On Transformation Focused Improvisation:
The History and Grand Aesthetic of the Evil Clown Record Label
Essay by PEK – April 2021
Introduction| Part I: History of Evil Clown
Part II: Evil Clown’s Grand Aesthetic Problems and Solutions
Part III: Web Links to the Work of Evil Clown Ensembles
Introduction
My name is PEK, and I play woodwinds (clarinets, saxophones, double reeds, and flutes) and many other instruments. I have a Do It Yourself record label called Evil Clown which documents the music of my band Leap of Faith (with cellist Glynis Lomon) and many other projects dating from the early 90s to the present.
This essay is in three major parts: First I discuss my own musical history and the birth and development of Evil Clown to the present (1973 to 2021). The second section discusses in detail my thinking about the Structure and Theory of the music that I have released on the label with the contributions of well over 50 Boston Area musicians. Understanding the story of all the related ensembles should give the reader context for the theoretical discussion in the second part. The final section is simply a list of hyperlinks to all kinds of Evil Clown material on the internet. I have also included many hyperlinks in the first two sections both to the Evil Clown content under discussion and Wikipedia content for further information on music theory concepts and the music history.
I was recently interviewed for FreeJazzBlog by Nick Ostrum in a written question and answer format, you can find the interview here. Nick has reviewed several Evil Clown albums by different bands and has a good understanding of our work and our aesthetic. The timing of Nick’s request was good: I spend a lot of time thinking about and writing about my music for liner notes and on the web, and discussing the theoretical underpinnings of our approach to improvisation. I had been considering writing a detailed essay on those ideas for the last several years to post on my website, and Nick’s interview gave me the incentive and opportunity to write about these thoughts for a forum with more readers than my website generally gets. While the interview was a good start, a significant portion of my thoughts on theory were not recorded in the interview and I decided that I would expand on my interview responses in this essay format. What follows is as complete a statement I have ever made on my story, my aesthetic, and my working methods.
The discussion in Part II defines my Theory of Transformation Focused Improvisation. This Theory governs how music works in Evil Clown Ensembles, and perhaps the music of some other improvisors who use similar theoretical ideas. There are other Theories of Improvisation which govern music with different intent: For example, there are schools of drone music, schools of extreme minimalism, schools of energy music, and others; all of which have substantially different intent than mine. Even where those musics are fully improvised, my Theory does not apply. Jazz and the improvisation musics of diverse Cultures are governed by Theories specific to those musical styles that exercise very specific controls over the mechanics of those musics that are very different than the controls that my Theory exercises over the mechanics of the music produced by Evil Clown Ensembles. A feature of the modern music world is that musicians do not have to choose to use an existing Theoretical System to Structure their music. Everyone is free to use their own concepts to define the musical space in which they work, and they are free to draw on the entire history of music across cultures for inspiration. My Theory of Transformation Focused Improvisation has been developed over the last 35 years from my experience of improvising in a huge number of different contexts with a huge number of different players and my extensive study of the history of music across cultures and time.
On Transformation Focused Improvisation:
The History and Grand Aesthetic of the Evil Clown Record Label
Introduction| Part I: History of Evil Clown
Part II: Evil Clown’s Grand Aesthetic Problems and Solutions
Part III: Web Links to the Work of Evil Clown Ensembles