In Jazz's early days, after the customers had gone home, artists held "cutting sessions" to compete and play with some unorthodox ideas they liked.
Nobody else would've understood.
I'm saying the artists studiously avoided the so-called "music lovers" they knew were lacking interest in, or failed to grasp, creation in service to the ears and mind - and not their heart or feet.
Those people in need of a pulse to run daytime.
Denied the best.
That's never changed.
America's got a mighty river of ideas, but forced to flow underground, where the sun-worshiping, self-proclaimed naturists are too scared to venture or swim.
They'll overwhelm you they're all there is.
Their outlook rules the airwaves - always the same - a weak municipal tap, available on demand, easily adjusted for hot and cold, and totally unavailable if you don't pay your bill.
Their art's not a resource or a necessity - but still life and death.
That's their "show" - demanded and paid for BTW - and one more recording artist's explanation for the sorry state of American political life:
When you're listening to those guys, we'll always be all wet,...
Off topic but: Another reason not to go to France...
ReplyDeleteThat's because of the utterly assinine way most (if not all) Europeans seem to view animals. Saw the same thing in Italy -- place is overrun with stray cats and dogs.
ReplyDeletePoor devils; the Euros buy them on a whim because the kid wanted one or it would be rather chic to have a pet, no? (it's very much a status symbol over there -- not because you really want or enjoy one). And then when summer is over, and they go home, or the animal gets a bit older and not so pretty or a vet cost comes up -- out to the street it goes where they stay and multiply because on the flip side the Euros get a bit squeamish about having them rounded up...too cruel (I think it has to do with them being too lazy and cheap, and they just hide behind the cruel thing, because really, isn't how those cats and dogs got out there feral a cold, vicious way to treat something who has come to trust and depend on you, when you think about it?).
So if a feral cat bites some Frenchman, I feel Frenchie had it coming (and probably the tourist did too, because too many stupid Americans have started behaving just like the damn French).
PW
*now ask me about the way most Germans and American hippie dippys act towards wild animals (hint: I actually root for the animals)
Hey, that Tape-Beatles you put up is some trippy stuff -- Rite of Spring and Elanor Rigby all in one mix.
ReplyDeleteThanks.
PW
"Kind of Blue" has achieved quadruple platinum, which is interesting, because the masses are so very shallow in general. As for the cutting sessions, I suspect that was more inside baseball--stuff the public wouldn't understand. I'm the first to admit that Thelonious Monk and Ornette Coleman elude me, but I'm also certain it's not their bad. Much like Qbert, people who's opinions I trust tell me they were giants, so the lack of understanding is all my own.
ReplyDeleteI tend to think of great musicians as philosophers, prowling around the depths and the chasms of the great questions (Why are we here? What happens when we die? Why does time flow only one way? What is this "love" thing all about?) like some mystic traveling an internal Tibet. I don't always understand the journey.
Yo-Yo Ma is a neighbor, and we've become "friends" to the degree he gifts me his new CDs as they are pressed. One day we were talking and I made a grave mistake, which was an edifying moment for me. I asked, "How can a guy like Kenny G study, and study, and study. Know all the notes, know where they are found, and still lack soul to such a degree."
Yo-Yo was horrified. "I'd never judge another man's music," he said. "I've played with orchestras and I've played with Tuvan throat singers and I'd love to play with The Chieftains. No...I can't judge another man's passion."
I was shamed, but learned something important, I think.
Post the results of you diagnosis sometime soon. People, myself included, are concerned.
Wow, PW - you actually listened? Incredible! BTW - I forgot to ask:
ReplyDeleteYou got a sister? LOL!
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteM Trumble,
ReplyDeleteYo-Yo breathes of the rarified air. Never fighting for gigs, or ever having anyone hold him down, his records and shows sell out - and get top billing - good or bad.
Like Kenny G, I wouldn't pay him much mind.
And, yeah, art, philosophy, and religion all deal in the ephemeral, so they can take you to some weird places, many (I think) that would cripple most with self-doubt. Especially because the "reward" is so distanced (in time, effort, and money) from whatever sparked the idea in the first place.
Shit, determinedly work on something for a few years only to discover it sucks, and see how you feel.
I haven't had that experience (yet) but I know others who have, and it's not pretty. Many are no longer with us.
I applied for disability today. It hurt to do it, for a number of reasons, but I think my days of physical labor (which is how I financed my art during my hiatus from music) are over. And I just had an ulcer heal. And my truck broke down.
All I can say is, it's a good thing I like Country songs because now I'm living one,...
Evi,
ReplyDeleteThe fucking cats are even crazy!
My french god kids are coming to New York next month and are begging me to come. Naturally, because of my back, I can't go. I'm tempted to invite them here except for one thing:
I'd hate for them to discover even our small towns move faster than their major cities.
They're so sensitive,...
Well, yeah. Yo-Yo was and is a prodigy. I asked once, how often he practices, and he said, "All of the time. I wake up thinking about music, and I fall asleep thinking about music." He's a mutant. He doesn't have to fight for gigs, for the same reason Count Basie didn't, or Phyllis Hyman--they were just that good.
ReplyDeleteLawrence Block, the prolific novelist once said, (I'm paraphrasing) that there are a whole lot of shitty poets out there, because poems are easy, but far fewer bad novelists, because to write a bad novel needs both passion AND lack of talent, and the passion to grind out 300 pages or so.
In music, it's even more apparent. Some, like Yo-Yo, were just born with the ability. Others worked hard to find a foothold.
I won't judge them.
It's one of those "you had to be there" kind of things.
ReplyDeletePeople sensed my conservatism even before I declared it, so even in my good ol' days I got pushback. One Sony executive told the L.A. Weekly, if they ever run another good revue of my work (which was becoming kind of common) they'll deprive them of music to review.
Yo-Yo don't know nothin' about that, and can't speak to it.
Below him, everybody judges.
Considering his background, I've found myself questioning HIS passion on occasion. He's a prodigy, right? Well, where's that burning work of world-splitting genius Mr. 24 hour music madness should've dropped on us by now? You know, for those of us in need of it?
I know - waiting to play with The Chieftans,...
Well, as I said, Yo Yo is a mutant. You're correct when you assume he's never suffered for his music--it just comes too easy. He's a guy who was playing before Dwight Eisenhower when he was five or six.
ReplyDeleteI, too, wondered why he never composed anything, but I suspect he's just not wired that way. He can play, and it doesn't much matter what. Bluegrass, chamber music, the Italian western music of Ennino Morricone (The Good,The Bad, and The Ugly) but he's never been punched in the face and never packed a gun a la Albert King to be sure he got paid for a gig. He is what he is.
Haha, no. No sister, and all of my cousins are old enough to be married off.
ReplyDeleteI actually do listen to the music you put up -- maybe not that day, but I go back and listen to it when I have the time.
Yo-Yo Ma is a good example of someone who is a virtuoso at playing music; not all of them are necessarily good at composing (just as some composers are not as good at playing as composing).
The same thing happens in horse world: some great trainers/riders of horses can't teach/judge people worth a darn -- there used to be a Swedish judge who was constantly criticized for not being able to ride as well as the riders he judged, but he had such a refined and understanding eye that he was one of the great judges (if he told you something was wrong or right, best listen to him). Once the performance gets to that level, you start getting very precise specialization, and it is a rare and great gift to be across the board good at it all.
And...unlike the other arts, the performance dies with the horse -- so riders have to acknowledge that ephemeral quality of performance very "up front".
PW
*sorry to hear about the disability thing, but it's probably for the best
M Trumble,
ReplyDeleteI hear you, really. I've nothing againsy Yo-Yo, but it still sucks balls:
I'm much more concerned about the opinions of my virtuoso, self-taught friends, who've never been trained, but can still sit in with anyone - anyone - and bring something unique to the performance beyond technical chops. I'm best friends with Curt Flood's nephew, an amazing San Francisco percussionist, and the poor guy's like one step from homeless because - unlike care-free, "I don't judge" Yo-Yo - he's got too much angst to make most people comfortable with anything but his performance.
My answer? If they really wanted to hear greatness, and "help the homeless/disadvantaged," then they'd pay the man to play and stay out of his way.
But no - it's been more important for everyone to attempt to control/capture this porcupine of an artist who (partially from watching his uncle's struggles) demands his space.
It just seems all upside-down to me. It's actually all wrong. Making those who suffer, suffer more, while paving the way for the golden child. Talent is irrelevant.
I'd love to see Yo-Yo's face, if he was playing with my friend, trying to keep up with and/or compete with the sonic innovations of a relaxed self-taught hermit with nothing to prove except his name should've been at the top of the marque - or, at least, with bigger lettering. My friend would be laughing to himself as he played.
Whatever.
Since Yo-Yo prefers the celebrity circuit, and will never think of it (or make it happen) himself, if I can get past this nonsense, you'll probably end up hearing him one day, but only in The Crack Emcee's Broken Black Man's Band,...
I hear you.
ReplyDeleteBut fame is not a zero sum game. Your friend isn't suffering because Yo Yo is not. I don't think Yo Yo prefers the celebrity circuit, he just finds himself there more often than not. The first time we met I had no idea who he was and actually offered him a job. He laughed and said he'd love to, but he was too busy.
I asked him what he did and he said he was a musician.
"Must be pretty good," I said. "Most of the musicians I know are living in someone's basement."
"I guess people like what I do."
"So, do you give lessons? Teach at Berkley?"
"Sometimes," he said. "Not so much any more."
When he left, everyone was laughing. You just offered Yo Yo Ma a job!
From that day on--about ten years ago--Yo Yo remembered my name and always seems happy to see me.
He's a good guy, doing what he loves to do and is very lucky in that regard. I don't think his good fortune sucks the wind out of anyone's sails.
M Trumble,
ReplyDeleteGood story.
I'm sorry if I wasn't clear. I didn't mean to imply I thought fame is a zero sum game, or that I wished anything but the best for Yo-Yo. He is lucky, and good for him.
I've just been in this too long,...