I played the Jazz festival Colloquium in Guelph under the title improvising melodicism. The more I thought about what I got myself into, the more I realized I couldn’t explain it as much as I could play it. I started by telling the crowd the Sufi story about a mystic who goes to a village and cautions them that the river’s water will dry up and when it returns don’t drink it or you’ll go crazy. One guy hoards his water, takes it in barrels to a cave. Sure enough the river ran dry and later returned. He went to check on the townfolk and found them drinking the water. When he asked they chased him out and tried to stab him. He realized they had turned mad. He stayed a long time in the cave, no problem with his water supply but eventually, out of loneliness, returned to town, drank the water and joined them in being crazy. That’s how I feel trying to explain incorporating melodicism within improvisational music. I sense annoyance, even hostility from the poor captured audience listening to my best inarticulate explanation. It was better after I played. One guy sent me an email saying he agrees, more specifically about my position he said it is easier to destroy a bridge than create one.