Article by Todd Matthews

If you are a fan of free improvised music and happen to live in Seattle, your evenings are probably booked. Interested in checking out three or four free improv shows per week? No problem. Seattle's free improv scene is charged right now. The Monktail Creative Music Concern (a collective of free improvisers) have maintained a six-month residency at Coffee Messiah, and have received the recognition of some established institutions recently (the group performs regularly at the Baltic Room, The Rendezvous, and Alibi Room; moreover, the collective recently picked up honors from Earshot Jazz magazine: a Golden Ear award for Emerging Artist / Group of 2002). The Seattle Improvised Music Festival celebrated its 18th event last month, drawing performers from as far away as Germany and Canada. Polestar Music Gallery is in its sophomore, drawing larger crowds than ever. And individual free improvisers are working tirelessly to bring free improv venues and performances to the area.

One of those improvisers is pianist/composer Gust Burns. Since arriving in Seattle in December 2000, Burns has worked with the top area free improvisers, and carved out several serial events worth noting. Last November, he created the After Ears Festival, which ran parallel to the Earshot Jazz Festival. He also joined the board of the Seattle Improvised Music Festival, where he helped select this year's line-up of performers. He currently produces the Sound of the Brush series -- a weekly, Monday night showcase of free improvisers. "Something like this needed to be happening," says Burns over tea at Bauhaus on Capitol Hill. "Different people playing together and making new connections. That's the main reason this series was started."

Burns was born in 1978 in Tacoma, Washington. He began piano lessons in the fourth grade and studied jazz with Tacoma/Seattle pianist Craig Hoyer in high school. At the University of Washington, Burns studied jazz piano with Marc Seales. He later transferred to Western Washington University (WWU) in Bellingham, where he spent two years studying improvisation and composition with Canadian virtuoso pianist Paul Plimley. In December 2000, after a six-month stay in the Bay Area (where he collaborated with bassist Damon Smith), Burns returned to the Northwest. "I just started trying to make stuff happen," he explains. "Getting things done on a weekly basis -- that wasn't really happening when I came here."

What exactly is free improvised music?

That question will exist as long as this music is performed. Is it avant-garde jazz? Is it experimental music? Is it fusion? The inability to swiftly categorize this music has largely resulted in its marginalized status (and has left countless free improvisers defending their art).

"I'm not totally decided on this issue," Burns says, attempting to define the music. "So many people use the terms 'improvised music' or 'improv' to refer to a certain genre of music. I think that is a mistake. Within the field of musics that use improvisation, either exclusively or integrally as a basis for creation, there are a wide varieties of approaches, theories, methods, actions, and sounds -- far more varieties than can be contained in any one genre."

Indeed, the vocabulary that many improvisers are dealing with includes areas of jazz, the free jazz of the 60's, classical music, the 20th century avant-garde tradition, and the sentinels of free improvisation -- musicians such as Evan Parker, Hugh Davies, Derek Bailey, and Jamie Muir.

"What is free improvised music?" Burns adds. "It's a method. Free improvisation is a method of making music. It's not idiomatic. It doesn't follow a set of rules or guidelines."

Perhaps more important than defining the music is creating the music. The integration and combination of improv in compositions are things that most interest Burns. "I'm looking for ways to use improvisation in composition -- or vice versa, I guess -- in ways that work," says Burns, commenting on his songwriting process. "For the most part, [I totally] eschew the head-chorus-head, unless it's an interesting variation, and actually allows some integral part of the composition to exist because of the improvisation. The improvisation supplies material to the composition. People have been working with this, but it hasn't been explored to its full potential."

Burns is currently in the process of recording new music on a series of CDs he will be producing through the summer: one CD per month on his newly purchased1926 Yamaha grand piano. The limited edition discs will appear in hand-made cases, complete with original artwork, at a cost of $40 for all six discs. Burns's fans started receiving the discs last month.

"All the musicians involved are just donating their time," he says. The CDs will feature solo, duo, trio and large group arrangements. "It's a lot of fun for me."

In March, Burns will kick off a new series at the Center on Contemporary Art (COCA) entitled The Open Ear. The first concert will feature piano performances by Burns, Wayne Horvitz and Craig Hoyer. The series will allow audiences to see different musicians coming from different perspectives with the same instrument. "I am interested in the idea of regionalism -- in building a musical community that will develop its own aesthetic perspective and attitude," comments Burns. "This is more and more important as the world becomes more connected, and there is more of a blur of information and a blur of acquaintances and connections within the world in general, and the arts and music worldwide. The notion of a musical community becomes important. That musical community includes musicians and audience members."

Burns's contribution to the scene will afford area residents the opportunity to experience free improvised music and form their own definitions of the music.

Free improv as a means for musical enlightenment?

Perhaps.

Burns adds, "One of the main powers of this music is the ability to make people think about different issues."

This article originally appeared in Earshot Jazz