Playing In Time

Posted elsewhere but I have wanted to write about this for awhile so I've put it here as well. Why? Because I can.

For years I have read Robert Fripp's writings on music. Often his descriptions of what happens during group improvisations and specific gigs (Central Park 1974, Marquee 1969, recording Moonchild) often seem quite other-worldly to me. Especially during the group improvisations, he seems (to me anyway) to describe the experience as almost a form of communal and telepathic thinking where something else takes over.

Although I have felt a power in the music or experience as a member of the audience and it was exhilarating, I hadn't felt anything special as a musician playing in a group context. And I frankly doubted what he was saying. Until one evening...

I was playing in a studio, just jamming with some players. Nothing much was happening, just noodling around. At one point I started playing a simple progression on the bass and the drummer followed, then the 2 guitarists and finally the vocalist gave us some stream of consciousness lyrics. While playing this tune, I had the experience of being "locked-in" with the other players. It seemed to me that whatever we did, whether changing chords or tempos, we did it together, instantly and with no audible errors. It also seemed to me that there was no "leader" for that tune, if the drummer suddenly shifted into a different groove we followed, if the vocalist suddenly got quieter we followed. There seemed to be a group-mind in play that dare I say it - directed us. I was playing bass but had no conscious feeling about playing bass. It just melded with the other instruments and players to form something new. If I was a Crafty I might say I was playing bass and not playing bass at the same time. We seemed to be in sync for exactly 6 minutes and 32 seconds at least. The experience was so powerful that I still get goose-bumps thinking about it and yet have a difficult time describing it.

This experience allowed to me to get a glimpse what Mr. Fripp might have been describing. I don't know if it was exactly the same but it was in my opinion just as powerful a feeling for me as it was for him and countless other musicians who have no doubt gone through a similar experience.

I have tried mightily to get that feeling back with other musicians and studios and gigs. Sadly it hasn't.