The Improvisor/Composer
The Performer/Recording Artist
The Permanent Student/Educator

The word improvisation comes from the Latin word improvisus, which means unforeseen or ex improviso, meaning without preparation. In musical settings this is the art of a completely spontaneous performance. J.S. Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin and Liszt, to name only a few, were first known as accomplished improvisers long before they became famous as composers.

Jazz musicians continued this tradition well into the mid 1990’s before they began to go the way of their classical music predecessors. The world is hungering for true musical artists. Musical creativity comes from within the soul. It does not come from software that anyone can access equally and it does not come from simply performing what has always been available to everyone and anyone with the discipline to learn it.

With the birth of Youtube the internet is flooded with pianists (and other instrumentalists) who can play anything and everything ever composed by a classical composer. These most gifted technicians, however, are never seen creating music on the spot from within themselves as the composers whose documented music they masterfully regurgitate once did.

There is a veritable barrage of videos featuring jazz and theory “experts’ pointing to their prowess as creative men and women. However, videos of these experts performing live in completely spontaneous environments, arenas or venues with an actual human audience are almost non existent. They pontificate from their homemade studios.

Jazz musicians live openly and vulnerably in the clubs and venues of yesteryear.

Pop, Rock and Country music styles were once minimalist derivatives of the more complex musical forms. Folk based musical structures performed by talented singer/songwriters have been replaced by pitch correctors, sequencers, arpeggiators and beat boxes. The glut of these formulaic and uninspiring songs have been force fed into the consciousness of the modern listener through a seemingly innocuous technological creation called “streaming.”

An artist who is committed to self improvement can not live on the road for there is no time to practice or develop new techniques or refine old ones. There is no time to compose new works with any real depth.

The artist who never teaches, or worse, who teaches without having lived for many years within the other two aspects of his or her musical personality, is truly the most detrimental to the art form of music.

All improvisors, composers, performers, and recording artists teach for they are permanent students, always learning and therefore always eager to share what they have learned.

The great nineteenth-century composer Frederic Chopin was known for his incredible pianistic skills yet he preferred teaching and composing to performing.

As one who knows first hand the joys of steady gigs, touring, and playing every night of the week for years I can honestly state that in this notion of artistic fulfillment Chopin and I are in complete agreement.

The path of a true artist is not marked by applause, fame, celebrity, or excess money. These things can happen. They are not the purpose or the reason for creating. The journey of an artist truly begins when he first acknowledges that all of his gifts come from God. The opportunities for sharing his gifts are provided to Him in the degree and the manner with which he honestly and humbly places himself under the love of his Creator and the demands of his music.

As life passes the past becomes a living testimony to the musician and his legacy of love as he leaves a permanent, present moment wake through time. He does this through recorded works which keep his music ever alive. He does this also through performances which resonate in the souls of those who were there to hear and see him play, or those who benefit from the timeless gift of his videos. Through his written, documented music he enables future musicians, music lovers and artists to delve into his journeys of soul with their own unique interpretations of the paths he has traveled.

The beauty of all that he embodies exists in the continuum of love to be found in any student who came through his studio.

Mark Christopher Brandt ©1/11/23