The Story of Hyprovisation
 

In October 2005, some of you may remember that I was having a pretty rough time in Hong Kong. I was away from my wife, stuck playing jazz with people I felt really uncomfortable with 6 nights a week. There's musicians out there that are suited to this kind of gig. I learned the hard way that I am not one of them.

Rewind back to May 2005, when I attended the Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music at the Banff Centre, Alberta. It was here that my adult life as an artist began. Many creative doors were opened for me after seeing and working with many world class improvising musicians. The most important lesson I took with me from this experience was that you have to take ownership of your music. How could I possibly own jazz standard material that had been performed so masterfully by people like Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett, Miles Davis and countless others!? Well...there are ways I think but even so, there's another issue at play - I don't "come from" this music. I've studied it for years but let's face it, as a kid I wasn't copping Bill Evans, I was singing along with Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder. As a teenager I was listening to rock, mostly... Aerosmith and the Resevoir Dogs soundtrack. In order to be honest with myself as a musician, it was clear to me that I had to write my own material. This isn't to say that what came out was a hybrid of the aforementioned artists, but once I made the decision to create my own music, anything that came out would be me.

That was the beginning of Hyprovisation. Over the course of the next few months, I was able to write 7 new tunes. Rehearsals with my first line up of musicians began in January 2006, and after realizing that they weren't quite working out, came to a temporary halt. Also, I sliced my hand open last February. That put a damper on things (not to candy coat the situation).

With the new line-up (Mark Laver - saxophone, Jake Oelrichs - drums, Gord Mowat - bass, Patrice Barbanchon - trumpet, myself on piano) we got to know the material and even played a couple of gigs on it. All in anticipation of the recording date, which, because of Jake and Gord's schedules finally happened on August 30th, 2006. What a learning experience the studio was! Apart from seeing Neil Peart's (from Rush) drum kit in person, I learned a great deal about my own compositions and how they worked in a closed recording setting. Cues that were previously easy to give were now less clear because of limited sight lines. Also, things that might work well on a live gig might not be the same things you want to get across once immortalized on a CD surface. Solos had to be shorter and even regimented to an extent.

November 2006 saw me meeting with a different engineer to mix and master the disc. I learned a lot about how to listen to sound and how to start describing what I wanted out of my music. A typical conversation between me and Jordan (the mixer and masterer) would go like this:

J: now which filter do you like better, this one.... or this one?
A: ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..... those are different?
J: yeah.
A: ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm.........

So it was like taking an eye exam where the optometrist shows you two different lenses and they seem the same. I persevered, though and with the help of my bass player, I think we got a good sound out of the original tracks.

Later that month I met with my illustrator to hammer out some ideas. From very early on I knew I wanted illustration. Even though this was a jazz album I wanted to stay away from the typical exploitive portrait style album covers which cry out - elevator music! Another annoying trend in modern jazz album covers is nature photography... the artist standing in the forest contemplating their own genius.... barf!

I thought of the theme of some kind of monster made of musical notation chasing us, but it took Howie's ingenuity to come up with an idea that people could relate to - a monkey in a space suit yelling at the band! In the end I think we came up with something that alone is worth the price of the album.

Now the post-production is finally over and the annoying wait for the duplication plant to finish is in the past. I have in my hands the finished product!

http://aliberkok.com/images/coverofhyprovisation.jpg

If you are interested in checking it out (thanks Daniel_), I've got some clips on http://www.myspace.com/arkanamusic and some on http://www.arkanamusic.com.

Sounds very interesting - is there anywhere that we can hear it?

Congratulations! It sounds like a very real labour of love. Jazz has always eluded me. As a bass player, I've tried my hand at many forms of music but I've never been successful at Jazz.

What a great story! Thanks for sharing it with us. For so many of us, this is the closest we'll ever get to a recording studio. Thanks for the peek inside.

nice man......good to see you're getting your stuff out.........sounds awesome.


added you on myspace.........


*damn i like this tune "restitched" thanks for the links man.......keep writing too,it's great stuff.*

Thanks for the kind words... I'd include even more detail but my mind already wants to get onto the next thing. I've learned so much about the process it was like another year of college. I want to use that and just keep getting better at this crazy game.

Guess who's going to the CD release party?! :)

I enjoy going to see Arkana play, which means I'm also totally looking forward to getting my hands on this disc. I'm even going to try to get it signed.

Seriously though, this is a great moment for a great friend of mine... something I'm not going to miss.

run with it man.........i've been going through a spurt,that just won't stop.......and you gotta go to town when it's happenin'.

good luck man.:thumbsup:

ah hell that's twice now.........your cover is too cool.........

really good interpritation of "the way it is"......in the studio........love it

I feel like this everyday. We jazz musicians wrestle with the question of what is and what isn't jazz. I try and avoid it, but it's interesting to entertain. The older I get the more I think the definition is this: Jazz is an art form whose musicians are always seeking ways of improving - relentlessly, always looking for the next frontier to cross.

I'm trying to do this and question everyday if I'm living up to this standard.

As someone who owns the cd, i can honestly say GO OUT AND BUY IT.

Your quote made me think of Bela Fleck more than any other musician, who said something similar at one of his concerts I attended.

Nice work from what I've heard. I think I'll have to get myself a copy.

Just a little self-interested bump...

The album is now available on iTunes for those who want a little "a la carte" taste. Just search "Hyprovisation," and it'll come up!

Thanks!