Participate in an all-levels collective improvisation workshop, where we will dissect the role that improvised music can play in our current socioeconomic reality and implement this perspective through creative practice. The workshop will consist of short readings, group discussion, facilitated improv exercises, and whole group free improvisation. No experience with improvisation necessary, all that’s required is an open mind and a respectful attitude. Please be prepared to share about yourself and your perspectives during group discussion.

Introductory - Advanced

Please bring a musical instrument. A few percussion instruments will be provided for those who do not have their own instrument, but quantities are limited so please bring your own if you can. You can also bring your voice!

Song For Che by Charlie Haden and the Liberation Music Orchestra - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2j-AQOZAUo 

Malcolm, Malcolm - Semper Malcolm by Archie Shepp - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jxIPu4j_gM

Holy Ghost (Live at the Village Gate/1965) by Albert Ayler  - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuCxMd8SfNE

 

the abolition of art, the abolition of freedom, the abolition of you and me by Fred Moten, Brandon López, and Gerald Cleaver

 

Trees Remember by Theresa Wong

Kumi Maxson is an experimental bassist (upright and electric) practicing within the jazz tradition, using composition and improvisation to explore a liberated sense of being through embodied practice. Based in Santa Cruz, they have facilitated multi-week collective-improvisation workshops at Indexical built around the role improvisation plays in political and social change: non-hierarchical spaces open to all levels of experience, including beginners. Their practice draws on lived experience to find pathways toward collective liberation.