Better Than The Recording
People sometimes cringe when live performances don't sound like the recording. Musicians have various degrees of ability to play music that represents the essence of a song, without having to play it as if from a score.
When you take for example how Jimi Hendrix played Purple Haze live: It was always different, and sloppy in different spots--and everyone excepted it and didn't want it to sound like the recording--all the while he was showered with praise at being a great musician--and it was for this reason.
At the compositional level, it is always more interesting to have a good set of bones to hang the music on. (This used to be known as a "lead sheet" but that term is now somewhat archaic, dying with paper). (I also like the idea of setting up a "situation", which is a short set of instructions from which to improvise on.) This reductive approach to playing music can go a long way to produce consistent results that have an inherent cohesion or logic--that is sometimes referred to as "soul", a kind of slang or shortcut around larger formal structures, like the Score.
It can also be satisfying to see how improvisations can spontaneously interpret a virtual or artificial manifestation of a song that was created in a studio. The "dry" version can seem shockingly flat and transparent, with all the effects removed--but the essence may still be found there. Good musicians know how to find those essences.
When you take for example how Jimi Hendrix played Purple Haze live: It was always different, and sloppy in different spots--and everyone excepted it and didn't want it to sound like the recording--all the while he was showered with praise at being a great musician--and it was for this reason.
At the compositional level, it is always more interesting to have a good set of bones to hang the music on. (This used to be known as a "lead sheet" but that term is now somewhat archaic, dying with paper). (I also like the idea of setting up a "situation", which is a short set of instructions from which to improvise on.) This reductive approach to playing music can go a long way to produce consistent results that have an inherent cohesion or logic--that is sometimes referred to as "soul", a kind of slang or shortcut around larger formal structures, like the Score.
It can also be satisfying to see how improvisations can spontaneously interpret a virtual or artificial manifestation of a song that was created in a studio. The "dry" version can seem shockingly flat and transparent, with all the effects removed--but the essence may still be found there. Good musicians know how to find those essences.
