Free Improvisation on Trumpet Number 18
Family Tree

Here is my 18th free improv video. I’ve been doing these free improvisations for about 18 months now. This one is different from the rest, which is the point, right? It is easy, when you are playing free, for the same old stuff to spill out.

The improvisations are something of a paradox. We need to implement structure, but in such a natural manner that there is a communicative flow to it. Without the structure, all of the music begins to sound the same. But conscious efforts to create structure will lead to sterile, stiff, inexpressive noise.

In this video, my intention was to barrow from the language of the free jazz trumpet players of the past twenty years. I am not as much of a master of this language as some, but it is not foreign to me. That said, I couldn’t do what I do if that language wasn’t completely internalized already.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this taste of modern trumpet playing.