One of the things I enjoy about improvising with words is what I discover about my state of mind. Sometimes, I uncover what I’m thinking or feeling as I hear the words come out of my mouth. It’s a strange, somewhat surreal and very open experience.
I sang this on our first singing day in Tenerife. While singing, I explored the connection I felt to the people and the place. (I felt this connection over and over again during my time there.)
“Sheep, man. They’re one step away from a turkey.”
– Kurt Elling
…
This past Wednesday, I got to see Kurt Elling at the Dakota (*extremely excited giggle*). The man, the band (Laurence Hobgood – keys, Harish Raghavan – bass, Ulysses Owens – drums and John McLean – guitar) and the music were spell-binding, but the part I enjoyed particularly was the improvised story/patter that led into the tune “Late Night Willie,” which included the quote above.
(To provide some context) Elling was expounding on missing out by leaving early and referenced the shepherds leaving before the wise men arrived.
“The shepherds left. They went back to work. They had to.”
The audio file below is an excerpt from a much longer (about 30 minutes) piece we created during Session 2 of my year-long improv class using a process Rhiannon calls shape-shifting.
In a shape-shift, the music starts somewhere and is allowed to … yep, you guessed it … shift. Another aspect of the shape-shift format is that often part of the group sings and the other receives the music, usually sitting or lying in the center of the singing circle.
On several occasions during our 10 days at Jardin Mariposa, the owner, Petra, invited friends to meet and sing with us. (That’s how I met Leiko and got to go to the local beach. *smile*) She and 3 or 4 others joined us for this shape-shift, which happened during one of our evening singing sessions. (We typically sang 6 to 8 hours a day. I loved every minute of it. *grin*)
We had been singing for quite some time when I was moved to start speaking. This “story singing” is one of the things I began discovering during my 30-day song-capade and it really solidified during this second session.
