For those
who asked, this page is here to discuss what M-Base is and
what it is not.
What M-Base is
not:
- An
acronym for some kind of computer language or computer talk.
- A
musical style.
- A name
made up to fool critics into writing about musicians who claim
to "play" M-Base.
- A card
carrying society with members who pay dues.
- An
excuse to claim that you are different than other musicians.
- A name
that you can call your music in order to get more gigs.
- An
excuse to play odd time signatures.
- An
indication that you do not like the music of Wynton Marsalis or
musicians associated with Wynton.
- An
excuse to ignore chords or to think of chord progressions as irrelevant.
What
M-Base is:
- An
acronym for Macro - Basic Array of Structured Extemporizations. For us
this means expressing our experiences through music that uses
improvisation and structure as two of its main ingredients. There is no
limitation on the kind of structures or the type of improvisation, or
the style of the music. The main goal is to creatively express our
experiences as they are today and to try and build common creative
musical languages in order to do this on some kind of large collective
level (macro, basic, array).
- Music
critics have constantly stated that M-Base is a musical style and this
is not true. Since the beginning of time critics have by and large been
unable to deal with any creative expression. M-Base is a way of
thinking about creating music, it is not the music itself. One of the
main ideas in M-Base is growth through creativity. As we learn through
our experiences then the music will change and grow to reflect that.
The idea is not to develop some musical style and to play that forever.
- This
mostly involves conceptual growth as opposed to technical growth,
although that is necessary also. All of the elements in the music come
from life experiences. Speaking for myself, when people hear my music
they are listening to a musical expression of how I view the world
limited by my musical abilities at that point in time. What makes the
music change is a broadening (or change) in the way I view things
(perspective or philosophy) or learning more about how to express this
point of view through music (for me this means becoming a better
musician) or both. I am not playing from the point of view of
developing something "different" as any individual is already unique
and all that is left is learning to express that (through music or
whatever).
- The
conception of M-Base is in many ways a non-western conception of how to
use music to express experience. For example, for me the western
concepts of time signatures (including so called "common" and "odd time
signatures") largely do not exist and have no place in creating music.
These concepts come from European art music and the concepts of M-Base
are based primarily on music from Afrika and creative music of the
Afrikan Diaspora (where in the last 76 years there has been a steady
progression to use non- western concepts as a basis for the music).
This music is unique primarily in the areas of spiritual, rhythmic and
melodic development. It is the spiritual component that is most often
misunderstood (and this affects the way the other elements are viewed).
In this M-Base is no different than many other creative perspectives
that have come before.
- Finally
the concept of which style is better than another style has no place
here. Since the goal is the expression of culture and philosophy, there
is no "better". There is only the perspective of the person
experiencing the music and what this person hears is largely shaped by
his/her own experience. In other words what the listener "hears"
depends on who that listener is. The same music can be experienced many
different ways by different people. For example when I hear the music
of Charlie Parker and I discuss this music with another musician,
despite the fact that Bird's music is well known at this time, I can
rarely find agreement with other musicians (especially musicians under
the age of about 45) on how we view Parker's music. I mean, it's not
even close! Who a musician is (I mean who personally, spiritually and
culturally) plays a large role in how he/she views music and how they
are trained also plays a large role.
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