Freely Improvised Music Workshop
Instructors: Jack Wright, Evan Lipson, and Jonah Gelbart
Date(s): 05/31/26, Sunday
Times: 1pm-3pm (class may last until 4pm if participants require more time)
Level: All
Age: 15+
Class Fee:
- Members: $12
- Non-members: $15
Location: OCAF School Street Studios - Koffman Studio
Class Description:
We (Jack Wright, Evan Lipson, and Jonah Gelbart) present the idea of what free playing or free improvisation is about, then demonstrate, with a short example of a duo. We then ask for volunteers to play in duo with one of the three of us. Typically, we move toward larger ensembles, with discussion in between. The main leader of the workshop is Jack Wright, author of The Free Musics, which has become widely viewed among practitioners (both domestically and in Europe), as the definitive text on the subject since its publication in 2017.
About the instructor: Jack Wright
Jack Wright is a saxophonist in the Philadelphia area, one of the originals of American free improvisation, and still actively touring. Now 84, he lived some diverse lives, as activist and academic, until settling into music full-time in 1979--free playing is all he's done since then. He is still touring in Europe (April 2023, Oct. 2024) and the US, where he is still the "Johnny Appleseed of Free Improvisation," as guitarist Davey Williams called him. He started out in the free jazz direction, but by the late 90's found that boring and conventional; shifting gears a few times he is now playing sounds that few have heard before. His playing consists of distorted pitches, precise timing, intrusive multiphonics, sudden changes of direction, obscene animalistic sounds, and occasional "real" notes. He partners mostly with Zach Darrup, Ben Bennett, Evan Lipson, and Ron Stabinsky, his most current groups being Wrest, Minimal Disturbance, Roughhousing, and Never. He published a book in 2017, The Free Musics, sold to most of the free players in the US and many in Europe. In 2022 he released a book of mostly political critique, drawing on his background, Shaky Ground. For the books go here; for sounds, etc. see Spring Garden Music.