Hardly more of the same, these nine selections are from an unrehearsed unscripted live concert/ gig in upstate New York.   Mark Kramer (piano) with (Rich Mollin (bass.)  

I remember the time when dear (RIP) Mulgrew Miller sincerely and collegially asked me what tunes I'd been working on.  I sort of grunted.  He then quickly proceeded to show me some creative things he discovered and developed on some Fats Waller.  I really enjoyed his general approach, his humanity, and talent. When it came time for me to share "what I'd been working on" all I could do was to show him general principles of harmony or melody that I'd been discovering all along,. The idea of working on individual tunes was pretty foreign to me, except when I'd create a lead sheet for a duo or trio where specifying alt changes had been mandatory,  

So, when talented bassist Rich Mollin invited me to perform a gig/concert with him many hours from my home,  and having just returned home the week prior, something impulsively in me agreed.  And I was happy on many counts to have done so.

I also had just started archiving my performances on multitrack video, and I hastily threw together the less than ideal set-ups you see here.  (You can hardly ever see the pianist's left hand.) The raw files sat for months. That was good, because when I finally heard and saw them after a time they made me smile mostly.  I marveled at what could be accomplished just by listening deeply in the moment, and by allowing one's accumulated principles of music to join without judgement in each moment.    Rich kept up very well.   From all the above standpoints, I think the posting may help or entertain the few people who visit here often and those who do so anonymously.   

DO I THINK THIS IS ART?  No, I generally do not. However, the very last piece (Who Can I Turn To . . .) approaches it. 

ART in JAZZ may happen when the musicians decide together to invoke a new set of biological principles.  The main one is a deeper quality of listening and sensing all the life around us.    For me, there would have had to have been a be a lot more space, concentration, with a lot more interspersed clutter/texture.  The new harmonies heard here at times often do not follow readily formulated principles. But this is nothing I'd be able to realize fully in this context.  See - When a duo says they are going to play jazz, that admission (in and of itself) provides a kind of ideological old straight jacket. I think we wriggled as much as is humanly possible within those constraints in this collection; perhaps that is what makes it so compelling at times - when the struggle simply vanishes despite unfavorable conditions.                      

These videos are all on a youtube playlist on the MARK KRAMER MUSIC YouTube Channel as well as here. Enjoy!