time art space art
James Jordan “SOUTHWEST” 2019
How this all got started
Paul writes: Jim Jordan, my wife, and I created an artist collective in fall 2019 in Northern Michigan to support each other’s painting. We met daily to share our work, talk about the artistic process, and encourage each other. “Southwest” began in our collective, and was subjected to frequent scrutiny by the three of us. The day “Southwest” was finished, six weeks after Jim had begun the painting, my bass and I dove into the painting, journeying around many of the sections and details of the painting that I had come to know quite well. As I played, a particular scale emerged along with some melodic ideas that for me conveyed the mood of various facets the painting. Jim was happy to hear this translating of his painting into musical sounds. A few weeks later, I performed a concert of four solo improvisations, including the public unveiling of “Southwest.” Audience members who had studied the painting before the concert commented afterwards that as I performed “Southwest,” they began to see many more things in the painting than they had initially seen. Shortly afterwards, Jim said that what we are doing is “TIME ART SPACE ART because Music happens in time and Art happens in space.”
Paul playing Jim Jordan’s “SOUTHWEST” 2019
Paul and Jim progressed in early 2020 with Jim painting to a recording Paul’s improvised bass playing performed specifically for Jim to paint to. The result was “Cascading Cadenza” which now resides as a center piece in a home in South Dakota. During the summer of 2020, Jim and Paul ventured into a new realm of Time Art Space Art with their first experiments communicating with each in real time across the mediums of color and sound. Their first “pieces” of simultaneously improvised music and painting took place in Paul’s back yard. During Covid, Jim and Paul continued developing their joint improvisations remotely over zoom in preparation for performing on Paul’s January 19, 2021 University of Colorado College of Music Faculty Tuesday recital. Today, Jim and Paul’s goal remains the same: enjoying the fun of coming together as friends with respect for each other’s artistic expression and natural rapport for improvising with “Brush & Bow.” See more about Jim at the “Bass & James Jordan.”
James Jordan “Cascading Cadenza” 2020
PAUL ERHARD
Paul Erhard’s performance background includes classical double bass, jazz, improvised raga music of India, and solo improvisations. As a concerto soloist, Paul premiered (February 2020) the L. Subramaniam Double Concerto for Violin and Double Bass with Dr. L. Subramaniam, violin, and has performed multiple times the Nino Rota Divertimento Concertante Double Bass Concerto. An active chamber musician, his collaborations with the Grammy-winning Takács Quartet include the Schubert Trout Quintet in 2019 at Lincoln Center, New York City. As a composer, he focuses on works for solo double bass and double bass trio. Paul’s education includes a Masters and Doctorate from The Juilliard School, a Bachelors from Eastman School of Music, and two years in Germany at the Munich Music Hochschule. Paul’s primary teachers are Homer Mensch, Marshall (Larry) Hutchinson, James VanDemark, Georg Hoertnagel, Franz Ortner, and Lyndon Christie. Paul is Professor Emeritus, University of Colorado College of Music in Boulder, where he taught for 37 years. In addition to double bass, Paul developed and taught “Improvisation for String” for many years.
Since 1998, Paul has explored adapting the improvised solo double bass to the classical music of India. In 2005 and 2007, Paul and Bangalore India-based flutist Butto Pattanaik and tabla drummer Muthu Kumar toured the USA with their Indo-Western fusion trio Atmic Vision. A 2013-2015 Fulbright scholar, Paul’s research project “Training the Musical Mind” explored how 35 prominent classical musicians in India use the tambura drone to develop a strong sense of pitch.
Time Art Space Art is Paul’s newest venture in the creative world of improvisation. Drawing upon his varied performance background, Paul’s improvisations develop non-verbal languages of communication with painters, dancers, photographers, and poet
“MEET THE DOUBLE BASS”
JAMES JORDAN
James Jordan received a Bachelor of Science in Art Education from Western Michigan University. He also studied painting, pottery and life drawing at the University of Michigan and The Cranbrook Institute as a post graduate. He took a special interest in photography which he incorporated into his teaching. For 30 years he taught early childhood education, including Head Start through Secondary education. He was the art teacher at Onekama High School from 1982-1995, encouraging his students to experiment and be courageous in using their imagination. Many are the residents of Onekama who were Jim’s students. During those years he raised a family with 2 daughters, built a house and participated in art shows with his paintings and pottery. Retired now, he still paints every day, encouraging his granddaughters to paint along with him. He avidly studies the night sky through a self-designed telescope at his Northern Michigan home. Jim spends many a summer day sailing out on Lake Michigan. Jim can be found down at the beach most days with his camera capturing incredibly thrilling and varied sunsets over Lake Michigan.
Since 2019, Jim has collaborated with double bassist Paul Erhard in their performance-based TIME ART SPACE ART duo. Jim paints, listening carefully to Paul, letting the rhythms, melodies and colors of Paul’s double bass improvisations animate his painting, while Paul in turn is constantly responding to Jim’s painting gestures. Enjoying the special artistic connection they have, Jim and Paul are energized by the continually evolving creative language they are developing. When joined by TIME ART SPACE ART’s dancer/saxophonist Yali Rivlin, the three focus on expression through sound, motion, color and line as they meld music, painting and modern dance.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Jim hopes his art makes a point of the meaningful depiction of planet earth, it’s history and evolution in the universe. He envisions a rising consciousness for a future healthy planet. As painter, working with paint, collage, and other materials, his subject matter deals with the earth through abstract depiction. Jim also paints representational scenes from the North Michigan coast. His paintings are imbued with the kind of inspirational awe and gratefulness he experiences when viewing the grandeur and beauty of the Lake Michigan coastline from several miles out in his sail boat. Through the lens of his camera, Jim strives to capture essences of beauty and wonder he sees in nature and all around.
Jim Jordan with just completed “SOUTHWEST” 2019