Playing music is not really susceptible to theory much. Circumstances affect it so much.

Solo concerts are murder, I find; I don't like doing them.

I think playing solo is a second rate activity, really. For me, playing is about playing with other people.

Playing music is not really susceptible to theory much. Circumstances affect it so much.

But that methodology where players are pitted against other unfamiliar players has been so widely adapted now that anybody plays with everybody.

Free improvisation, in addition to being a highly skilled musical craft, is open to use by almost anyone - beginners, children, and non-musicians.

Personally, I've found one of the more stimulating ways of playing in recent times has been to kind of move outside the free improvised area and work with people who are probably improvisers but they have a particular way of working.