Pribek

This is pretty close to where my head is at this afternoon.

As always, let loose a primal scream and press pause on the music player located in the side bar before playing the YouTube.

Last Exit – Destination-Out (1986)
Frankfurt TV gig. Sonny Sharrock – guitar; Bill Laswell – bass (guitar w/octave divider?); Peter Brozman – sax; Ronald Shannon Jackson – drums.

Are you hip to Sonny Sharrock?

“I’ve had guys come up to me… and tell me how they were inventing new horns to get a new sound. But they never said anything about getting some new feeling… I’d ask those people, ‘Don’t forget the feeling. The music is about feeling.’ …You have to think like Coltrane, you know, and just say, ‘I’m gonna blow my heart out in this horn – every night.’ And that’s what music should be about.”

From the Last Exit wiki.

The band was known for its uncompromising musical ferocity, fueled by the band members’ confrontational attitudes. Greg Kot writes that they brought a level of “volume and violence that makes most rock bands sound tame.” Their music was largely improvised; John Dugan writes “Granted, one person’s free improvisation is another’s tuneless chaos, but Last Exit, due primarily to the skill of its individuals, only infrequently fell off the precipice into the netherworld of arty wanking … The playing is intricate, wildly adventurous, frequently funny, and, perhaps most important, a tribute to musical democracy in action.”

I found an article; I can’t remember what I was looking for when I found it, “Motivation, Mockery and the Power Business Ballad” by Patrick J. Kiger at workforce.com. There is a whole world out there that I know nothing about. It seems, that there are companies that go out to corporate get-togethers and conduct “team building exercises” using the band experience as a tool.

I’ve had a lot of band experiences and, it just never dawned on me that these sorts of things might be valuable training aids for the corporate world. Go figure.

I looked at a couple of these companies’ websites to see how they pitched this concept. The first outfit is called Face The Music.

Each Face The Music event is customized for the specific needs of your organization. The format and duration of each program ranges from a 2-hour after-dinner edutainment to a multi-day training and consulting intervention. Each session begins with our band playing a set of foot-tapping, classic blues songs as our MC (aka “the bandwidth leader”) sets the context. The band then plays a humorous medley of business-parody blues songs– some of which our just-in-time lyricists will have written especially for your company.

Now your group is ready to get interactive. We divide the audience into small groups and lead them through an engaging process in which they write their own blues songs about what’s going on in the organization. Much laughter, head nods, and collaboration ensues. After a brief practice session, groups of volunteers join the band and sing their freshly penned blues songs– giving voice to the very human need to express. Does everyone want to sing? Of course not. But that’s OK. Our facilitators are quite skillful at getting even the most reserved people to step out of their comfort zones. And, there are always enough hams in the audience to make it work.

How cute is that? Edutainment!

But seriously, is there anything to gain from acting like you are in a band for a few hours?

Bottom line: each Face the Music event is an insight-invoking business simulation, a “holographic mirror” in which your workforce gets a good look at how they:

Respond to unexpected business opportunities, Make use of available resources, Improvise,
Take risks, Process new information, Experiment, Learn from feedback, Adapt to change, Collaborate, Challenge the status quo, Think outside the box, Diffuse stress, Problem solve, Communicate, Speak the truth, Get new products to market, Persevere, Experience freedom within structure, Perform on a temporary team, Celebrate success

O.K., when I first saw any of this stuff, I was of a mind to be sarcastic about the whole premise. You know, what we grew up believing was that, when you’re in a band, you are going against the grain; the antithesis of the corporate world. But, I have to tell you this; most of that list there are things that you deal with in a rehearsal with an actual band.

The other company I looked at was Groove Labs.

Our Corporate Rock Stars® Experience presents a valuable approach to the corporate team building activity. Teams work with the Groove Labs Band to rewrite, rehearse and perform songs in a battle of the bands format.

Groove Labs says that they can work with groups of up to 1,700 people. And, the program typically last four hours and change. What’s this going to cost?

Fees include: 1) Program fee 2) Production fee 3) Travel/lodging fee and, 4) Optional fees such as gold record awards, t-shirts and videography.

The program fee prices at $125 per person. Production fees range from $2,000-$20,000 depending on where the program gets staged and what your requirements are. We travel with anywhere from 3 to 7 people all of whom may require airfare and accommodations.

Gold Record Awards are custom designed records with a commemorative faceplate engraving. $75/ea. Videography varies from $3,000-$7,500 depending on the number of cameras involved.

Does this actually make any sense? Could this type of “team building exercise” be useful? Well…Here’s the thing; most bands break up-they have trouble with teamwork. The whole thing kind of seems like some musicians figured out a way to make more money than they could playing music.

Any time I see something like that, I think about those guys that send me stuff about how they can guarantee me winning football picks. If you are so good at picking football games; why do you need my money, you know?

But, if people think it works and they pay for it, then it works.

I was just over at the Guitar Player Magazine site reading this nice Allan Holdsworth interview. Allan is 62 years old and he’s still learning, still practicing; looking forward. As I sit here, I’m trying to think of another player came up with a totally different physical technique and a totally different cerebral approach. Nobody really comes to mind. Physically, he is able to execute left hand finger stretches that are impossible to most. On the mind side, he’s got a unique way of thinking harmonically. Listen to the chords he plays, everybody talks about the solos but, he has these great chord voicings; the solos are an extension of that, I think.

He said some interesting stuff about improv.

Usually the beginning of a solo is easy, because I’ve got an unlimited selection of different things that I can play for the first note. But once I’ve made that choice, then it goes to an unconscious place, and I’m not really thinking about it at all. I’m hearing this note, and then I hear the harmony, and sometimes I see the chords. It’s like looking at a Rolodex or an abacus. I can recognize distances between intervals. Then it’s just a matter of navigating from one place to another and squeezing in lines in interesting ways. All this stuff is just happening in real time, like instant composition…

Of course, we can all get trapped, and when that happens to me, then I don’t feel so good about playing. But sometimes I get loose of all the chains, and it seems like almost anything is possible.

That little bit at the end is similar to things I’ve heard a lot of great improvisers express. Miles talked about “playing over your head”. That’s why you do it. You want to get to the place where you are loose of all the chains and anything is possible.

Smooth jazz. Those guys need to grow a beard, man. There’s a five-o-clock shadow on that stuff.

That’s funny, good one AH.

If you don’t know Holdsworth, and you like music, check him out. His music transcends guitar; guitar is just the vehicle. And, while your at at it, grow a beard.