CMS 40th anniversary workshop and retreat

This is it, folks. The last day of this 40th anniversary workshop and retreat. I’m sad. Yes, I am. It’s been incredible. Extraordinary. But it’s great to be able to say that the Creative Music Studio lives on here in the twenty-first century!

There’s been so much happening these past four days; I’ve been able to give you only a very few highlights. Today we had illuminating and energizing  sessions with Steven Bernstein (he made me play loud! I loved it), Don Byron (a real challenge in the area of creating and refining brief compositions), and Steve Gorn (a beautiful introductory lesson to Indian music). It was Steve’s birthday today.

That’s all for now folks. I’ll get back to you later with a report on tonight’s final concert.

Peace,

Bob

I’ve seen a lot of musical performances in my life, but last night’s (I’m writing this the day after) was truly one of the most memorable–ever. Trumpeters Steven Bernstein and Dave Douglas, Karl Berger, guitarist Kenny Wessel (from Ornette’s Prime Time band), Marilyn Crispell, bassist Joh Menegon, and drummer Harvey Sorgen ripped it up folks. They ripped it right on up. Their set was all Don Cherry and Ornette Coleman tunes. That direct lineage from Don and Ornette through Karl and Kenny, joined with the intensely burning energy of all the players on the stand made for something that was really rare. Many people referred to it as a historical moment. And that it was.  I wish you coulda been there. I’ll never forget it.

The second set was primarily a vocal focus with Thomas Bucker, Ingrid Sertso, Chuck VerStratten, and a variety of the participants in this week’s workshop. Harvey Sorgen called me up to play his handmade Fidock drums. That was a thrill. These are like the stradivarius of drums. Just beautiful.

A nice jam session followed. All standards. Funny. . . there will always be folks who love to play chord changes and others who just won’t do it.

It was an incredible evening. Extraordinary.

CMS 40th anniversary workshop and retreat

Extraordinary. Did I say that already?

Here’s the deal, folks: I’ve committed to blogging every day (and I’m gonna), but there’s so much going on that I can’t really do it justice in the short little times that I have to write stuff down.

Some highlights:

Breakfast. Yeah, yeah, the food’s better than you could hope for, but you’ve heard that already.

Body awareness. Back in the day–1976, when I first came to CMS, body awareness was taught, by dancer Sara Cook, and Eva and Savia Berger,  the daughters of Karl and Ingrid, were just little girls. Now, body awareness is taught by Savia. This is great stuff. If you’re a musician or any other kind of human being, you need body awareness training.

Then we had gamala taki training and voice training. If you don’t know about gamala taki and you want to, email me at bsweet [at] arborville.com. Email me anyway.

Then John Medeski taught a workshop that had us transferring improvisations in a circle around the room. I know, you’d like more detail on that. I’m sorry, time is short.

Oliver Lake’s workshop was fantastic. Everyone got to play a lot and we were all challenged by his charts, despite how deceptively simple they appeared.

Mark Helias. The man is brilliant on the bass, and he’s spent so much time exploring the mental processes that make or break your ability to improvise effectively. A great session where he created small groups on the spot to improvise freely. At the end, we all (twenty-some people) improvised as a unit. Extraordinary.

Then we had a music -mind meditation session with Karl Berger. We listened to the ends of sounds, sounds disappearing. Give it a try.

Tonight there’s a concert with Karl, Tani Tabbal, Mark Helias, Kenny Wessel, and John Medeski.

Stay tuned, y’all.

Full Moon Resort. May 20, 2013.

I’m going to keep this short, folks. It’s late and it’s been a long day. All of the participants of the CMS 40th anniversary workshop and retreat gathered about 5:30 amid outrageous appetizers and drinks–I’ll just digress for a moment here to say how outstanding the food is here at the FMR–to hear from Karl Berger how the next four days are going to unfold and what the fundamental musical principles of the Creative Music Studio are: an unfiltered, intimate, and vastly pure personal relationship with the elements of all musical expression, regardless of styles, genres, fashions, or industry dictates.

Then dinner. More really good food. And then a concert with Karl Berger, Ingrid Sertso, Tani Tabbal, Oliver Lake, and Mark Helias. Ilene Marder, who has been with Karl and Ingrid since the early, early days of CMS and who I’m so glad showed up tonight, because she’s just an all around beautiful person, said that the performance reminded her of times at Sam Rivers’ Rivbea Studio, when the music would just go on for hours and hours–not that it did tonight, but it had that transcendent quality that would have continued to satisfy even if it had gone on for hours longer.

It was great to hear Mark Helias, an outstanding bassist, whom I had not heard before; great to hear Tani Tabbal, whom I used to hear a lot when he and I were living in Detroit and he played with the band Griot Galaxy; great to hear Oliver Lake, whose command over the saxophone can sometimes take the listener’s breath away; and great to hear Karl and Ingrid, who are unique in all the world. It was an extraordinary (you might find me using that word a lot over the next few days) beginning to what promises to be an extraordinary week.

After the concert, several–most–of the workshop participants who were fired up and eager to play (including yours truly) got up for a jam session, which included an energetic mix of freely improvised music, jazz standards, and blues.

I’m going to bed. See you all tomorrow.

My goodness, folks. . . there is so much coming out in the media about Karl and Ingrid and the Creative Music Studio. . . I just can’t keep up!

The Jazz Journalists Association just gave Karl Berger and Ingrid Sertso the 2013 Jazz Heroes Award. We always knew they were heroes. Now the rest of the world does.

Congratulations, Karl and Ingrid.

This month only, Karl Berger and Ingrid Sertso offer a series of 4 MUSIC MIND Workshops in Woodstock, starting Tuesday, April 9 and ending on April 29. The workshops are open to everyone who wants to get more out of listening to music; or wants to play with more ease and fluidity. At the core of the workshop is GaMaLa Taki, a method of rhythm training that does not require instruments or previous musical training. Yet musicians and listeners alike have found that GaMaLa TaKi brings them into an intimate relationship with rhythm, allowing them to absorb it on a physical as well as a mental level and transforming their experience of music. This shift in perception also helps to adjust and ground the many rhythms of everyday life.

Karl Berger, a world-renowned composer and jazz musician, and Ingrid Sertso, a celebrated vocalist and poet, developed GaMaLa TaKi at the Creative Music Studio, which they co-founded, with composer Ornette Coleman, in Woodstock in 1973. Today, Berger and Sertso travel the world to offer their workshops.

The “Music Mind” workshop series will be held at 8 PM each Tuesday, April 9-29, at Photosensualis, 15 Rock City Road. Suggested contribution is $75 for the series or $20 for single sessions. For info and registration please call the Creative Music Studio at 845 679 8847, or send an email to creativemusicstudio@gmail.com

Karl H Berger

Creative Music Foundation, Inc,

POB 671

Woodstock NY 12498-0671

845 679 8847

The 40th Anniversary Season of the Creative Music Studio is 2013/14!

Look for and support workshops, concerts, archival releases, fellowships and scholarships:

www.creativemusicfoundation.org, contact: creativemusicstudio@gmail.com

CMS is a program of the Creative Music Foundation, Inc.

www.creativemusicfoundation.org