fat guy in a little coat

i was thumbing through a chris farley book in wal-mart the other night and came across an anecdote from al franken who, before becoming a hot-button senator, was a writer and actor on saturday night live.  he spoke of the period when farley was on the scene, along with rob schneider and adam sandler.  all brilliant comics in their own right, franken noted that these guys would often go off script. their continued interest in straying from the written material frustrated franken, but he mentioned (and i'm paraphrasing since i don't have the book in my hands at the moment) that it was probably less about their disinterest in his sketch and more about how it was time for him to leave the show.

i think of this idea time and again when i'm dealing with creative music.  i want the stuff that i write to take on a certain persona, and i struggle with the desire to micro-manage.  i want the tunes that i help arrange for my students to go a certain way, and the music that i rehearse with them to sound like i intend it to. the balancing act i have found (which is a work still in progress) requires me to be extremely clear and credible with my instructions and/or playing while allowing others to contribute their strengths to the collective.  it's about trust and good judgment.

now, at the same time ... i want the players i work alongside to be able to contribute their artistic strengths at full throttle.  i am leery about stifling creativity, for fear that i may get an apathetic effort or, worse yet, negative return. if i distinguish another's artistic flame too early, maybe i'm missing out on exciting creative output or a moment of inspiration.  i try to to know each musician that i work with - what they are capable of doing, what sparks their inventiveness, what pushes them beyond their box.

how did al franken know it was time for him to exit stage left?  was it a lack of patience with the budding comic geniuses?  did he recognize that maybe he was no longer at the cusp of new comedic concepts?  i remember thinking that i was helping spearhead new movements in improvised music, and then was introduced to recordings of artists doing many years ago what i was currently discovering.  in fact - i have been embarrassingly victimized by my own naivety multiple times.

i have decided to stick with my own sound concepts and personalized approaches to creative improvisation.  i have one ear in my own thing (to better understand what i'm trying to do), another ear in the new stuff (trying to keep up with the joneses) and yet another ear in the music of past masters.  i know - i need more ears, right?  if i keep jumping around between the musical flavor of the month, i am certain that i'll never codify my own musical language and identifiable style.  so, i'm sticking to my guns - come hell or high water.

a magnet in my office

and while i'm thinking of it - some of my favorite snl characters from the treacherous three:

* farley dancing with patrick swayze

* sandler singing arias as opera man

* schneider making copies with stingarino

* farley reviewing restaurants for zagats

* sandler as bryan from the denise show