Theremin and jazz?

Well, if it can't boogie, can it woogie?

Absolutely! It can also woo-wooooo-woogie!

omhoge wrote: "Have you listened to Kip Rosser's stuff? That is his speciality and he's damn good at it!"

Kip just posted a jazz theremin rendition of WHEN YOU WISH UPON A STAR:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysgrBqwSnos

This is certainly a courageous attempt to bring the theremin into the realm of jazz but as much as I hate to say it, this video proves my point. You can't play jazz on a theremin. Kip does all sorts of improvised embellishments and flourishes in the jazz style but they're disastrously off key! There are parts of this performance where the theremin is so wonky you can't even tell what key the piece is in anymore!

Kip called this "Diggin' on Disney". An appropriate title. This old Disney potboiler has been unceremoniously buried!

Kip's a great guy, but he does the theremin a disservice by pushing it beyond the limits of what it can do and turning it into a squawkbox. Judging from Kip's semi-ecstatic facial expressions I guess he feels this jazz theremin performance is right up there with Parker, Coltrane & Monk!

The conclusion of this discussion ought not to be that playing 'Jazz' (whatever that means) on the theremin is a sure-fire recipe for disaster, but rather that attempting to improvise rapid virtuosic passages does not always show the instrument in the best possible light. 

German thereminist Carolina Eyck has recently begun collaborating with a jazz guitarist called Vincenz Wieg. Their partially-improvised performances promise to construct 'even the most difficult soundscapes', 'without a safety net', as 'consonance and dissonance are born out of the moment'. Carolina is an extremely talented musician. It will be interesting to hear where this project takes her.

The phrase, "consonance and dissonance are born out of the moment" sounds to me like a carefully worded and rather poetic attempt to rationalize the inevitable musical disaster that must ensue when the theremin is pushed beyond the limits of its capabilities.

Carolina, like you Charlie, is a very talented musician and she has barely begun to show us what she can do. 

'The phrase, "consonance and dissonance are born out of the moment" sounds to me like a carefully worded and rather poetic attempt to rationalize the inevitable musical disaster that must ensue when the theremin is pushed beyond the limits of its capabilities.'

To miss the subtle and deep implications of "consonance and dissonance are born out of the moment" is all too easy.  Yet,  with appropriate consideration, the phrase literally bursts with energy.  We are dealing here, with the very act of creation ("born out of the moment").  It is the cosmic egg: consonance being the egg and dissonance being "not the egg".  To contemplate "that which is not egg" is to tap into another realm: the realm of the infinite.  And yet, creation happens "out of the moment" in that, being a slice of infinity, is in itself, infinite.  For, in a moment, we find infinity.  In dissonance, we find consonance.  In pain, we find pleasure.  In sadness, we find joy.  Indeed, a quantam leap in human awareness and the new world of infinite possibilities completely unbound by convention.

Anyway, I digress...

Coming from Carolina, it will be good... though I may ignore the cosmic p.r. stuff. ;)

Kevin wrote: "In pain we find pleasure."

Am I nuts or is it getting a little kinky in here?

Anybody ever try to play Tom Lehrer's MASOCHISM TANGO on the theremin?

Good catch?

Not sure if "Masochism Tango" would work on the theremin -- wonder if "I'll hold your hand in mine" would work.  Perhaps there is a jazz version...

Here is another example of an attempt to play jazz on the theremin. Lydia Kavina plays RAGTIME on a Hong Kong cultural TV show. This is a re-post of a performance we've seen before, but it illustrates what happens when we try to push the heterodyne envelope.

It's a great little tune, and it would have been a lot of fun on something like a kazzoo that could play the melody accurately, and with the kind of bouncy, happy feeling that this sort of Scott Joplin type of melody requires. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFteaRVYeA0

Coalport wrote:
"Am I nuts or is it getting a little kinky in here?"

I am here for the kinky party... did I arrive too late?