Word: rhythmics
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...conventional except for his obvious technical mastery. Then, last fall at Kirkland House, he played in short, tension-filled jabs at the keyboard that left his audience mostly puzzled. But with the Spring Concert at Quincy House came longer phrasing and a lyricism that echoed earlier styles, although the rhythmic anarchy was still there...
...impressive part of bassist Gary Peacock's playing. It pulled him with flying colors through a long unaccompanied solo in "L". This kind of unaccompanied chorus demands technical proficiency, in addition to purely musical content. For no matter how much thought backs the melodic line, the audience loses the rhythmic and harmonic context normally provided by other instruments; the solo then sounds like a lot of notes in a vacuum. But Peacock's fast playing, by bringing the notes closer together, adds the harmonic element, almost like broken chords...
...true that, by abandoning "running the changes" (melodic improvisations on a repeating harmonic line) he has cut the ground from under the criteria usually used to judge jazz performances. But he has also adopted new improvisational ideas, based on melodic or rhythmic, rather than harmonic bases...
...second method is to put the same melody in different contexts. This constitutes a strong return to the classical tradition. Probably the best example is Bach's The Art of the Fugue, in which one theme is put in hundreds of different harmonic, rhythmic, and mood contexts. Davidson played at this method continually Thursday night, perhaps most successfully in "Stately I." The harmonies sound awfully dissonant at first--as did regular triads in the Middle Ages--and the mood changes are more extreme than those in Bach, but the technique is similar...
...talking to each other the actors don't jump many cues. But they don't play off each other as they might, varying tone and cadence to indicate apprehension or guilt or relief. In the inter-scene monologues a few actors came close to this kind of rhythmic expression of emotion. But together they...