“Changing Musical Ideas:
Alabama Improv Co-op.”
Kenny Johnson
Hopes to shock life into downtown created
a skateboard park and projects along the riverfront. On the musical front, minds of local
musician Jeff McLeod and New South Book Store have teamed to help the city live up to the
bookstore’s name. |
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The Alabama Improvisation Cooperative (started by McLeod) is a forum New South welcomes the musicians. “We're very happy to be doing it. We host meetings for the Montgomery Transportation Coalition, The Improv Co-op, a poetry reading group, and a writers' group,” Foster Dickson at New South says.
Based on The Sacred Garden, a similar co-op started in Iowa City, Iowa, by friends The Alabama Co-op lives up to those ideas. The meetings resemble a relaxed musical lecture or discussion. Modern design, tiled floors and book-stuffed shelves of New South’s main room provide the backdrop for a refreshing musical conversation, hopefully void of clichés or tired song structures, but still very inclusive. “We have musicians on simple acoustic guitar all the way to homemade contraptions using contact microphones mounted in pieces of metal and large springs.” McLeod says “If you wanted to come in and destroy a microphone with a Dremel tool while whistling Dixie backwards, that would be beautiful.” “The whole idea is for people to be able to come in and do something that they normally wouldn’t, or to attempt things they normally wouldn’t without someone leaning over shoulder and saying: ‘you shouldn’t be bowing that violin with a beer can full of dirt! That’s not proper!’ I want people to come in and bow that thing with that can!” McLeod says. Some of the most interesting sounds at the Co-Op come from Scott Bazar from Panama City. Bazar plays a block of wood fitted with wire, large springs, metal rods, a can of Vienna Sausages, and a microphone. Sounds of thunderstorms and 1950s Sci-Fi movies lurch from the contraption. The meetings are mostly free-form improvisation with some pieces having a loose structure suggested by a host. Banjo, acoustic and electric guitars, violin and percussion in a large circle execute those ideas, while folk art and books by regional authors look over the player’s shoulders. “There are moments of free improv, large group improvisation, sub-groups of instruments working within a provided format and even times where we pass the sound around from person to person. Anything goes . . . although we love having hosts who bring fresh ideas to the proceedings, “ McLeod says.
For example the first meeting in September featured a piece dividing the room into
two groups. One group locked into a rhythm with the other intent on destroying their
concentration. In November Craig Hultgren, a cellist for 20 years in the Birmingham
Symphony and founder of Birmingham Improv, an annual festival of improvisatory arts, hosted the co-op.
“It's a very healthy
experience to play, create sound and make noise, and everyone who was there participated. They got to do some playing and hear some stuff by
other people. I also like the down-to-earth,
unhyped quality of the meeting. Everyone was
very genuine. There were some really new
sounds and strategies that did open minds including my own.” Hultgren said. As Montgomery, Alabama grows, hopefully an open-minded musical community will grow within it. “The potential and the interest is here. It’s obvious--judging by the expanded attendance at the last two co-ops. I would hope that it would only grow,” McLeod says. For more info email Jeff McLeod: jeff@soundandchaos.com |
The Alabama Improvisation Cooperative (started by McLeod) is a forum for musicians and non-musicians of all styles to experiment and improvise on standard and non-standard instruments. Existing only a few months, and two meetings into the idea, musicians from Birmingham and Panama City, Florida, have traveled to Montgomery to improvise.
New South welcomes the musicians. “We're very happy to be doing it. We host meetings for the Montgomery Transportation Coalition, The Improv Co-op, a poetry reading group, and a writers' group,” Foster Dickson at New South says.
Based on a similar co-op started in Iowa City, Iowa, by friends Ed and Susie Nehring, McLeod describes it this way: “The Iowa Improv Co-op has no rules. All they ask is that musicians of all skill levels are treated with equal respect and that there be no smoking or drinking during the meeting. Other than that, it’s wide open. No sound or instrument, however non-traditional they may be, is taboo. I really wanted to have the same sort of openness with the Alabama Improv Co-op as Ed and Suzie brought to theirs.”
The Alabama Co-op lives up to those ideas. The meetings resemble a relaxed musical lecture or discussion. Modern design, tiled floors and book-stuffed shelves of New South’s main room provide the backdrop for a refreshing musical conversation once a month void of clichés or tired song structures, but still very inclusive.
“We have musicians on simple acoustic guitar all the way to homemade contraptions using contact microphones mounted in pieces of metal and large springs.” McLeod says “If you wanted to come in and destroy a microphone with a Dremel tool while whistling Dixie backwards, that would be beautiful.”
“The whole idea is for people to be able to come in and do something that they normally wouldn’t, or to attempt things they normally wouldn’t without someone leaning over shoulder and saying: ‘you shouldn’t be bowing that violin with a beer can full of dirt! That’s not proper!’ I want people to come in and bow that thing with that can!” McLeod says.
Some of the most interesting sounds at the Co-Op come from Scott Bazar from Panama City. Bazar plays a block of wood fitted with wire, large springs, metal rods, a can of Vienna Sausages, and a microphone. Sounds of thunderstorms and 1950s Sci-Fi movies lurch from the contraption.
The meetings are mostly free-form improvisation with some pieces having a loose structure suggested by a host. Banjo, acoustic and electric guitars, violin and percussion in a large circle execute those ideas, while folk art and books by regional authors look over the player’s shoulders.
“There are moments of free improv, large group improvisation, sub-groups of instruments working within a provided format and even times where we pass the sound around from person to person. Anything goes . . . although we love having hosts who bring fresh ideas to the proceedings, “ McLeod says.
For example the first meeting in September featured a piece dividing the room into
two groups. One group locked into a rhythm with the other intent on destroying their
concentration.
McLeod hosts each co-op, occasionally inviting guest hosts to lead the interaction. Guest hosts have included LaDonna Smith, who with Davey Williams pioneered the improv scene in Alabama in the 70's and Craig Hultgren, cellist with Alabama Symphony, who co-organized with Smith and others the first BirminghamImprov in 1993.
It's a very healthy
experience to play, create sound and make noise, and everyone who was there participated. They got to do some playing and hear some stuff by
other people. I also like the down-to-earth,
un-hyped quality of the meeting. Everyone
is very genuine. There are some really new
sounds and strategies that did open minds including my own.
As Montgomery, Alabama continues it's co-op, an open-minded musical community will grow within it. The potential and the interest is here.
For more info email Jeff McLeod: jeff@soundandchaos.com
