Placemaking
This music is my purest form of expression—stream of consciousness musical thought. I let the energy and emotion of the moment come to the surface to express it. Because of the uncertainty of a moment, this music is incredibly vulnerable. This in and of itself is why I’m drawn to this form of expression. I’m intent on making music that moves me, that moves others, and that can only be accomplished by excavating the most raw feelings and translating them through sound. When one dares to be vulnerable, as this music requires of us, it leads the way for others to open up, to be honest, to process, and to heal.
I started this project in the fall of 2020 out of a deep need to connect while we waited in nebulous isolation. Sometimes music speaks what can’t be spoken, and I was often at a loss for words during that unprecedented year. I needed a space where I didn’t have to use words to express myself, a space where the music could speak for me. I picked my musical partner, Everett, to venture down this unspoken path because I knew he would be willing to dig deeply within himself, and together we could reach depths that offered transformative catharsis and healing. This album is the beginning of that journey.
Live at Trixie’s
Fire Music Monday’s at Trixie’s Bar in Hamtramck is where I cut my teeth as a free improviser. It became a place where I could express myself outside of the institution with musicians who challenged me like I had never been challenged before. People pushed me to think and create deeper, surrender completely to the moment and the music surrounding me in that moment. I learned to honor what I played and be unapologetic in my delivery, but I also learned to get out of my own way to serve the music and what was needed for the group’s sound as a whole.
The way this session worked was if we as performers had groups of people we wanted to play with, we would reach out to Dave Hurley who organized the session and see what dates were open, or Dave would reach out to the community and book people who were available. Often times the configurations of improvisers played for the first time together at Fire Music, never to perform together again. These sessions are unique and very special for that reason: once in a lifetime encounters you either experienced or you missed. The three pieces you hear on Live at Trixie’s were just that—two trios that played together for the first time on that stage, never to join again.
Live at Trixie’s is uncut and vulnerable, but that’s precisely the feeling we shared while onstage making this music. There are flaws and triumphs, tender, raw, abrasive, and cathartic sounds, but I wouldn’t trade them for anything in the world.
Social Distancing
These pieces were written and recorded in the spring and early summer of 2020. At the time it felt like we were deep into the quarantine, but of course it was just the early stages. This “social distancing” series grew out of trying to find a way of music making that our group could successfully do together, each in our own homes, accepting the limitations that technology presents.
I wanted to create different frameworks that played with ideas of distance and density. There are long stretches of silence, moments of near chaos, and tender serenity too. In many instances, the scores challenge each player to wait quite a while (minutes, even!) before making a sound. How do we deal with the discomfort of that? What happens, internally, during that space? What happens after?
These recordings are about honesty. About patience and deliberation, constraint and freedom. They are a meditation of sorts. We approach the void and enter.
- Zara Teicher