John Bruce Wallace is a free jazz solo performer interested in freely improvised music with a focus on generating extended sound statements within the options afforded through solo performance. An acknowledged, accomplished guitar virtuoso working to create a new voice for the electric guitar, creating a new approach to the instrument, John Bruce Wallace is an incredibly challenging improviser, master of tonal dimension, expander of compositional style. Incorporating an aggressive, extremely individual wailing guitar sound that one has never heard before he invented a new technique of playing while continuously changing the pitch of his electric guitar. Utilizing sizzling electric distortion, thick and saturated tone, in free improvisation, he revamped the modern guitar tradition and, using the technical possibilities of his instrument, transferred it into an individual sound language tapping the human interior's post pro-harmonic feedback. The music is clearly developed, powerful, and expressive, takes advantage of strange techniques, weaving very diverse textures into incredible legendary sounds. He has extended the boundaries of improvisation and presentation, breaking new ground for younger and inquisitive musicians.
My Improfromances are journeys, but not all journeys must have preconceived ends. With most of my Improvisations the journey is where can the basic introductory tones take me, and you the listener/audience, as we ponder the relationships that can develop from these basic simple tones. The experience, I would hope that each achieves is that of the uncertainty within, the mental gymnastics of the thought processes of thinking through the potential relationships that these tones can give generation to. There is no correct or necessary route, resolution or ending, rather the act of exploration, the development of these generated relations, which are quite arbitrary and could equally have been entirely different. There is no requirement of definitive resolution. If one experiences the experience of reasoning, then I have succeeded at meeting the basic quest of that journey, investigation. The same is true for “Argument,” (from “Plumbing The Depths of Reason”) does one see, experience the discourse of an argument? If so, then success. The same with the emotional reaction to any of my works Those improvisations in a sense are musical graphics of human processes or emotions. They need not be melodic or more structured, with a neat beginning, middle, and resolution. For an honest and true presentation of the human condition in each instance is usually not structured, and the everyday wants of life always are dominated by multi-dimensional, unrelated experiences, yet we still prevail and come away from chaos better persons, even if we have not with any degree of finality resolved the chaos.
Future artistic goals. 1) Expand touring. I would like to expand my reach into Europe. 2) Expand the voices I compose for. 3) Help expand the concept of music
Teaching the young the importance of love and compassion.
Sun Ra’s It's After the End of the World
Influences Harry Partch, Jean Luc Ponty, Pink Floyd, Anthony Braxton, Jethro Tull, Fred Frith, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Zoe Keating, Ornette Coleman, George Crumb, Mauricio Kagel, Allan Holdsworth, Last Exit, Metallica, Ludwig van Beethoven, Joe Satriani, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Iannis Xenakis, Tom Cora, Sun Ra, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Yes, Emmett Chapman, Jon Rose, Frank Zappa, Heart, Led Zeppelin, John Petrucci, Black Sabbath Luigi Nono, Petr Eben, ZGA, Frances-Marie Uitti, Derek Bailey, John Cage, Enver Izmaylov, Robert Dick, Dream Theater, John Coltrane, Elliott Sharp, Jimi Hendrix, Van Halen, John McLaughlin, King Crimson, Vladimir Tarasov, Buckethead, Nightwish
The hunger within my being to create expressions of the Human Condition. Traditionally what one looks for is the socially-accepted rubric that music, especially music perceived through the European eyes, must follow a set pattern that contains a frame that is well established, upon which is draped a fabric that equally is creased in all the proper places. To the extent that my music adheres to a defined form, for example, AAA, AB, ABA, ABACA, or ABACADA, ABCBA. etc., it may, but usually does not. To the extent that the situation is based upon the notion of a chordal backbone supported by the appropriate rhythmic, percussional and bass dialogue over which a melody is set and upon which an improvisation is based (upon correct selection of modual temperment flows), again it may, but usually does not. At present my concern is more with the generation of a dialogue or several concurrent but perhaps unrelated dialogues, between tonal characters or qualities, the resulting micro and macro harmonics, various textures of tension brought on by adversely enjoined time structures, discordant tonal enjoinments, a totally potpourri of issues coming to debate all at once, or in a gradual grating by introduction, attention grabbing, and being thrust asunder to be regrouped and again come to the fore. There is very often a battle or rather several battles for attention, not unlike the battle in society of one interest group with another for the attention of a given audience willing to listen to their cause. Indeed each of these many contrasts does have a structure in that they depict the tensionality there is in a cohesive of the context that holds, just as there is a cohesive within the society that holds, what otherwise appears as a non- structured chaos.
That each improvisational performance is a presentation of a truthful event available for all to share.
An improvisational performance features JOHN BRUCE WALLACE exploring, exploding, and exhuming the avant geist. Compositions are improvised extemporaneously on solo electric guitar without the use of tape, tape dubbing, computers or synthesizers. The idea is to utilize a few basic tones and then present relational possibilities inherent in those tones. Critics and fans have noted that he is able to produce complex musical riddles wherein his performances have displayed the qualities of multiple instrument arrangements, incorporating voicings that bring to mind horns, sax, chimes, cello and strings, and percussion as well as various guitar timbres. Influences as diverse as wind instrument breathing techniques, piano hand exercises, and woodwind and violin fingering styles are routinely incorporated into the standard fingering and theories behind the guitar. Mr. Wallace is interested in the textural aspects of the sounds, in the physical dimensioning of each note, of the geometric quality of the sound. He is also concerned with the timbre of every note and passage, and with the rhythmic structure of the relationship of each note to its neighbors within the musical neighborhood. His improvised compositions often incorporate sonorous multitonal qualities, dense, interwoven passages embellished with harmonic and micro-tonal sound statements, or silence further defined by irregular syntaxed rhythms and primitive beats. The “feel” is the feel of sharing.
We are caught in the whirlpool of change from “pre” to “post” social media connectivity. Consequently the traditional avenues for success are falling by the wayside with new means of connectivity rising from their infancy. With these changes comes the need to learn about them and discover the How, What, When, Where, and Why of establishing one’s presence in the new arena of performance opportunities. One clear necessity for the musician seeking exposure is to establish a number of different social media site as doorways into that musician’s realm. Sadly at this time(2020) the financial rewards from many of these doorways tend to be rather slim [streaming media offers exposure but with meager financial reward for great tallies of of streamed hits].
A great idea that provides a viable doorway for musicians. To honor all musicians and music styles, however, care must be taken not to fall into a perspective that traditional song patterns and forms constitute the value of a musical composition or especially the marrow of a piece, especially with experimental, free jazz, free improvisation, etc. Take Free improvisation for instance From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Experimental free jazz avant-garde jazz 20th-century classical serialism aleatory Free improvisation or free music is improvised music without any rules beyond the logic or inclination of the musician(s) involved. The term can refer to both a technique (employed by any musician in any genre) and as a recognizable genre in its own right. Characteristics In an atonal context, free improvisation refers to where the focus shifts from harmony to other dimensions of music: timbre, melodic intervals, rhythm and the spontaneous interaction between musicians.[1] Although performers may choose to play in a certain style or key, or at a certain tempo, conventional songs are highly uncommon in free improvisation; more emphasis is generally placed on mood, texture or more simply, on performative gesture than on preset forms of melody, harmony or rhythm. These elements are improvised at will, as the music progresses. In his landmark book Improvisation, Bailey writes, "The lack of precision over its [free improv's] naming is, if anything, increased when we come to the thing itself. Diversity is its most consistent characteristic. It has no stylistic or idiomatic commitment. It has no prescribed idiomatic sound. The characteristics of freely improvised music are established only by the sonic musical identity of the person or persons playing it." At the same time, Free Improvisation is a problematic term. It is neither free nor improvised as in their strict definitions. Musicians who play free improvisation develop highly individualized musical vocabulary which are then played without the restriction of a score. In this sense, the freedom implied by the term Free Improvisation is more of an aesthetic of playing towards notions of freedom than freedom in the pure sense. Wikipedia contributors. (2019, May 14). Free improvisation. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 15:04, May 16, 2019, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Free_improvisation&oldid=897090409 and consider Experimental music Experimental music is a general label for any music that pushes existing boundaries and genre definitions. Experimental compositional practice is defined broadly by exploratory sensibilites radically opposed to, and questioning of, institutionalized compositional, performing, and aesthetic conventions in music . Elements of experimental music include indeterminate music, in which the composer introduces the elements of chance or unpredictability with regard to either the composition or its performance. Artists may also approach a hybrid of disparate styles or incorporate unorthodox and unique elements . Wikipedia contributors. (2019, April 18). Experimental music. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 15:13, May 16, 2019, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Experimental_music&oldid=893059714
Egos, and people who do not listen to themselves or others. Failure of the market system in America to readily expand to new musical ideas. Failure of established support system to embrace new or different ideas or approaches to music.
Yes. Repost of various artists’ social media musical posts. Attend local performances and spread the word about other artists. There is room for all and we need to share the knowledge of other ‘s work.
The musician should know the potential audiences that their music will appeal to, and should weight the differences between the current captured audience and what alterations will be needed to expand one’s reach to new and different audiences.Sometimes seeking a larger audience may not be the prudent path to travel.
Enver Izmaylov, Vladimir Tarasov, Jazz Band Arkhangel'sk, Burhan Öçal, Vladimir Rezitsky