Jim Jordan and Paul with collaborative bass/paint improvisation paintings from Jun 19 & 20, 2024
TIME ART SPACE ART with Paul Erhard, double bass, James Jordan, painter, and Yali Rivlin, saxophone, create a collaborative improvisation inspired by the words of “Landscapes,” a poem by James’ sister Phoebe Jordan-Klain, spoken by Phoebe’s husband Anthony Klain. Phoebe’s poetry gives voice to her perceptivity and ability to communicate through words the beauty, wonder, and magic she experienced in the natural world of Northern Michigan where she and Jim grew up. This improvised composition was performed as part of an outdoor concert in September, 2023.
Jim and Paul perform three painting/music improvisations “Two by Two” as part of Paul’s livestreamed January 19, 2021 University of Colorado College of Music Faculty Tuesday recital in Grusin Music Hall, Boulder. With “Two by Two” Jim and Paul explore the immediacy of responding to each other non-verbally in color, line, and motion.
The cedar tree that Jim marveled at, and Jim and Paul’s 1st duo improvisation inspired by that tree in July, 2020
Paul and Jim Jordan’s bass & paint improvisations began outdoors in July 2020, Jim with canvas on easel, brushes and paint, and Paul and his bass close by. Before beginning, Jim had marveled at the fascinating textures and knots on the trunk of a large cedar tree nearby. Using these images as inspiration, Jim and Paul began “improvising” and creating for 25-minutes resulting in a painting of blues and golds. It was an exhilarating experience. This kind of live painter/musician communicating was a first for both. A number of other painting/music improvisational conversational pieces quickly followed. With each piece, Jim and Paul discussed the process, gradually distilling what seemed to be most essential in their new creative process.
Left: Day 1 Improv #2 Above: Day 2 improvisations
Set up in the driveway by the old Volvo, Jim and Paul began their 2nd day of “improvising” with a piece that had a jazzy feel. In this piece, it was very apparent that Jim was listening very carefully to the music coming from the double bass, 100% in sync with the rhythms and melodic gestures, and effortlessly letting these join his own imagination in animating his arm and brush.
CASCADING CADENZA January 2020
CASCADING CADENZA
Jim: “I like the name of the painting “Cascading Cadenza” depicted by the swooping strokes and the confetti-like small rectangle areas. I struggled with my impression of the music but literally settled on what was happening as the music progressed. What I thought of was purples and blues. I found that it was a struggle, even though I’ve had students work with through the same process. I’ve often thought of colors and images when I listened to music but putting them down was not as easy as I thought it was going to be. I finally trusted my instincts to not overthink. In the end it was positive. I am glad for the experience because it enriched my insights into the relationship between time arts and space arts.”
Paul writes: “Jim Jordan’s “Cascading Cadenza” is the second of our TIME ART SPACE ART collaborations. This project began with me recording a 22-minute improvisation in early December 2019 intended for Jim to use as a tonal backdrop for a new painting to provide some kind of inspiration. Neither Jim nor I had ever tried this process before, so we went into this process as an experiment to see how music created specifically for Jim would work in providing a mood and inspiration for Jim. I begin the improvisation by slowly playing the notes of the scale C Db E F G Ab B C ascending and descending. Accompanied by a tambura drone, this improvisation is loosely inspired by my work with ragas of India. The purpose of the improvisation was to create a sound/mood world of this scale, without clear melodic and formal structure, a kind of stream of consciousness. In our first collaboration in November, 2019, I had performed improvised musical renditions of his painting “Southwest.” With Cascading Cadenza we reversed the tables. The resulting painting is fascinating. More of this collaboration to come.”