So about 8 years ago, I attended a cultural festival at The Field Museum in Chicago and to my delight walked into a Steve Coleman concert. For each song he would play the bass lines to the bass player who would then pick it up, a counter melody to a trumpet player, gave the drummer and three African percussionists (sitting in for the evening) a clave, and off they went. It was my first exposure to such a free (and I use the term for a lack of a better one) and open way of creating music. The best part came in the question and answer portion of the concert when a woman stood up and thanked Mr. Coleman for holding to the older styles of jazz like Duke and Basie.

So what is M-Base? “An acronym for Macro - Basic Array of Structured Extemporizations…” I found this interesting as I search personally as a composer for new sounds and experiences in music. Having gone through two major educational experiences in music, I had two completely different experiences. Neither experience outweighed the other and I won’t go into detail about either, but I always found myself leaning towards conceptual learning as opposed to technical “shedding.” Coleman’s M-Base concept emphasizes conceptual development over technical development. This is always something that I have struggled with whether it is in my own playing or with students. But, when is it more beneficial to emphasize one or the other? I don’t think that we should disregard technical study as limiting and label it bad and I don’t think anyone could argue that technique is required to unlock the information held within each concept. We do however have a tendency to limit ourselves by focusing too much on technical studies.

Ultimately, I’ve come to understand through my musical studies, but more importantly through playing with other people that ultimately, unlocking the expressive nature of oneself through music is more important than anything. Coleman states that “what each person (the listener) hears depends on who that listener is..” The same could be said about the musicians. That which each musician plays depends on who that person is. I believe that coming to terms with that personal understanding of oneself can potentially unlock more musical ability than hours of shedding. But it probably takes years of shedding and playing to even come to this understanding of oneself. Well that sounds like we have come around full circle.