Hello Wednesay! Hello March! Hello quiet.
Wednesday is almost like the start of my work week. As much fun as I have on the other days I quite enjoy the change of pace when I have the house alone, drinking coffee, listening to the radio as I check my email. Wednesday has also been the day i always tune into the Mike Hansen; Why Not Jazz radio program on CKLN. Today is a sad day as he is broadcasting his last show after doing it for 22 years. (hard to believe!)
Not only has he become the main portal for improvised music from around the world, but his laugh and sense of humour and take on art and life are completely unique. Today was a classic example where he stated that the the only real art being made in music today is in improvised music.Hmmm....very interesting Mike.
The good news is that Mike is going to continue doing the show each week as a podcast!
End of an era, start of something new. I am extra sensitive to things like this as I turn 40 this month. I am not sad but more aware of things that come to an end.
Hope you can make it out tonight to hear Ben Grossman and I at the York U art Gallery. 7pm (no cover!)
Enjoying the sun today in Toronto;
tim
www.GuildwoodRecords.com
Please vote for the Tim Posgate Hornband in Electric and Acoustic Group of the Year at the National Jazz Awards
1 Comments:
Hmm. I think that Mike might be right that improvised music is the only 'art' music possible right now. But it depends on what you mean by 'art'. I've just been reading a history of the idea of "art for art's sake" (it's online at http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/cgi-local/DHI/dhi.cgi?id=dv1-18
) and it seems to me that completely improvised music is the closest thing to an 'autonomous' music these days. But then again, improvised music is of many types. If you improvise tonally and melodically, is it as much 'art' as when you use non-pitched and non-periodic sound, as in some 'glitch' performances? There are improvisationg groups around here like Holy Fuck that are garnering pop attention, playing improvised music that doesn't "sound" improvised. And I'm reminded of the time I impulsively turned a straight jazz duo gig with Rob Clutton into a night of total improv, and an audience member told me afterward how much she loved that "blues and jazz" - she hadn't noticed that we were improvising! So is the autonomy in the production or the reception? Or both?
Too many questions for this point in the morning...more coffee...
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