Fables 015 (Mix) | JPknowz

The Moog Grandmother’s extremely primitive sequencer and its one-by-one note entry bring new meaning to the term “watch your step”. It has brought simpler ideas, new ways of thinking about writing, and a clearer sense of how Afro-Cuban rhythms permeate almost every other genre.

As we’re faced with stricter limitations, how do we remain present to “turn poison into medicine”, as Herbie Hancock would put it, and how do we use them to revolutionise the compositional process? When Keith Jarrett said, “I’ll just play something that’s nothing until I play it.”, it reminds me of how total improvisation is mostly about learning about what you’re creating as it’s happening, as much as it can be easy to think of it only as the realisation of preconceived ideas.

Seeing his trio back in 2010 was incredible, but oddly enough, not much of that concert remains totally etched in my memory today. I was probably just so blown away that this legendary group of human beings was only 10 feet away from me. However, I do remember when he stopped the band mid-song to point out to the audience that the piano’s Bb was out of tune and sounded like an ambulance.

We lost Jack DeJohnette recently. To me, he was the king of the castle (along with Brian Blade) when it came to drums in jazz music. Fluid precision, melodicism, and the ability to play around with time with explosive energy and dynamic sensitivity made his sound so incredibly unique. How far can the boundaries be pushed this way while creating the magical pressure demanded of sound system music? How could these approaches possibly be faked? Is magic realer than AI? New technology, but new setbacks… new feelings to new textures… new breakthroughs and new signal flows… Time to cut yo hair!

*Recorded live at home in Toronto, Canada (2026)