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Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Classical Why I Can Never Enjoy Free Jazz and Dodecaphonic Compositions
Posted by Charles Mudede on Tue, Oct 25, 2011 at 2:52 PM
Ezra Pound put it simply and sweetly:
Music begins to atrophy when it departs too far from the dance... poetry begins to atrophy when it gets too far from music.Yet this wisdom, this powerful understanding is absent from long stretches of his own poem The Cantos.
The music performed by this boy is, as you can hear, too far away from the dance...
2
Music begins to atrophy when it departs too far from the dance...
Brilliant and true. The best music speaks to your body as well as your mind.
Brilliant and true. The best music speaks to your body as well as your mind.
3
I am looking forward to being able to purchase my own copy of the little red book of Mudede, so I can remember all the things I "must" do, say, and think.
But really, this kid is precocious and talented, but still a kid- and not representative of "free jazz".
Ornette Coleman is generally the definition of free jazz, and if you cant dance to Ornette, you are seriously rhythm challenged.
What would ol' Ezra have to say about, say, the music of Burial, which is about as undanceable as possible? In fact, Burial, which is one of the very few things I agree with Charles about (we both love his music) has said he tries to make his music sound like weapons being dissassembled- pretty catchy, eh?
In point of fact, Charles likes lots of music that is too far away from the dance, he just doesnt like this "boy" (interesting choice of word, there, Charles).
While some of the solo piano music of Cecil Taylor may be similar to this video, the vast majority of free jazz, from Coltrane to Shepp to Dolphy to Mingus to Ayler to Sun Ra to more modern Sharrock, James Blood Ulmer, Ronald Shannon Jackson, up to Zorn and his vast array of collaborators, is all eminently danceable.
I cant listen to Science Fiction, Ornette's masterpiece, without starting to wriggle...
But really, this kid is precocious and talented, but still a kid- and not representative of "free jazz".
Ornette Coleman is generally the definition of free jazz, and if you cant dance to Ornette, you are seriously rhythm challenged.
What would ol' Ezra have to say about, say, the music of Burial, which is about as undanceable as possible? In fact, Burial, which is one of the very few things I agree with Charles about (we both love his music) has said he tries to make his music sound like weapons being dissassembled- pretty catchy, eh?
In point of fact, Charles likes lots of music that is too far away from the dance, he just doesnt like this "boy" (interesting choice of word, there, Charles).
While some of the solo piano music of Cecil Taylor may be similar to this video, the vast majority of free jazz, from Coltrane to Shepp to Dolphy to Mingus to Ayler to Sun Ra to more modern Sharrock, James Blood Ulmer, Ronald Shannon Jackson, up to Zorn and his vast array of collaborators, is all eminently danceable.
I cant listen to Science Fiction, Ornette's masterpiece, without starting to wriggle...
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