The Sonic Camera: Intermodality and Intermediality in Contemporary Jazz Composition

Abstract

Instead of seeking to fix the essential nature of some idea through an analysis of language alone, privileging visual perception and its linguistic description over other modes of perception and reasoning..., a pragmatic approach seeks to locate uses of language within a given set of practices which determine the meaning of the terms used... Other descriptive habits, commonly thought of as 'metaphorical', are similarly basic to musical experience [and] need not, for example, be taken as evidence of delusional thinking, but of a developed practice...before it is presumed that the description is false, or that it must be explained as an aural translation of visual experience-a matter of appearances (Cumming 2001: 15).The question of listening with the ear is inseparable from that of listening with the mind, just as looking is with seeing. In other words, to describe perceptual phenomena, we must take into account that conscious and active perception is only one part of a wider perceptual field in operation (Chion 1994: 33).I think Bigfoot is blurry, that's the problem. It's not the photographer's fault. Bigfoot is blurry. And that's extra scary to me, because there's a large, out-of-focus monster roaming the countryside (Hedberg 1999).The music of bassist and composer Ben Allison is rife with visual allusions, especially references to photography and film. His albums include com - positions with titles such as 'Spy', 'Jazz Scene Voyeur', 'A Life in the Day of Man Ray' and 'Roll Credits', and all but the first bear the following copyright inscription: 'All compositions © Ben Allison (Sonic Camera, SESAC)'. In liner notes, not coincidentally, Allison frequently mentions photographs either as inspirations for or descriptions of his compositions. But while there may be a photographic aesthetic at work in some of Allison's compositions, more often than not the 'sonic camera' in question is more like a video camera, and the music itself more like cinema or television than still photography.1 In interviews, Allison has often articulated his compositional approach in filmic terms.2 For example, in a 2011 interview with Jason Crane:As an instrumental musician, I'm always thinking visually, and I'm a huge fan of film music... I think I hear visually, and I try to write and play in that way, where there's a visual component to it, and it seems to work well with film... (Crane 2011).And from a 2008 interview with Tom Greenland:I guess sometimes people remark that my music has some kind of film-like quality and I'm actually happy when they say that... I'm not telling stories in my mind as I'm writing it, but I'm referencing a lot of that kind of music... I think the best description for me is, as a composer, I'm trying to create a landscape that the musicians are then free to explore. So, in an abstract way, another way of saying that is you're setting up a mood, a tone, a colour, a timbre, whatever you want to call it (Greenland 2008).3Allison's music is also frequently described in filmic terms by journalists, critics and fans. For example, in the words of the editorial staff at allaboutjazz.com:Bassist/composer Ben Allison is one of a few band leaders working in jazz today who has developed his own instantly identifiable sound. Known for his lyrical melodies, inventive grooves and inspired arrangements, Ben draws from the jazz tradition and a range of influences from rock and folk to classical and world music, seamlessly blending them into a cinematic, cohesive whole.4In this work, I would like to consider the significance of this recurrence of visual, and specifically filmic, metaphor in the description of Allison's compositions. Listeners variously inclined or disinclined towards such description will likely respond to it in different ways: some may find it intuitive, others simply puzzling. But I would argue that either response warrants sustained and thoughtful consideration of what such language does, both for speaker and hearer. …