There were 2 compositional concepts employed. The first Mike calls Fortunes. He has collected 100's of fortunes from fortune cookies over many years. Each member is given a small pile of them. They take turns drawing them. The 'player' who draws a fortune reads it aloud and then begins the piece. There is no discussion whatsoever about style, tempo, key, mood. They just use the fortune as a jumping off point and as an evocative title. They listen to each other for the development of themes. Truly the only rules are to listen and compose. Mike uses the word 'compose' to suggest that they are not just improvising aimlessly on their instruments, but that they are open to discovering and playing a specific role within each spontaneous composition in order to instrumentally evoke the feeling of the title. Whether they are successful is totally subjective. FYI, they never listened back to anything in the studio. There was no point. Each title is discarded forever once performed live or in the studio.
The second concept employed Mike calls Hat-Tricks. Each player writes some sort of brief instruction for another player on a slip of paper. The instruction can be abstract, musically specific, anything at all. Before each piece, each player draws a slip and reads the instruction to himself. The piece begins when each player agrees that they understand their own instruction, but they do not discuss or reveal them to the others. The resulting piece is a collaborative effort where each player is bound only by his interpretation of the brief instruction he drew. Once again, the only rules are to listen and compose.
CREDITS:
Mike Davis - acoustic bass
Jacob Duncan - alto saxophone
Jason Tiemann - drums
Read more: https://www.storyamp.com/dispatch/2383/e4c0afcef20e0b5048aac8f65f3e4639
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