It was 7:30 p.m. on Monday at Never Ending Books, and Bob Gorry of the New Haven Improvisers Collective had a few instructions for the musicians gathered in the room.
The collective always started with the same exercise, of playing long tones together,“whatever that means on your instrument,” Gorry said.“It’s very important for listening and for figuring out the room. It’s really important that you hear everybody.”
The idea was to play a tone as long as possible, then pause and play another, while listening to everyone else.“If you can’t hear someone,” Gorry said,“play quieter.”
The New Haven Improvisers Collective has been holding monthly free improvisation workshops on the last Monday of the month at Never Ending Books for 18 years; only the pandemic interrupted its schedule. In addition to being a vehicle for fostering community and helping musicians find collaborators, the workshops have become multigenerational, a place for younger and older musicians to meet one another, trade ideas, play and listen, grow as musicians, and — who knows — maybe even find a sound on their instrument they’ve never played before.
