Enlighten me about KC´s "Moonchild"

 

But proclaiming the last incoherent section of Moonchild as some sort of masterpiece is rather like being a sycophant in the court of the emperor with his new clothes. Reminding the emperor that he is butt-naked will not gain one points among the fawning elite.

 

I doubt that you will find someone that can discuss "improvisation" as much as I can, specially in film and theater. I have had the chance to also do this with musicians, more than once and spent a considerable amount of time with Gong as well -- and it might surprise you to know that the "beat poets" were some of the best improvisational artists ever!

 

The idea, is from the card game, and a bit of a joke ... you throw all the cards in the air and then you pick them up ... and David even said on his "Behind the Music" that you took the lines as they came and did not change anything. And it has a tendency to bring with it, some interesting cross ideas that you did not imagine that came up because of the chance of the order of the cards and the words that were in it.

 

This can be done with music, provided that it is not a "guided improvisation" ... which means that you have a chord you don't touch, as that is the signal for the rest of the band to join in, or switch folks ... and this was something that was very well known and used by Miles Davis a lot ... we start, I do this, then John does his thing, then Tom does that, then I join in and then we finish ... which has freedom in between the "transition points" of the piece of music.

 

However, that's like saying that you can not do an improvisation that has no "transition points", which the Krautrock folks did extremely well, probably in response to the English "composed" style of improvisation ... where the ideas are set down ... and indeed, a lot of the Krautrock was defined/designed to not use any ideas that were from the Western definitions of music, and to see if something new could be created ... which it did ... even if so many folks do not accept it, or felt that the drugs were more interesting, or whatever.

 

Moonchild, is "open". That it might have a beginning or an end point is not quite as important to the piece as the "moment" itself, and that is the part that separates the listener from the musician ... because the listener is making assumptions that do NOT, necessarily, have anything to do with what the musician is doing at all.

 

Remember, also, that at the time, there were a lot of experimental theater and film and other arts, and to say, or think that none of it ever affected music is facile and quite uneducated over all, not always in a bad way, mind you! Specially when it could be done as a satire as Frank Zappa did! But you get the drift.

 

A lot of it, in improvisation, has more to do with the artist himself/herself and how much confidence you can draw from your own visual/internal process. What you and I say, is ALWAYS after the fact and not always valid.

 

I spent all my directing years having fun on the stage with actors to create new things and ideas and processes, and no two rehearsals were ever the same to ensure freshness and continuity ... and guess what a lot of music, specially these days, is missing ... too much on one chord or note or sound. And ideas are ideas and they are all worth while playing with ... if you are not afraid and have the confidence to have fun with what you know ... which is where most people don't! ... the same in this board with its "set ways" as to what "progressive" means, when its very definition is taking away from the very creation of it all ... it's like saying that sex is about getting off and has nothing else behind it ... and you know that's not always true at all!