Latest news with #improvisation
Washington Post
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
If Charmaine Lee loses focus during a concert ‘this whole thing can collapse'
Think of all the things a musician can produce by contorting their vocal cords, from operatic wallops and birdsong trills to percussive raps and wordless scats. Now think of the voice as a tool used to express the gasps, gurgles, glottal stops, murmurs and mumbles that fill the space between words, like a Foley artist for the spoken word. As an artist, Charmaine Lee is closer to the latter, speaking through a musical language of her own creation and using her voice in a way she says has been compared to 'Charlie Parker with a bunch of broken keys.' While sonically reminiscent of experimental electronics and noise music, Lee's practice is actually an extension of her training as a modern jazz vocalist, growing out of a formal approach to free improvisation that she studied at the New England Conservatory. 'I'd always had this yearning for something weirder, a context that was stranger than I had previously had any real life experience in,' Lee says over Zoom. 'A lot of that lived in free improvisation … in the very few experiences I had, it was incredibly liberating and the most authentic way that I could express myself.' Lee has spent a decade chasing that feeling, approaching composition and improvisation as creating obstacle courses to conquer in real-time and bringing herself to 'the edge of nowhere.' Her process has reached its apotheosis on her most expansive record to date, 'Tulpa,' which is due out on Oct. 31 via her new label Kou Records. 'Tulpa' is the result of four days in the studio with her partner, Randall Dunn, a producer known for his work in the worlds of black and drone metal that Lee describes as 'a master of amplification and feedback and tone.' Dunn set up an array of vintage tube amplifiers around Lee, splitting her signal through the amps to create different colors and shifts of feedback. The album takes its title from a term in Tibetan Buddhism that refers to the conjuring of an alternate being. 'This music feels like its own organism … and stretches me into new directions in ways that I've never done prior to that,' Lee says. 'To bring myself to that place where, if I lapse in focus or commitment, this whole thing can collapse … I find that very thrilling, life affirming and exciting.' In concert, that experience is heightened by the existence and participation of an audience. Lee describes her performances as a 'wasabi shot' that wakes both artist and attendee to something that requires presence and invokes psychedelia. And after years at day jobs that never left much room for touring, Lee is hitting the road for a daunting schedule that will take her to all 50 states for more than 60 shows and nearly 100 days on the road. Lee sees the tour as a durational performance that will evolve over the course of the tour, an opportunity to collaborate with like-minded artists in far-flung cities and a chance to learn about the country beyond the reductive conclusions driven by digital algorithms. 'This music, for me, is such a social practice. It's live, it's risk-taking, it requires a level of energetic participation and it's very specific to that exact context,' she explains. 'I want this tour to be larger than the act itself.' Aug. 14 at 7 p.m. at Rhizome DC. $15-$25.
The Guardian
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
TonyInterruptor by Nicola Barker review – satire that sees right through you
As TonyInterruptor begins, musician Sasha Keyes is in the middle of an improvised trumpet solo. A man stands up in the audience and says, 'Is this honest? Are we all being honest here?' He points at Sasha and adds, 'You especially.' Soon a video of the episode appears online, with a companion clip of Sasha's vitriolic reaction: 'Some random fucking nobody … some dick-weed, small-town TonyInterruptor.' Given the times we live in, this naturally leads to Sasha's trial by social media for artistic fraudulence and abusive conduct. But the shockwaves soon extend to everyone adjacent to the event: Fi Kinebuchi, the self-styled 'Queen of Strings', who was playing with Sasha at the time; India Shore, the teenager who posted the first video; India's father, Lambert, an architecture professor with a secret crush on Fi Kinebuchi; his wife Mallory, who divides her time between parenting her daughter, Gunn, who has special needs, and venting intellectual spleen; and even to TonyInterruptor himself, real name John Lincoln Braithwaite, an otherworldly outsider whose 'main occupation – his duty, even – is to observe and assess the falling and the catching of light'. The author of more than a dozen books, including the Goldsmiths prize winner H(a)ppy and the Booker‑shortlisted Darkmans, Barker is known for experiment and brainy whimsy. There could be no better person to write a comedy about art and its discontents. The novel is devastatingly on the money about the ways we're all not being honest here: whether as flawed, self-conscious humans, or in the special case of artists, who strive harder for honesty and thus fall harder into affectation. Even the unworldly Braithwaite isn't immune. What are we to make of a man who smokes because 'smoking is a condensed and bastardised form of fire-watching', and when asked to shake hands responds with, 'I object to handshaking on ideological grounds … but you seem well-meaning so I'm happy to respond in the vernacular you're most comfortable with.' Sincerity here is just the youthful illusion that we're exempt from universal impostordom; or the lovely illusion of lovers that their inamorata is the one in a million who is really real. Sign up to Bookmarks Discover new books and learn more about your favourite authors with our expert reviews, interviews and news stories. Literary delights delivered direct to you after newsletter promotion The characters' sensitivity to the falseness all around them – and in them – gives them no peace. Lambert describes his wife, Mallory, as relentless in her criticisms, 'like a seagull up to its knees in sea-swell, determinedly dissecting a crustacean as it rolls ceaselessly back and forth'. But this is true in various ways of all the characters, who are always finding fault. Sometimes this means railing at others, as when India tells her dad to 'stop always making everything so … so INTELLECTUAL, so META … and just … just … for once in your life risk being real'. Sometimes they bemoan their own artificiality, as when Lambert conceives of himself as being 'like a Moneymaker tomato: ripened to an unnaturally bright hue on a constant drip-diet of Baby Bio'. The prose is a profusion of thoughts and associations, and shadings of the thoughts, and metaphors extending from the associations. All this is delivered in long, manic sentences that love to chase their own tails. When we're told Braithwaite is 'like a leading character in a bad 1980s American capitalist drama (say Dallas: the over-indulged younger brother, the prodigal son who returns to the oilfield and promises his tough yet paradoxically indulgent slate-eyed, tan-faced father that he will learn the trade from the ground up; prove himself). But also like a character from an excellent, slightly clunky but extremely sincere first play about a demoralised primary school teacher who is struggling to nurture a gifted but troubled Irish Traveller child written by a 23-year-old northern prodigy whose uncle once ran (and possibly still runs) an abbatoir' – well, are we really expected to parse all that? I suspect not. The excess is the joke, and the joke is sometimes on the reader who struggles to get anything as sensible as an image out of Barker's imagery. It's a rollercoaster kind of excess, where the best part is that it's too much. Sometimes, I think, we're being invited to enjoy the slapstick experience of losing our footing mid-sentence, and to join the laugh if we fall flat. Midway, the book takes a turn into romantic comedy, with a series of scenes where unlikely characters fall for each other. The honesty they've been pursuing, it turns out, consists not in improvised jazz, but in becoming besotted with an inappropriate person and blowing up your life. Barker manages this shift with an extraordinary lightness and perceptiveness, making it feel as though the rogue wave of love sweeping through her narrative was inevitable as soon as the words 'Are we all being honest here?' were spoken. In a pivotal scene, a bewildered Sasha Keyes sums up all we've learned by citing the 'Buddhist Lineage of Mis-steps', in which it is the seeker's mistakes and failings, not their spiritual achievements, that lead to enlightenment. It is a somehow fitting climax to a book in which Barker seems incapable of putting a foot wrong. This is satire that sees right through you, but forgives you and teaches you to forgive yourself. It's that rare thing, a serious work of art that is also a giddy confection: a vehicle of pure delight. TonyInterruptor by Nicola Barker is published by Granta (£16.99). To support the Guardian, order your copy at Delivery charges may apply.
ABC News
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- ABC News
Jazz Legends: Keith Jarrett
Pianist Keith Jarrett is one of the most captivating and controversial musicians of the last 50 years. He's a rare breed - a musician who has mastered the art of jazz improvisation and a fine classical player too. It's been 50 years since the Köln Concert, which became the best-selling piano and solo jazz album of all time. But as we find out, that concert nearly didn't happen! You'll hear all the back stories to this iconic artist in our tribute to Keith Jarrett. This episode was presented by bass player and ABC Jazz host, Eric Ajaye, and written and produced by ABC Jazz producer Henry Rasmussen. It was created by ABC Jazz, originally being broadcast on 2 June 2025. Find out more information on Keith Jarrett here. ABC Jazz features a Jazz Legend each month on the radio, with historic moments, significant albums and a full-length feature to immerse into the important history of this music and culture. Hear more Jazz Legends episodes here, including significant artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Quincy Jones, Joni Mitchell, Keith Jarrett, Mary Lou Williams and Herbie Hancock.
The Guardian
01-08-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Guy Pearce: ‘I don't think I'll look as good in a frock as I did when I was 25'
You once said you need to be so in control of things that if you had brain surgery, you'd only feel comfortable doing it yourself. Do you still feel this way? FioreSebekI don't remember saying that, but I can see how someone might joke about it. There's usually room for improvisation in life, but I have never been a very good improviser when it comes to acting. When I do things in my own accent, like Jack Irish, he was quite laissez-faire and flippant, so I could be looser and pull stuff out of the air. But when I'm working with high-powered actors and speaking with a tricky accent, I'm learning my lines, doing what's required and staying in control. If you were attending a dinner party where all the other guests were characters you have played, who would you sit next to, and who would you avoid? FrocksAwayI'd avoid Eric from The Rover and the Reverend from Brimstone, because they might kill me. Ed Exley from LA Confidential is quite arrogant and boring. I'd like to sit next to Andy Warhol, who I've played [in Factory Girl]. Houdini would be interesting, although I don't reckon you'd get a word in. And Leonard from Memento would start with dessert and finish with the starter because he's all backwards. I love my partner dearly, but she says if she was ever going to leave me, it would be for 'Mike from Neighbours'. What can I do to make her stop? Perhaps you can tell her for me? TooMuchSpareTimeNo, I'm not going to make her stop. I'm with her all the way if she thinks: if you're going to have an affair, make sure you have one with Annette Bening, or whoever. Maybe she needs to watch a couple of the horrible characters I've played, like Charley Rakes in Lawless. That's another character I don't want to sit next to. She should watch Brimstone and Lawless, and I can guarantee you she will have lost interest in Mike from Neighbours. When they first sent you the script for Memento, was it backwards? lagodeluna It was exactly as you see it in the film. Speaking of people who are in control of what they're doing, Christopher Nolan is king of that, because he so brilliantly constructed something where there was no room for things to move around. When my agent sent me the script, he said: 'By the way, this all goes backwards.' I'm glad he did, otherwise I would have read it three times before I got what was going on. Any news about the Priscilla, Queen of the Desert sequel? Have you boarded the lavender bus again, or are you still stuck in the pre-production desert? badrobot2 and feirefitzWe're stuck in the pre-production desert, going back and forth on the script, locations and budget. I feel there's enough love in the room to make it happen. I don't know if I am looking forward to putting on a dress again. I don't think I'm going to look as good in a frock as I did in 1993 when I was 25. Funnily enough, I was contacted by Madame Tussauds, who were setting up in Australia and wanted to have iconic Australian actors, like Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, Russell Crowe from Gladiator, Eric Bana from Chopper and me from Priscilla. I was filming Prometheus in London, so they said: 'Could you come in to Madame Tussauds and stand in your underwear, pulling this pose' – they had a photo – 'and we're going to take six million photos from every angle?' I said: 'This is 2011. I'm not in the same shape that I was in 1993.' They went: 'Yes, yes, yes. Everyone wants bigger muscles and bigger boobs. We'll make the clay model first, you can come in, and if there's anything you don't like, you can let us know.' So I had to go in and say: 'If you look at this photo, my waist used to be a little bit thinner,' and they said: 'Oh yeah, good point.' Did you have an inkling that LA Confidential would be such a masterpiece while you were filming it? GasparGarcao No, is the answer. I don't really have an inkling for anything. I'd done four or five films in Australia, but it was a totally different environment: in the US, with Americans, on an American film. The whole thing was so big, it was hard for me to gauge anything. I was too focused on trying to do a good job to think: 'Wow, this is going to be good.' I was the second person cast after Russell Crowe. Russ and I were rehearsing while they were working with the script, and casting other people. So then David Strathairn, Kim Basinger and Danny DeVito turned up. James Cromwell says to my character in the film: 'Would you be willing to shoot a hardened criminal in the back to save face?' I say: 'No no no,' being all moral, but in the end, I shoot him in the back. When I shot him, the wadding from the shotgun flew out and hit him in the back of the head. He was 30ft away, so everyone had said: 'Don't worry, it's safe.' But, for a moment, I thought: 'Jeez. I've killed him. I'll never work in Hollywood again.' Was there a particular role that earned you Radiohead's nod of approval to appear in their music video for Follow Me Around? McScootikins I don't think so. They contacted my agent in the US saying: 'Do you have any actors who might want to do it?' And Chris, my agent, who knows I'm a big Radiohead fan, said straight away: 'Guy Pearce is in London right now.' I was filming A Spy Among Friends with Damian Lewis and said: 'I have to take a call with Thom Yorke about this Radiohead music video I'm in. So, excuse me.' Are you grateful that your late 80s pop career didn't take off? Megapode777That's the best question I've ever been asked in my life. After I finished Neighbours, there was a period where people would say: 'Didn't you used to be Mike from Neighbours?' Then one day, this 10- or 12-year-old kid came up to me in a shopping centre and said: 'Didn't you used to be Guy Pearce?' I thought: 'Wow, that's the most profound thing anyone's ever said,' because, in a way, it was true. I always knew I wasn't just a soap opera actor. I was just stuck in that cycle. Prior to Neighbours, I'd done 10 years of theatre, which made playing the same character for four years frustrating. I wanted to delve into a wider variety of personalities and behaviours. But when I finished Neighbours in 1989, I was in the wilderness because no one wanted to employ the guy who was in Neighbours, and I struggled to find work. I went back and did some theatre, a little bit of Home and Away and then, in 1993, I got to do Priscilla. So, yes, I'm really grateful that my 80s pop career didn't take off! Inside is available on digital, DVD and Blu-ray on 11 August
The Guardian
31-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Guy Pearce: ‘I don't think I'll look as good in a frock as I did when I was 25'
You once said you need to be so in control of things that if you had brain surgery, you'd only feel comfortable doing it yourself. Do you still feel this way? FioreSebekI don't remember saying that, but I can see how someone might joke about it. There's usually room for improvisation in life, but I have never been a very good improviser when it comes to acting. When I do things in my own accent, like Jack Irish, he was quite laissez-faire and flippant, so I could be looser and pull stuff out of the air. But when I'm working with high-powered actors and speaking with a tricky accent, I'm learning my lines, doing what's required and staying in control. If you were attending a dinner party where all the other guests were characters you have played, who would you sit next to, and who would you avoid? FrocksAwayI'd avoid Eric from The Rover and the Reverend from Brimstone, because they might kill me. Ed Exley from LA Confidential is quite arrogant and boring. I'd like to sit next to Andy Warhol, who I've played [in Factory Girl]. Houdini would be interesting, although I don't reckon you'd get a word in. And Leonard from Memento would start with dessert and finish with the starter because he's all backwards. I love my partner dearly, but she says if she was ever going to leave me, it would be for 'Mike from Neighbours'. What can I do to make her stop? Perhaps you can tell her for me? TooMuchSpareTimeNo, I'm not going to make her stop. I'm with her all the way if she thinks: if you're going to have an affair, make sure you have one with Annette Bening, or whoever. Maybe she needs to watch a couple of the horrible characters I've played, like Charley Rakes in Lawless. That's another character I don't want to sit next to. She should watch Brimstone and Lawless, and I can guarantee you she will have lost interest in Mike from Neighbours. When they first sent you the script for Memento, was it backwards? lagodeluna It was exactly as you see it in the film. Speaking of people who are in control of what they're doing, Christopher Nolan is king of that, because he so brilliantly constructed something where there was no room for things to move around. When my agent sent me the script, he said: 'By the way, this all goes backwards.' I'm glad he did, otherwise I would have read it three times before I got what was going on. Any news about the Priscilla, Queen of the Desert sequel? Have you boarded the lavender bus again, or are you still stuck in the pre-production desert? badrobot2 and feirefitzWe're stuck in the pre-production desert, going back and forth on the script, locations and budget. I feel there's enough love in the room to make it happen. I don't know if I am looking forward to putting on a dress again. I don't think I'm going to look as good in a frock as I did in 1993 when I was 25. Funnily enough, I was contacted by Madame Tussauds, who were setting up in Australia and wanted to have iconic Australian actors, like Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, Russell Crowe from Gladiator, Eric Bana from Chopper and me from Priscilla. I was filming Prometheus in London, so they said: 'Could you come in to Madame Tussauds and stand in your underwear, pulling this pose' – they had a photo – 'and we're going to take six million photos from every angle?' I said: 'This is 2011. I'm not in the same shape that I was in 1993.' They went: 'Yes, yes, yes. Everyone wants bigger muscles and bigger boobs. We'll make the clay model first, you can come in, and if there's anything you don't like, you can let us know.' So I had to go in and say: 'If you look at this photo, my waist used to be a little bit thinner,' and they said: 'Oh yeah, good point.' Did you have an inkling that LA Confidential would be such a masterpiece while you were filming it? GasparGarcao No, is the answer. I don't really have an inkling for anything. I'd done four or five films in Australia, but it was a totally different environment: in the US, with Americans, on an American film. The whole thing was so big, it was hard for me to gauge anything. I was too focused on trying to do a good job to think: 'Wow, this is going to be good.' I was the second person cast after Russell Crowe. Russ and I were rehearsing while they were working with the script, and casting other people. So then David Strathairn, Kim Basinger and Danny DeVito turned up. James Cromwell says to my character in the film: 'Would you be willing to shoot a hardened criminal in the back to save face?' I say: 'No no no,' being all moral, but in the end, I shoot him in the back. When I shot him, the wadding from the shotgun flew out and hit him in the back of the head. He was 30ft away, so everyone had said: 'Don't worry, it's safe.' But, for a moment, I thought: 'Jeez. I've killed him. I'll never work in Hollywood again.' Was there a particular role that earned you Radiohead's nod of approval to appear in their music video for Follow Me Around? McScootikins I don't think so. They contacted my agent in the US saying: 'Do you have any actors who might want to do it?' And Chris, my agent, who knows I'm a big Radiohead fan, said straight away: 'Guy Pearce is in London right now.' I was filming A Spy Among Friends with Damian Lewis and said: 'I have to take a call with Thom Yorke about this Radiohead music video I'm in. So, excuse me.' Are you grateful that your late 80s pop career didn't take off? Megapode777That's the best question I've ever been asked in my life. After I finished Neighbours, there was a period where people would say: 'Didn't you used to be Mike from Neighbours?' Then one day, this 10- or 12-year-old kid came up to me in a shopping centre and said: 'Didn't you used to be Guy Pearce?' I thought: 'Wow, that's the most profound thing anyone's ever said,' because, in a way, it was true. I always knew I wasn't just a soap opera actor. I was just stuck in that cycle. Prior to Neighbours, I'd done 10 years of theatre, which made playing the same character for four years frustrating. I wanted to delve into a wider variety of personalities and behaviours. But when I finished Neighbours in 1989, I was in the wilderness because no one wanted to employ the guy who was in Neighbours, and I struggled to find work. I went back and did some theatre, a little bit of Home and Away and then, in 1993, I got to do Priscilla. So, yes, I'm really grateful that my 80s pop career didn't take off! Inside is available on digital, DVD and Blu-ray on 11 August
