Kitchen Jazz

  I remember an early album by Roger Williams where he admitted that " Cookies Made Me Practice". ( Back when albums were 12" square and had several pages of pics and reading material inside ).   It certainly worked for him!  While cookies are powerful motivators for kids AND adults, they are also useful for other reasons as I hope to explain in this post.
 
     Aspiring jazz players are sometimes held hostage by the paradigms (ways of thinking, thinking styles) of their upbringing.  Following rules, learning the proper scales, studying the standard exercises, following the methods, diving into theory, doing the painstaking transcriptions and diligent memorizations.    Not that those things are bad in and of themselves, but they can cause you to get sidetracked to the point that it becomes paralyzing.  It's tempting to postpone creativity and playfulness and natural improvisation until all of those things are in place, thinking that if you follow the linear paradigm long and hard enough, and THINK hard enough,  that will just happen.   Deep down you know something needs to be happening right away, but it's so difficult to even define what that is.  You hear other great players having such a great time, skillfully and playfully throwing out brilliant improvisations seemingly on a whim and wonder why your own playing seems so stiff and calculated. 

Here's a cooking exercise that will help to reset these early imprinted paradigms.  It is a great way to practice ENGAGING the creative instincts, BEING in the moment, GROWING by merely paying attention, NARROWING focus, DISCOVERING through experimentation, CREATING from nothing, CREATING from something ,  EVOLVING from happy accident, DISCONNECTING the ego from creative process.     Just follow this recipe for homemade cookies, observe, understand and ACCEPT the outcome.   I suggest ACTUALLY doing this, going into the kitchen and making it happen - reading about the idea ONLY will not work.  It is a way of thinking that requires retraining and hands-on practice.   If you live here in my home town of Salt Lake City, I would love to sample your cookies.  I bet they're amazing and like no other cookies either of us have ever tasted. 

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LUSCIOUS SURPRISE COOKIES

Preheat oven to whatever temperature might work for cookies.

 Cream  together:

    INGREDIENT                         AMOUNT

   Something sweet                         a bunch
   Salt                                               to taste
    Egg                                              as many as you think. Or not.
   Fat ( butter, oil, whatever)            some ( use texture as a guide)
  Liquid  ( anything )                        if needed for texture or flavor
  Flavor source  ( anything)             as much as you want

Flour ( any kind )                          a bunch  ( use texture as a guide )
Nuts ( any kind )                            a bunch
Rolled Oats ( maybe)                  a bunch
Leavening  ( any kind)                  a little bit
Raisins  ( maybe)                         some or none
Chips (maybe)                             some or none            
Dried Fruit  ( maybe)                   some or none
Seeds and Grains ( maybe)          some or none
Surprise Ingredient ( something crazy)             some



BAKE  until   done.

EAT, OBSERVE and  LEARN something for the next batch.

Photo Credit:  www.photographyblogger.net/25-tasty-pictures-of-cookies/