Hermann Keller: Solo, Duo and Trio Improvisations

SOLO, DUO AND TRIO IMPROVISATIONS

In 1962, while I was still at school, I improvised in public for the first time. Improvisation has been part of my life since that time. I want to discuss the recordings here in the order in which they were made, while on the CD they are assembled from a musical point of view.

The oldest recording dates from 1976. Manfred Schulze, although voted as the best European baritone saxophonist several times, unfortunately did not become very well known outside of the GDR. I played with him until his serious illness made it impossible to play (finally in 1991) and I learned a tremendous amount from him. In particular, he insisted that he neither faithfully imitate American jazz nor Western European avant-garde, but instead sought his own means of expression. The private recording, later invocation called, served to prepare for the expanded cast of our Berlin Improvisation Quartet.

touch 1 from 1993 (a recording by Südwestrundfunk) was created in the early days with Antje Messerschmidt, who can also be heard on my two other CDs released by NEOS and who was my partner for many years. In addition to the violin and piano, we were always looking for new instruments to improvise with. Here Antje Schirrholz plays, we both nose flutes. I sing, have prepared the grand piano and also pluck its strings.

The title Solo for Klaxylovians and Boiling Planets refers to the fact that the Swiss sculptor Martin Spühler also built sound objects, including the two that I use that can be played on piano keyboards. »Kla-xylo-vier«, because wooden parts are struck instead of the strings. »Boiling Planets« is a fantasy name: metal parts are embedded in a completely »cored« grand piano, which can also be struck directly with felt or wooden mallets instead of the strings. I set myself the task of playing both instruments simultaneously over long stretches. This recording was made in 2001 during the annual Klangwerkstatt Mannheim (Head: Hans-Karsten Raecke).

This also applies to the piece performed in 2007 Ex tempore 4. Because the motto was "Theme and Variations," I went back to my old improvisation model (written theme, variations according to general instructions), which can be designed for different instrumentations. The solo version comes with an unprepared grand piano, which can also be used inside. In this case, the strings are plucked, dampened with felt, played with a wooden block drum and played with mallets. Almost always when improvising, I'm concerned with something that jazz dance calls isolation training: Different parts of the body work relatively independently of each other and musically shape the "souls in my chest", also connected with the memory of important people in my life.

In addition to his work as a sound engineer, Dietrich Petzold is an extremely versatile musician and recorded a few pieces with Antje and I in 2008, using my fully prepared special grand piano. This preparation, including the impact of screws on the soundboard, could of course not be expected of any other instrument. Molto secco (very briefly) most of its notes sound, and the strings become "plucks."

I also use the special wing in Got two wings and can't fly, the other is an unprepared concert grand piano that is also used inside. It is an excerpt from an amateur recording from the Modern Piano Solo Festival Berlin 2010. The division into different levels of sound (and thus into different, but also very contradictory individual efforts) has certainly been pushed furthest here. Among other things, many white or black keys are depressed at the same time with cluster rods (round wood wrapped in fabric). In places, playing both grand pianos allows for something resembling the dialogue of a melody and harmony instrument with a drum kit.

The little ballad Jürgen Kupke and I only recorded it in 2011. But we have had a very close musical relationship since 1981. In addition to joint performances in jazz concerts (among others in a duo and with the quartet named after me), he also launched compositions by me.

33 years later was created in 2012, to the surprise of both of us, at a meeting on the occasion of Uwe Kropinski's 60th birthday in the Leipzig media campus. We hadn't played together since he was a student, when I worked with him for almost a year. We hit it off right away, as if the 33 years hadn't intervened.

I am convinced that improvisation fulfills its purpose best through direct, unfiltered communication. Concert listeners can then be spectators of such a process. However, whenever I was able to, I involved the audience in making music and had amazing experiences doing so. As I said, even my solo pieces (including most of the composed ones) simulate the encounter of several individuals. "Not one person, but two people, that is the smallest social unit," as Bertolt Brecht put it.

Unfortunately, nowadays improvisation almost only takes place as a rehearsal followed by a performance or CD recording. I would like something completely different: that musicians, when they meet each other, first get to know each other by improvising or brush up on acquaintances. Unfortunately, human activity has lost much of its rhythm, and language has lost much of its melos. If only music were a current again, constantly flowing beneath the surface of everyday life! It made me happy if I could contribute a little.

Herman Keller