My last guitar tutor recommended me a book on jazz music theory; he
said it would be the most comprehensive on theory and he was right.
The jazz theory book I have is very, very thick.
I think jazz, at heart, is a fairly conservative genre: most of the
keys are suited for horns, to quote the guitar book I'm reading. Why
horns? I think most of the original jazzmen (umm, great name for a
band) came from marching bands; they doubled as sidemen in the
whorehouses after hours. So, nearly 200 years later, the tracks they
laid are still being followed.
So, whilst free jazz is, huh, "free" it's not that free.
One of the most telling things I heard about ab ex, minimalism and a
lot of conceptualism is that the art cannot be framed outside of the
art gallery. They cannot begin to compete with the size, scale and
colour of modern life (Robert Hughes). Sol LeWitt and Carl Andre are
heroes of mine but even I can see their works would look pretty small
and insignificant set in Times Square or Las Vegas. But I can live
with it.
Roger
On Mon, Nov 3, 2008 at 6:48 PM, Douglas Barbour
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Fascinating history here, Christopher, but I must say I am confused (as who
> isnt, but) by your admonitions against whatever it is you think
> 'postmodernism' is. That is I'm confused as to what you think pomo is.
>
> Nor does ab ex Have to be the horror you seem to think. At least it isnt to
> me....
>
> But then, I am something of a formalist I guess.....
>
> I would think, though, that those jazz masters you pay homage to at the end
> knew all too well the formal aspects of their art, even if some of their
> playing strained against or broke the supposed formal rules....
>
> Doug
> On 3-Nov-08, at 3:16 AM, Christopher C Jones wrote:
>
>> Caleb, thanks and yes, I gave my collection of Laughing Clowns LPs to my
--
My Stuff: http://www.badstep.net/
"I began to warm and chill
to objects and their fields"
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
|