Name: Theo Bleckmann
Nationality: German
Occupation: Vocalist, composer, improviser
Current release: Recent album releases by Theo Bleckmann include LP1 with Joseph Branciforte on greyfade, Elegy and A Clear Midnight (in conjunction with the Julia Hülsmann Quartet ) on ECM, My Choice via Winter & Winter, and This Land (with The Westerlies). There are also a few beautiful self-published pieces available via his personal bandcamp store.

[Read our Joseph Branciforte interview]

If you enjoyed this interview with Theo Bleckmann and would like to know more about his music, visit his official homepage. To stay up to date with his work, check out his profiles on Instagram, Facebook, and twitter.



When did you first start getting interested in musical improvisation?

The idea of making something up in the moment was always part of my earliest music-making in some way. Whether I was making up vocal harmonies when singing with my mom for fun, or asked to invent a second or third voice in the children’s choir.

As a kid I often imitated sounds around me and tricked my father into thinking that something was wrong with our car while out driving.

Which artists, approaches, albums or performances involving prominent use of improvisation captured your imagination in the beginning?

One of the albums that deeply influenced me early on was Al Jarreau’s Look To The Rainbow which is a masterclass in improvisation, vocal artistry and story-telling.



Another one was Sheila Jordan’s The Crossing.



I listened to that album incessantly, it so beautifully weaves in and out of improvisation so that the entire record feels improvised in some way. The fluidity and effortlessness of the improvisation was what excited me to no end. The way Sheila’s improvises a new melody on “God Bless The Child” without ever losing the actual song, literally kept me up one night. I couldn’t believe something so profound could come out of improvisation.

Another really important improvisatory milestone were Kenny Wheeler’s Gnu High and Double Double You, which were on constant rotation. I was so taken by how Kenny Wheeler could play changes (as a trumpeter would) and suddenly insert slides, cracks and strange sounds without it ever sounding contrived or calculated.



His playing (and his co-musicians’, esp Keith Jarrett’s beyond-brilliant solo piano transition on Gnu High) really opened ideas about extended sounds within pitched parameters

Focusing on improvisation can be an incisive transition. Aside from musical considerations, there can also be personal motivations for looking for alternatives. Was this the case for you, and if so, in which way?

As a younger musician I went back and fourth thinking that improvised music was superior to composed music and vice versa. Since I perform in so many different contexts in jazz, contemporary classical music and improvisatory music, I was able to experience how different processes lead to different results. Some of these results became a bit repetitive after a while so I decided the process needed to change.

For several years, I performed improvised, full-length concerts with drummer / percussionist John Hollenbeck. We would usually record our concerts and afterwards during the lengthy car rides on tour, we would listen to the recordings and share our impressions. So often, we had polar opposite impressions of what had happened and what could or should have happened at any given moment. It was incredibly helpful to talk about improvisation in that way with someone you trust and respect and see how improvisation is a dialog affecting the other person in ways you can’t predict or control.

That being said, it was always incredibly joyous and exciting to play in duo with him, which also cemented my realization that I feel more open and creative with certain players than others which obviously affects the music.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to improvisation? Do you see yourself as part of a tradition or historic lineage?

Whether I am part of any lineage or what lineage that is, is for someone else to figure out. I come from a place of wild abandon and discipline. When I improvise I like to be able to go anywhere the music takes me but also be as still and static as possible.

At first, I like to serve the music and step outside myself in order to get my ego out of the way.

What was your own learning curve / creative development like when it comes to improvisation - what were challenges and breakthroughs?

When improvisations becomes a buffet of my “greatest hits” then I have basically just re-shuffled an old improvisation. Challenges are often in doing too much too fast and not letting the music guide you to where it wants to go. If your co-musicians are feeling that same un-ease of having to invent and constantly feed new ideas to the mix, the music can become a grey soup.

In working with electronic musician Jo Branciforte I have learned to scale my palette way down in order to not distract from the detail and finesse in the tapestry of music itself. It’s easy when you have a flexible, acrobatic instrument to want to use it and take it for a ride constantly.



The more interesting improv concerts with Jo have come from a much quieter place, a place where I plant a seed and keep watering it until it’s fully blossomed.

Tell me about your instrument and/or tools, please. How would you describe the relationship with it? What are its most important qualities and how do they influence the musical results and your own performance?

My instrument is my voice and with that, I have a seemingness endless palette of sounds and possibilities.

I also work with live electronic looping. Most of time I use it quite sparingly and in combination with my extended techniques. I use it to orchestrate and change the palette during any given concert. I use a small looper, an echo / delay unit and a small harmonizer. For the most part, I use these machines against their actual purpose, meaning that I try to find the glitches and functions that they were NOT made for (e.g. holding a pitch while scrolling through different presents etc).

This idea of “rebelling again the rules” was cemented in particular after studying visual artist’s John Baldessari’s work in depth, and finding much inspiration in his early work, defying art book rules and creating work from that.

Can you talk about a work, event or performance in your career that's particularly dear to you? Why does it feel special to you? When, why and how did you start working on it, what were some of the motivations and ideas behind it?

One of my dearest works is when I decided to take on the music of Kate Bush. This was back in 2009 when her name was not as well known again as it is now. It was really a project of love and of complete dedication to something quite personal.

My record company give me the stink eye at first and pretty much every else was scratching their head, too. Hello Earth - the music of Kate Bush was received quite well but also brought out the worst in some hard-core Kate Bush fans, which only proved to me that I had touched a nerve.



How do you feel your sense of identity influences your collaborations? Do you feel as though you are able to express yourself more fully in solo mode or, conversely, through the interaction with other musicians? Are you “gaining” or “sacrificing” something in a collaboration?

I hope to always gain something in a collaboration, but I have learned to choose my collaborators very, very carefully. Not only do they have to be the kind of musicians that have skill and flexibility to go anywhere but also have a kind and open heart to do this with me. My work is sometimes weird, I know that - I need a collaborator who wants to go there with me.

Performing solo can be quite lonely and after touring my solo concert for a few years I yearned to be with other musicians again. It’s so wonderful to be on tour with the people you love and admire.

When you're improvising, does it actually feel like you're inventing something on the spot – or are you inventively re-arranging patterns from preparations, practise or previous performances?

I would say both. Of course you are always in your body and always singing with the voice that you have (which varies slightly from day to day) but overall you hope to achieve a state of absolute abandon where all that skill and creativity is in service of the moment. The moment that will tell you exactly what to do and, more importantly, what NOT to do.

To you, are there rules in improvisation? If so, what kind of rules are these?

There can be rules and there can be complete anarchy. Both can work in music.

In working with Meredith Monk I have learned how to improvise with the smallest parameters possible. And even in those improvisatory sections there can be a lot of detailed rules that apply as far as rhythms to avoid, or pitches not to repeat, or rhythms and pitches that go toghether sometimes but not more than twice …, etc.



I sometimes think that you need to put yourself into the tiniest spaceship to be able to see the cosmos.

In a live situation, decisions between creatives often work without words. How does this process work – and how does it change your performance compared to a solo performance?

I am not great at improvising with words. I can’t even imagine how free-style rappers or hip hop artists do it. Incredible.

I worked with vocalist Lynn Book on a performance piece called “Mercuria” here in NY in the 90s and she was such a wizard at using words.



Shelley Hersch is like that, too. I’m in awe.

There are many descriptions of the ideal state of mind for being creative. What is it like for you? In which way is it different between your solo work and collaborations?

The state of mind is that of humility and getting my ego out of the way so the music can unfold.

As lofty of a goal as that might sound, that is really what it boils down to for me.

How do you see the relationship between sound, space and performance and what are some of your strategies and approaches of working with them?

Every space has a different energy and sound. When I walk into a theatre or concert space I get an immediate reaction of energy. If the energy I get is cold and rejecting, I try to devise ways to change that energy.

This can sometimes be done through sound itself, through the setlist and what to play when, or how I talk to the audience (or not talk at all), in other words, I don’t just plop myself into a space like a stall at a convention center.

I have been known to move major furniture around and basically re-design a space if necessary.

In a way, improvisations remind us of the transitory nature of life. What, do you feel, can music and improvisation express and reveal about life and death?

At its core, improvisation is accepting the current moment and going forward in a way to make the next moment better. How is that not everything we need to do in life and death?