Art for Arts Sake

"Challenge yourself, and you'll extend yourself." Composer and professional musician David Pyke (Jazz trumpet) about maintenance & craft in art. In a jam session at a Jazz Club, you might have a good start until minute 1 and 20 seconds of your solo, and that was it for the rest of the evening. Why? Only with reserve, warm-up and having done the daily maintenance of your craft, you can sustain. Without the proper training, there is no way to get through the entire evening because the trumpet never forgives. 

This is one from the Christmas / New Year period, when David was visiting Cologne. It is quite probable that we need to wait (sometimes a long time) until there is interest in our work. At least an independent classical composer living in Australia, as David is, experiences this. This year (2024), the Portland Youth Symphony Orchestra performed one of his works, that was composed around 20 years ago. Surely it is tough, but apart from only being frustrated, we encourage each other to think of the fermentation process of the work - sometimes it is like the wine with your new art work, it needs time in the cellar. We have to have some outlet, right? We need to make art? We are hopeless, although we are banging at people's doors and submit music if they like it or not. And we always come back to saying to each other - as artists we will keep working and creating - when our work is not of interest to people, we keep working & follow our passion - do the quiet work, David calls it. Recorded in Köln, January 5th, 2024 You can watch the mentioned Performance of David that took almost 20 years, here: Desert Suite Premiere - Portland Youth Philharmonic Jan 5th, 2024 https://youtu.be/7y0IMdEridI The music in this episode was recorded by David in St. Aposteln (the photo of this episode was made there, too: "Trumpetmeister David Pyke"),  thanks to the support and kindness of St. Aposteln Cantor Meik Impekhoven  and the help and patience of Christof Köhler. Cheers!

The agenda of not having an agenda. "Welcome to my lab! This is what is on the slab." We talk about the creative mindset, waves of ideas & inspiration and the pathway of intention: our expectations, agendas, emotions & the sweet spot of surfing when creating, where the great and the lousy ideas coming in waves, and we need to be "in the moment". We also talk about how to know which direction do you take when you come to a crossroad that destiny offers? He says we need to instigate and take a decision. Music in the intro is by David and Christof, recorded in January 4th, 2024 in St. Aposteln, made possible through the kind support of Meik Impekoven. Music in the outro is called Canto di Dalia, composed by David and recorded by Alteouise De Vaughn and Andy Redhead in 2021. The recording was made the for Performing Art Podcast, a project supported by Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.  The video version of E06 has automatically created captions and some pictures, it is available here: https://vimeo.com/919669443 Recorded 2023 April 4th by David W. Pyke https://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/artist/pyke-david and Pipo Tafel https://www.pipotafel.com/

An artist conversation about the mental mud wrestling of wondering why we cannot say what creates a success. David feels like an outlaw, a cowboy, because he has trouble selling tickets for a music show with Italian music, and despite advertisement, sales are slow - what's wrong - is there something wrong or is it a question of how to look at it and unpack another view and logic? The department store of life - how do you know on which floor to look for the answers for our questions of measuring success. The video version has automatically created captions: https://vimeo.com/pipotafel/afas05pt1 Recorded 2022 Octobre 6th in Australia | Germany Music by David | Postproduction by Pipo by David W. Pyke https://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/artist/pyke-david and Pipo Tafel https://www.pipotafel.com/

What is the relationships of the artist to space and the necessity to reflect upon it? We discuss the labels, that are used to define the languages of art, examples include John Cage 4' 33", Hermann Hesse, ancient paintings in Australia thousands of years old, Miles Davis and others.  Music as always from David - cheers!

David recorded this episode on July 11, 2022. The editing put it together with a recording of him playing his trumpet in Basilica St. Aposteln Cologne on Jan 4 2024.  We used these tracks:  C Trumpet Dawn Sketch 3 & 4.  More about the music, that make part of an artistic project-in-progress called "Dawn" can be found here: https://www.pipotafel.com/dawn/ Thank you to Maik Impekoven & Christof Köhler for supporting the recording that day. 

Off the track - an episode on the value to travel. Absorbing it and putting it into the art. Is there a difference of being a tourist or travelling and immersing oneself brings you an expansion that also fosters one's art (even if it is going to a 24hours store in San Juan, Puerto Rico)? And sharing it also brings inspiration to others.  Artist conversation by "the Australian guy", David W. Pyke (Music) & "the German guy", Pipo Tafel (Editing) recorded June 14 2021 San Juan Puerto Rico | Cooktown Australia edited Jan 4 2024 Cologne  Music: was recorded by David and is called davidadnateguarde & podcast 2 demo tpt take solo

Who is this podcast for? Why? And we discuss copyright issues related to the music David contributed to this episode - how can and must we use it. The constant dilemma of being an artist and climbing the mountain of making it happen that feels like the Mount Everest. But don't give up, you're not alone.