Improvisations on The Ledge

Yet another mini-bonus episode, which can only mean one thing: I'm working on a BIG episode. Until then...Enjoy! Powered by Firstory Hosting Get full access to Musically Novel at petersaltzman.substack.com/subscribe

To be brief: I never much cared for minimalism until I minimally did. Powered by Firstory Hosting Get full access to Musically Novel at petersaltzman.substack.com/subscribe

In which I do battle with the almost perfect symmetry in John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps” to try to create something a little messy and asymmetrical. Powered by Firstory Hosting Get full access to Musically Novel at petersaltzman.substack.com/subscribe

Another short episode for your listening pleasure while I work assiduously on two full episodes that are driving me crazy. (Hopefully, they won't drive you crazy.)​ Powered by Firstory Hosting Get full access to Musically Novel at petersaltzman.substack.com/subscribe

This episode is the first (possibly the last) in a series of short daily, or every-other-daily, or even less frequent​​ "podisodes"​ to go with your morning coffee or afternoon tea or evening drink or right before bed. Powered by Firstory Hosting Get full access to Musically Novel at petersaltzman.substack.com/subscribe

Are free will and free improvisation really free, or am I deluding myself? And is deluding myself a necessary condition for free will/improvisations​? Powered by Firstory Hosting Get full access to Musically Novel at petersaltzman.substack.com/subscribe

In an era when musical context has been subsu​med in a sea of listener playlists, on-demand streaming and the general obsolescence of the album, who creates the larger context for a single piece of music? You do! Until I do. Powered by Firstory Hosting Get full access to Musically Novel at petersaltzman.substack.com/subscribe

The episode in which anything can happen but mostly doesn't... Powered by Firstory Hosting Get full access to Musically Novel at petersaltzman.substack.com/subscribe

Left-leaning improvisations on patriotic tunes for (what’s left of) Independence Day. Powered by Firstory Hosting Get full access to Musically Novel at petersaltzman.substack.com/subscribe

I'll never dive fully into the avant-garde, but dipping my feet in that pool can be quite exhilarating! Powered by Firstory Hosting Get full access to Musically Novel at petersaltzman.substack.com/subscribe

Why am I a lousy film composer? Could it be because I'm a composer? Powered by Firstory Hosting Get full access to Musically Novel at petersaltzman.substack.com/subscribe

You may hate the avant-garde but, dammit, you need it more than you think. Powered by Firstory Hosting Get full access to Musically Novel at petersaltzman.substack.com/subscribe

A bluesy improvisation on the theme from the slow movement of Beethoven's Emperor Concerto inevitably leads me down the path of the inevitability​ of noninevitability. Powered by Firstory Hosting Get full access to Musically Novel at petersaltzman.substack.com/subscribe

My recording equipment was flipping out (or maybe It was me). Which may seem like a hindrance to artistic expression​, but then I realized that the flipping out was part​ of the flipping art! Powered by Firstory Hosting Get full access to Musically Novel at petersaltzman.substack.com/subscribe

What is a blues? A genre? Musical form? A scale? It's all of those things and more​​ because the blues is a fundamental musical structure with infinite possibilities for making musical statements. Which I find out here... Powered by Firstory Hosting Get full access to Musically Novel at petersaltzman.substack.com/subscribe

When a free improvisation doesn't go the way I planned it leads me to the conclusion​ that sometimes the best-laid​ plans are the unlaid plans. Powered by Firstory Hosting Get full access to Musically Novel at petersaltzman.substack.com/subscribe

Melodies aren't infinite, so don't sue me if my tune "sounds" somewhat like "yours."​ Powered by Firstory Hosting Get full access to Musically Novel at petersaltzman.substack.com/subscribe

The last episode was a rant in defense of musical complexity; this one​, of course, takes the opposite view. Sort of. Powered by Firstory Hosting Get full access to Musically Novel at petersaltzman.substack.com/subscribe

Part 1 of a rant (that will undoubtedly have many parts) on why we are so afraid of musical complexity. Powered by Firstory Hosting Get full access to Musically Novel at petersaltzman.substack.com/subscribe

A quick overview of what you'll hear on "Improvisations on the Ledge"... Powered by Firstory Hosting Get full access to Musically Novel at petersaltzman.substack.com/subscribe

A simple hymn-like tune gone wrong...because that's what I do. Powered by Firstory Hosting Get full access to Musically Novel at petersaltzman.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode I dissect one of my pop tunes from the 1980s and the way in which it appropriates multiple styles across the world and centuries—which is not only a good thing but completely natural. So get over it... Powered by Firstory Hosting Get full access to Musically Novel at petersaltzman.substack.com/subscribe

A reboot of Improvisations on the Ledge as a solo act (for now.) Somehow I conflate my free improvisation here with Damian Lillard's game and series-winning shot the other night. Powered by Firstory Hosting Get full access to Musically Novel at petersaltzman.substack.com/subscribe