tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33937439.post4563185809942250427..comments2023-04-02T00:39:16.640-07:00Comments on Stochasticactus: If Q then not necessarily PPeter Breslinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15466530226652452872noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33937439.post-45773396168798733152009-10-04T07:45:25.506-07:002009-10-04T07:45:25.506-07:00In the words of Homer Simpson, "Your ideas ar...In the words of Homer Simpson, "Your ideas are intriguing and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter." <br /><br />And so I have (linked Stochasticactus to my Blogroll, that is). Great stuff, Mr. Breslin!Chris Kelseyhttp://chriskelsey.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33937439.post-41115112504689769412009-10-01T18:35:51.180-07:002009-10-01T18:35:51.180-07:00Thanks for stopping by! Numinosity is always welco...Thanks for stopping by! Numinosity is always welcome.<br /><br />J@LC sometimes seems like a jazz museum to me. In a museum, everything is well preserved and beautifully displayed. And dead.<br /><br />Sometimes it seems like a jazz zoo. Exotic and wild creatures kept in cages.<br /><br />I am a free range listener and I want free range music. It's out there for sure.Peter Breslinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15466530226652452872noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33937439.post-13776053321626442222009-10-01T18:15:06.773-07:002009-10-01T18:15:06.773-07:00Here are my thoughts on Gladwell's Outliers an...Here are my thoughts on Gladwell's <a href="http://numinousmusic.blogspot.com/2009/07/2009-summer-read-2-outliers-by-malcolm.html" rel="nofollow">Outliers</a> and while he is good for bringing up different ways to think about something, I do agree that his solutions/conclusions are often too simple and easy.<br /><br />As great as Coltrane is (my favorite Coltrane is actually his later <b>Impulse</b> years, precisely because he is reaching for something beyond the mere technical), why would you spend 10,000 hours trying to be him (or like him) or Miles or whomever, when you could spend that time exploring what you are or have to say? Maybe that's a symptom of today's American society: whatever paths to success that work for one person is reduced to an easily digested formula and plied to someone else in the hopes that it will achieve the same results. Which it never does. No matter how great those young bebop cats you know can play, what are they saying? what are they adding to the language? Like Miles said, "We played that &^%* already!" This is the same problem I have with the J@LC attitude (I liked your earlier posting): taking the surface structure and elements of jazz (swing, improv, etc.) and fossilizing that into amber as JAZZ, the immutable, instead of being open to what music of TODAY is saying and incorporating that into the music (like the days of old...). <br /><br />Nice to have found your blog by way of ABS...Numinoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17960808530187182856noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33937439.post-54536152504197583392009-09-28T08:07:13.182-07:002009-09-28T08:07:13.182-07:00Margo: absolutely art can be taught, I think. I...Margo: absolutely art can be taught, I think. I'm mostly resisting the class-based "Protestant art work ethic" implied by Gladwell's formula.<br /><br />David, I'm older so perhaps I'm more comfortable with the 19th/20th Century formulation of "the genius." I've noticed a tendency among younger people to reject, or at least interrogate, the idea. I do agree that the socio-political/economic contexts are crucial for the conversation. I like the beauty of human imperfection. As Leonard Cohen sings, "there is a crack in everything/that's how the light gets in." (or as James Joyce said, "a genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery.")Peter Breslinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15466530226652452872noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33937439.post-68239794790713803802009-09-28T07:44:07.945-07:002009-09-28T07:44:07.945-07:00As you say, the problem is the notion that anyone ...As you say, the problem is the notion that anyone could do the same as Coltrane with the right amount of hard work. And while it's true that to even approach Cecil Taylor or Coltrane or one of those players who possess absolute technical mastery is going to take a huge amount of work, that work on its own is not going to help you much in the creation of a music that comes from yourself and from your situation. What such analyses leave out is the whole socio-political dimension of the music: the charged atmosphere, the very real day-to-day problems of living in an institutionally and personally racist society, the revolutionary struggle, etc. As Fred Ho puts it in his article on Jazz as Revolutionary Music, terms like 'swing', and 'blues' are important not so much as technical benchmarks by which to check whether something is 'jazz' or not, but as embodiments of entire attitudes to life and to music, arising out of the experience of oppressed minorities in the twentieth century USA. which is not to say that jazz will always remain such - yet while those problems remain (as indeed they do, in whatever cunningly disguised form), the music will address them. and it will not do that by running over the chord changes to giant steps with technical perfection, every time. a computer can do that. music, as a human activity, is often IMperfect, which is its beauty: think miles davis' beautiful mistakes on those early charlie parker records. of course the problem with arguing that hours of practice won't make you coltrane is that you're led into the trap of saying 'well, coltrane was just a genius, THAT's why he's so good', rather than placing the music in its context. and i'm kinda suspicious of the whole 'genius' notion (the notion there is some 'inherent gift' that some people have which others do not - like a kind of religious, the escape to the inexplicable in lieu of explanations).<br /><br />anyhow, interesting post!david_grundyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09822972751622883772noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33937439.post-31328369938249781152009-09-28T07:14:36.602-07:002009-09-28T07:14:36.602-07:00Do you think art can't be taught, then? Can a ...Do you think art can't be taught, then? Can a Coltrane be made, or are they simply irrepressible?<br /><br />On another note, this is an essay I'd like to give the next student who tells me that so-and-so artist (always African American, of course) paints "like jazz."<br /><br />Yours,<br />MargoAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00234470698017945982noreply@blogger.com