Telepathy [between] Denny Zeitlin and George Marsh

 © Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

Telepathy = the communication of thoughts or ideas by means other than the known senses.

The late, great bassist, bandleader and composer Charles Mingus [1922-1979] once declared: “We have to improvise on something!”

Helen Adams Keller (June 27, 1880 – June 1, 1968) was an American author, disability rights advocate, political activist and lecturer who lost both her sight and her ability to hear in infancy is quoted as having said: “Life is a daring adventure or it is nothing.”

In his The Order of Time [2019], the Italian Theoretical Physicist Carlo Rovelli [b. 1965 -] invites us to consider questions about the nature of time that continue to puzzle physicists and philosophers alike.

For most readers this is unfamiliar terrain. We all experience time, but the more scientists learn about it, the more mysterious it remains. We think of it as uniform and universal, moving steadily from past to future, measured by clocks. Rovelli tears down these assumptions one by one, revealing a strange universe where at the most fundamental level time disappears. He explains how the theory of quantum gravity attempts to understand and give meaning to the resulting extreme landscape of this timeless world. Weaving together ideas from philosophy, science and literature, he suggests that our perception of the flow of time depends on our perspective, better understood starting from the structure of our brain and emotions than from the physical universe.

Why do we remember the past and not the future? What does it mean for time to "flow"? Do we exist in time or does time exist in us? 

If you link together the three italicized phrases from the above: “We have to improvise on something!” - “Life is a daring adventure or it is nothing.” - our perception of the flow of time depends on our perspective, better understood starting from the structure of our brain and emotions than from the physical universe - they will provide you with a basis for understanding and appreciating pianist Denny Zeitlin and percussionist George Marsh’s Telepathy: Duo Electro-Acoustic Improvisations which was released on June 25, 2021 by Sunnyside Records [SSC 1620]. 

In a nutshell, the daring adventure that Denny and George undertake in their new recording is to improvise on each other in a continuum of 14 original compositions in which their perception of the flow of time depends more on their brain and emotions than from the physical universe [chord progressions, scales, tunes, songs, musical notations, et al.]. 

The exact process “of doing” this music or of “making it happen” is described and discussed in the insert notes to the recording by Denny Zeitlin and I’ve included those below as it’s always a treat when musicians describe their music in their own words.

Comparing this music to the arcane axioms associated with theoretical physics and quantum mechanics may seem like I’m sounding some sort of death knell for the music on Telepathy but I don’t think so, because like the latter, the music only makes sense if you experience it on your own terms.

The listener has to abandon conventional ways of formulating musical awareness; the music that Denny and George create only tells us what we hear. Its musical expression as a totality; it washes over you and becomes a part of you.

Approaching the music on Telepathy in this manner allows you to have fun with it - “Music becomes a daring adventure!” The late drummer and bandleader Shelly Manne [1920-1984] once said of the music performed by his quintet: “We never played the same thing once.” And that phrase in essence captures the spirit of what Denny and George are about in these performances.

There’s no way to objectively evaluate what’s happening here: it doesn’t work; it doesn’t succeed; it’s not better than or similar to; it’s not reminiscent of - you can't compare it or analogize to anything.

“Free association,” “free expression,” “free Jazz” - none of these terms apply. 

Reactive, relational, responsive, interactive, improvisatory, interpretative - perhaps these are more suitable forms of describing what’s on offer here.

But with the art music that Denny and George have created on Telepathy what you have is the ultimate failure of words to describe music.

You have no choice but to listen to it and, in so doing, you become a third-party to the process of making it.

No, two listeners will experience Telepathy the same way, It’s what Heisenberg meant when he said that what we examine we change.

Just as Denny and George communicate telepathically to create this music, you will have to go on an auditory journey of exploration to encounter it.

Denny and George see physical reality as a lyrical narrative written in some hidden musical code that the human mind can decipher. In that sense, they are musical poets with a special intensity given to the expression of feelings and ideas by the use of distinctive style and rhythm.

I had a ball listening to this recording because I allowed myself the freedom to explore it just as the musicians allowed themselves the freedom to make it.

Why not give yourself a daring adventure, too, by telepathically connecting with Denny and George. I guarantee you’ve never experienced anything like it.

A NOTE FROM DENNY ZEITLIN...

“GEORGE MARSH AND I BEGAN OUR SUNNYSIDE DUO ELECTRO-ACOUSTIC RECORDINGS WITH "RIDING THE MOMENT" IN 2015. "EXPEDITION" FOLLOWED IN 2017, CHRONICLING AN EXCITING AND ENRICHING EVOLUTION. AND NOW "TELEPATHY," CONSISTING PRIMARILY OF PIECES RECORDED SINCE THEN, FINDS US EXPLORING BROADER AND DEEPER DIMENSIONS OF SPONTANEOUS COMPOSITION AS OUR ATTUNEMENT AND MUSICAL VISION CONTINUE TO EXPAND.

FOR LISTENERS HAVING A FIRST CONTACT WITH OUR DUO, I'LL REPEAT MY REMARKS FROM OUR PREVIOUS ALBUMS, SINCE THE SET AND SETTING REMAIN THE SAME. THIS ALBUM, LIKE "RIDING THE MOMENT," AND "EXPEDITION." HAS ROOTS GOING BACK TO THE LATE SIXTIES, WHEN I BEGAN A DECADE OF EXPLORING THE ELECTRO-ACOUSTIC INTEGRATION OF JAZZ, CLASSICAL, FUNK. ROCK, AND FREE-FORM MUSIC. MY TRIO INCLUDED MEL GRAVES OR RATZO HARRIS ON BASS, AND THROUGHOUT, THE INCREDIBLE DRUMMER/PERCUSSIONIST GEORGE MARSH. WE RECORDED AND TOURED THE WEST COAST, CONCLUDING THIS PERIOD WITH MY ELECTRO-ACOUSTIC-SYMPHONIC SCORE FOR THE 1978 REMAKE OF "INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS."

I THEN RETURNED TO A FOCUS ON ACOUSTIC SOLO, DUO, AND TRIO MUSIC FOR A COUPLE DECADES, AND GEORGE WENT ON TO NUMEROUS OTHER PROJECTS. WITH THE PASSAGE OF THE MILLENNIUM, SYNTHESIZER AND RECORDING TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES LURED ME BACK INTO A MAJOR AND ONGOING STUDIO UPGRADE. "BOTH/AND”- (SUNNYSIDE 2011) WAS DEVOTED TO THE ELECTRO-ACOUSTIC DOMAIN AS A SOLOIST. AND SINCE 2013, GEORGE AND I HAVE MUSICALLY RE-UNITED, AND HAVE BEEN EXPLORING THE POTENTIAL OF DUO ELECTRO-ACOUSTIC FREE IMPROVISATIONS - THE CO-CREATION OF WHAT WE OFTEN REFER TO AS "SOUND PAINTINGS."

OUR GOAL HAS BEEN TO APPROACH THE MUSIC WITHOUT A SCORE OR ANY PRECONCEPTION; TO BE AS FULLY PRESENT AS POSSIBLE, "RIDING THE MOMENT," AND ALLOWING THE MUSIC TO GO WHERE IT WANTS - WITHOUT ANY CONSTRAINT OF GENRE. OR FIXED HARMONIC, RHYTHMIC, OR MELODIC STRUCTURE. WE HOPE OUR "TELEPATHY" ALLOWS THE EMERGENCE OF SPONTANEOUS COMPOSITIONS THAT HAVE FRESHNESS, BEAUTY, EXCITEMENT, INTERNAL LOGIC, NEW SOUNDS, AND A SENSE OF JOURNEY-AN "EXPEDITION." OVER 91% OF THIS MUSIC WAS RECORDED IN "REAL TIME" WITH ONE PASS. ON THOSE OCCASIONS WHERE I DIDN'T HAVE ENOUGH HANDS TO PLAY WHAT I WAS HEARING, I OVER-DUBBED SOME ORCHESTRATION OR A SOLO VOICE. AND IN THOSE INSTANCES, I TYPICALLY WENT WITH THE FIRST TAKE, TO PRESERVE THE SPONTANEITY OF THE PROJECT.

GEORGE IS A FULL PARTNER IN THE CO-CREATION OF THIS ALBUM. TO PRESERVE ACOUSTIC SEPARATION DURING RECORDING WE WERE UNABLE TO SEE EACH OTHER; WE WERE CARRIED BY OUR SHARED MUSICAL VISION, TRUST, AND AN EXTRAORDINARY RAPPORT. WE OFTEN FEEL LIKE WE ARE SOME KIND OF GALACTIC ORCHESTRA.

GEORGE'S ACTIVITIES AS A JAZZ DRUMMER. COMPOSER, AND EDUCATOR ARE BASED IN THE SAN FRANCISCO AREA. HIS RECORDINGS ILLUSTRATE THE RANGE AND DEPTH OF HIS INTERESTS. ALONG WITH OUR PAST WORK TOGETHER, GEORGE HAS RECORDED WITH JOHN ABERCROMBIE, TERRY RILEY, ALLAUDIN MATHIEU, DAVID GRISMAN, JERRY GARCIA, PAULINE OLIVEROS, NOAM LEMISH. MARIA MULDAUR, JERRY HAHN, AND MANY OTHERS. HE HAS TAUGHT DRUMMING AND RHYTHM THEORY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT SANTA CRUZ AND SONOMA STATE UNIVERSITY SINCE 1982. HIS INNOVATIVE AND ACCLAIMED BOOK, "INNER DRUMMING," EVOLVED FROM THESE YEARS OF EXPERIENCE AS A PERFORMER AND TEACHER. GEORGE MAINTAINS A PRIVATE STUDIO IN SANTA ROSA, CALIFORNIA, WHERE HE TEACHES IN-PERSON AND INTERNATIONALLY VIA VIDEO CONFERENCING. HIS WEBSITE is: WWW.GEORGEMARSH.COM.”