A couple of weeks ago, Robert came over to discuss the ideas behind the dice game I'm using for the content of the watercolors. I'm still working on the full transcript, but here's the translation of an excerpt I was particularly interested in... I based my last watercolor, the one with the rats, on the idea. The excerpt starts as we're looking at a 1983 program for a night of improvisation where Robert and his friend Jean Derome played a few games and exercises before public.
R So you see, all these titles, they're already there... MINIATURES, QUEUE LEU LEU, DEUX COUPS...
F QUEUE LEU LEU... LEU LEU QUEUE, huh... MACHINALEMENT, ATTITUDES... INDIVIDUS NON-CONFORMES, you're still using that one... Dr JEKYLL & Mr. HYDE!?
R Yeah?
F Huhuhuhuhuh...
R See I played this one in Québec City and, well... it was pretty effective
F What is it? What's Dr JEKYLL & Mr HYDE?
R Well, it's, um... energy, when you try for instance to play a tightly controlled musical phrase, with intellectual constraints, and then you let loose
F So this restrained energy, you control it and then all of a sudden you BRÄÄÄÄ!
R Yes exactly. It's a rather interesting way to create sound... It makes for a rather neat improvisation, since you never know when it'll pop
R&F Huhuhuhuhuhuh...
R Give this to a couple of classical musicians...
F They'd probably break a rib...
R Oh, they have fun, it's great relief for them... For jazz musicians, however, it's a totally different thing, it's the structured part they have trouble with... They go "bop... pob... pop" and you can tell they're working hard and then pfffffffft! and then back to "bop... bob pop"...
F Whoah.
