Tag Archives: improvisation

Lot 74: Derek Bailey

Posted on May 26, 2020 by Mark Kerstetter

inner spacea bricoleur’s placeattitude of adjustmentwhere one standshappenstancemeans at handany given timesuspend attentionon a blank sheetbetween cacheand vagary anydiscrete objectin the cosmosterms of contactmomentby momentimprovisejoin my danceDerek archspirit Baileymy first listena school librarya smile a record widemy friend spun the … Continue reading →

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Song of the Mock Turtles

Posted on January 9, 2019 by Mark Kerstetter

From September 1st to December 31st of last year I kept a stuck tune diary, a journal of all of the sticky tunes that visited me, particularly tunes that I awoke with already playing in my head. Of the 122 … Continue reading →

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Michael Brodsky: Writing as Exposure

Posted on April 25, 2018 by Mark Kerstetter

The individual who has not risked his life may well be recognized as a person, but he has not attained to the truth of this recognition as an independent self-consciousness. —Hegel …. if you go on struggling to name…. you … Continue reading →

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Georges Bataille: Improvisation Within a Field of Contradictions

Posted on March 26, 2018 by Mark Kerstetter

…. two movements…. One’s in harmony with nature; the other questions it. We can’t do away with either. [109 Guilty by Georges Bataille]* “We do not have the right to wish for a single state. We have to desire to … Continue reading →

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Ben Watson’s Derek Bailey and the Story of Free Improvisation

Posted on September 21, 2015 by Mark Kerstetter

Derek Bailey and the Story of Free Improvisation was published in 2004. Derek Bailey died the following year. Ben Watson’s book is therefore mercifully free of past tense references to its hero. To my mind no one, as a musician … Continue reading →

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Jerry Lewis as Mockingbird

Posted on March 17, 2015 by Mark Kerstetter

The Lewis character is always potentially anybody —Chris Fujiwara There is no easy way to shake that schmuck you sleep with at night. No matter how you toss and turn he’s always there. —Jerry Lewis Jerry Lewis, love him or … Continue reading →

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Anthony Braxton: It can’t get any better than this

Posted on May 21, 2014 by Mark Kerstetter

  Earlier this year when the NEA named Anthony Braxton a 2014 Jazz Master, he expressed surprise, noting that for over fifty years the jazz community had ‘pushed him back’. It was indeed a surprise seeing Wynton Marsalis as the … Continue reading →

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Albert Ayler in a Spray of Sunflowers

Posted on February 16, 2014 by Mark Kerstetter

I’m happy to announce that my poem inspired by the life and work of Albert Ayler and his brother Donald has been published in Jerry Jazz Musician. My deep-felt thanks go to Joe Maita for giving this poem a home.

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