I’m interested in what sort of relationship you are after between the looped parts and the live parts. Are you creating loops to blow over or will the loops be part of the improvisation process? I think there is a big difference between those two things.
I just watched some Marc Rebillet and it was utterly fantastic, but it seems to me that what’s essentially happening is him setting up funky two chord vamps that he then performs over and with. That is a cool thing to do and should be pretty easy to set up.
On the other hand there is another approach to looping in an improvised context that is taken by someone like Bill Frisell where he doesn’t really make live backing tracks to blow over but uses looping tools to contribute to texture. They do form a backing track of sorts but the way that he works means that the loops will always be different and so become integrated into the act of improvisation.
For me the second approach is by far more related to the spirit of improvisation in jazz than the first, but I can totally see the appeal of the first approach. Although, if you’re going that route with stuff that you have written I wonder why it wouldn’t just be a better thing to pre-record everything and find a good flexible way triggering it to allow you to extend sections to improvise over etc. This would also get around the part of live looped performances that I find problematic which is the somewhat predictable dynamic shape as the looped parts gradually get built up.
Anyway, just some thoughts, I find this an interesting problem and I’m looking forward to seeing what other people reckon!
2 Likes
