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Call and Response: Jen Durkin on Vocal Improvisation
by Dean Budnick
Jen Durkin on Vocal Improvisation
Here you have it, the first installment of Call and Response. Please keep the questions coming. The idea is that you should just send us something that's been on your mind regarding a band and we'll track them down and ask. This month's query goes out to Jen Durkin of Deep Banana Blackout
Amanda Conner wrote:
"I have a question for Jen Durkin. I saw her come on stage with Jiggle The Handle at the Somerville Theater Jambands.com show and later at Berkfest- did she work out what she was going to sing beforehand with the band or did she improvise? Also, when she is singing with Deep Banana Blackout there are moments that seem to be pure vocal improvisation. How does she come up with the lines and the melodies?"
Jen Durkin answers:
"There was pretty much no discussion about what we were going to do. It is definitely on the spot improv. Especially that night at the Somerville. The Jiggle guys are just really open. That's what's great about jam bands and that's what I like about being on the circuit and people thinking of Deep Banana as a jam band. We have these improvisational sections where anything can happen, where I can sing whatever I want, whatever words I want. That night at the Somerville it was myself, Living Daylights and Jiggle. I had maybe seen the Living Daylights twice at that point but I had a sense of what they were like. I knew Jessica comes up with some strong melodic themes. She's a very inspiring person to be on stage with. I get a lot of stuff off what other people are playing, much like the other instrumentalists do. It's really spontaneous. Words sometimes come secondary to the melody. Sometimes when people are on-stage playing I'll hear a line in my head and I'll try to match the words. I don't have a heavy political message and I don't do a lot of storytelling with my lyrics, I just try to be open to the positive flow of thoughts and motivations for anyone who might be experiencing any suffering or a moment of discomfort so that they will feel free. I think that some of the lyrics I was singing that night were about feeling free. I was kind of telling myself to feel free too because that's what makes for a good improv, feeling free and confident about what you're doing.
With Deep Banana things just come about. Fuzz will do an extended solo and I'll get an idea and just jump on it. It's great because it's one instance where I feel like an instrumentalist. I have been inspired by Dean Bowman- he's a person who's constantly regurgitating old jazz standards or just coming up with his own stuff right on the spot. I've come to realize that I am also influenced by so many kinds of music, melodies and themes. I've done stuff on stage that's been influenced by Puccini, Holland-Dozier-Holland, and many, many others. That's the way I write with the band: the guys are jamming on a groove and I find something that comes out of that. I very rarely sit down and come up with the words and the melody and tell the guys what to play.
I like to think that there's some kind of spirit or message that's greater than anything my mind can conceive of, and I can be a channel for that. What I like about improvising is just being in the moment, being open to the other sounds that people are playing and what their music is saying, and finding a little ribbon that intertwines with that.
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