Toku’s "licks" inspire Teddy’s improvisations

The imaginative interplay between Tokutomi and Teddy may be seen in some of the latest work of the Danish pipe-maker as well. One thematic line can be traced to the Newark Pipe Show in the spring of 2004, where Teddy saw a new shape that Tokutomi had recently carved, called the "Gondola." Teddy was thoroughly taken with the design and sent along his congratulations to Toku. He also saw several of Toku's blowfish and a whimsical, highly asymmetrical variation on the Elephant's Foot, a form that Teddy has developed and played with for many years.

By the time of the Chicago Show, a couple of months later, Teddy had created a brand new shape. He called his pipe the "Alien," because he said it was alien from anything he'd done before. Though the shape doesn't contain the asymmetries of the "Gondola," it shares many of the general lines of Toku's pipe and it exudes a similar tone of easy grace and continuous flow.

The underlying, thematic connections between the two designs can be illustrated by a bit of computer "morphing" in which the two pipes combine smoothly with each other.  (See next the two pictures.  I am here using Toku's second, slightly larger version of the "Gondola".)

"Alien" turned out to be one of Teddy's most important recent pipes as it seemed to trigger a burst of new creativity from this most inventive of Danish pipe masters. By November 2004, Teddy had further refined and developed the pod-like bowl by contouring the rim slightly off-center and adding a gently asymmetric tail. His splendidly supple and organic new form suggested a swimming animal and Teddy dubbed it "Seal." This simple yet remarkably elegant form has become a new favorite of Teddy's and he has carved several further improvisations on the idea.

While "Seal" clearly traces part of its heritage to "Alien," it also seems to have some imaginative resonance with Toku's asymmetrical Elephant's Foot (which itself may express some improvisations on elephant-foot themes developed earlier by Teddy).

But, as traditional Japanese aesthetics suggests, straight-lines often seem unnatural and artificial, especially if we try to apply them to something as ambiguous as the creative process. It would be wrong to assert precise and easily-defined connections between the designs of Toku ("Gondola" and Elephant's Foot) and those of Teddy ("Alien," "Seal" and previous elephant-foot forms).  Rather, I see all these pipes forming a subtle web of suggestion and inspiration, of intention and intuition ... as evanescent, yet as rich with possibility, as the fragments of music that come into the minds of jazz musicians while they develop their improvisations.