of the soul into new, uncharted territory." Whether that comes through in the above piece without having said so is probably no more clear than whether a listener will recognize new musical space.

Part of my hope in portraying jazz was to touch on the type of communication used by musicians. The instrument clues provide a starting point for conversation, but there is an energy of play found clearly as well.  The final thing which was new to me and the uncharted territory in this case, was to let the computer flip over and/or reverse certain sections of the piece - thus the name Flipped Out Jazz.

See Also

• CSMonitor.com - In jazz as in life - err on side of adventure
  Lesson in communication of musicians and people
• PBS - Jazz Exchange - Recording Ban
  A bit of Jazz history - recording ban and “uncharted” bebop
• Telegraph: Young Turks and old revolutionaries stir up London’s jazz festival
  Preview of London Jazz Festival - quotes McCoy Tyner
• PBS - Profile of McCoy Tyner
  History and some music