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zorn-list Digest       Tuesday, August 19 1997       Volume 02 : Number 101



In this issue:

    Om Namah Shiva (Transformation Of The Heart Mix)
    Re: heretic/cobra scores
    Praxis
    Re:  Masada 7
    Scott Bradley/Nino Rota
    Zony Mash tapes
    scherer
    Daevid Allen/Palominos
    Parachute Box
    Parachute years or Masada?
    Re: Parachute years or Masada?
    Parachute years or Masada?
    Re: Parachute years or Masada?
    Re: Parachute years or Masada?
    Fred Frith article from MUSICS

See the end of the digest for information on subscribing to the zorn-list
or zorn-list-digest mailing lists and on how to retrieve back issues.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Mon, 18 Aug 1997 21:03:21 -0500 (CDT)
From: "[e-mail]" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Om Namah Shiva (Transformation Of The Heart Mix)

As promised...

- --------------------

JAH WOBBLE'S INVADERS OF THE HEART - The Sun Does Rise EP

1)  The Sun Does Rise (Radio Edit)  3:07
2)  Yalili Ya Aini  2:47
3)  Om Namah Shiva (Transformation Of The Heart Mix)  14:08
4)  Raga  4:43

Tracks 1 & 4 taken from the album _Take Me To God_

Track 3 : Mix translation and additional production by Bill Laswell.
      Engineering and programming by Robert Musso.
      Mix assistance and editing by Layng Martine.
      Recorded at Greenpoint Studio, Brooklyn.

1994 - Island UK #CID 587/854 037-2


- --------------------

Interesting that this remix appeared before the original did (1995 in
Europe, 1996 in the States).

If anyone really wants a copy of this, I might be able to get ahold of
another one.

Out 2 Lunch With Lunchmeat,

Paul
[e-mail]
           -------------------------------------------------------------------
  GROOVE             O(+> (the artist formerly known as Prince) <+)O
- ----------            e - m - a - n - c - i - p - a - t - i - o - n
one nation            The Exodus Has Concluded - Welcome 2 The Dawn
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------------------------------

Date: Tue, 19 Aug 1997 14:40:05 +1100
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: heretic/cobra scores

Heretic has always seemed to me to be one of the meatiest and most
fascinating NC rcords, mainly because of the sheer beauty of much of the
quiter more gamelan influenced and atmospheric pieces. I think true enough
its up there with the more esoteric and less rhtymically driven zorn
projects but I find its pieces to be far more structured and dramatic than
some are giving them  credit. The trio pieces with Baron, Frith and
frisell are almost the last word on trying to do a truly "art" music
interpretation of classic rock instrumentation. The trhree title tracks
are really quite exciting from a musicaly dramatic perspective as well. I
find it has the widest range of actual "sounds" and timbre than any other
Zorn release that I'm familiar with.
 On an entirely different note, can anyone help me regarding finding the
performance "score" for Cobra? Or indeed if any scores of Zorn's works
have been issued (apart from the Carny one)?

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 18 Aug 1997 22:33:43 -0700
From: "pjm" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Praxis

> Unnh; I think I could maybe hazard reasonable guesses at a few of the
> sounds on this disc. There's one track on Absinthe (dunno - offhand -
> exactly which) built around samples off of SPK's excellent and *rocking*
> first album, Information Overload Unit. Same record gets plundered by
Zorn
> and Eye on their Nanni Nanni collab - for the track Propollution, from
> memory. And just this weekend I think I recognised a fragment of this
same
> record in Ground Zero's swansong, Consume Red.


    This has reminded me: While listening to Entombed's LEFT HAND PATH lp, i
realized that the begining of Praxis' STRONGHOLD on "Sacrafist" CD is
sampled from the begining of the first song od the second side...or first
side... its recorded on a tape actually..... It was quite a pleasant
discovery.. I love finding that stuff...
                        pjm

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 18 Aug 1997 20:48:47 +0000
From: Dan Kuehn <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re:  Masada 7

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just to fan the flames, on bar kokhba, as well as the number
eight, there's also the hebrew symbol for eight, "chet".  this
isn't masada 8?
- --
Dan Kuehn
resident manager
Kailua Maui Gardens


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------------------------------

Date: Mon, 18 Aug 1997 19:01:26 +0200 (MESZ)
From: BJOERN <[e-mail]>
Subject: Scott Bradley/Nino Rota

wellll someone mentioned Carl Stalling Project some days ago........
great CDs......
hmm can anyone tell me if there is any recording of Scott Bradley`s (MGM
cartoons like Tom & Jerry) music except for the Tex Avery CD?????
Personally I think that his stuff is even better than the Stalling music...
(well just listen what David Shea did with parts of the Bradley stuff on
"Cartoon for Scott Bradley" of the Shock Corridor CD)

other question is: where can i find the Godfather pt 1 soundtrack by Nino
Rota??

BJOERN

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 19 Aug 1997 01:23:48 -0700 (PDT)
From: Todd Bramy <[e-mail]>
Subject: Zony Mash tapes

All right, I know you're out there. Come on out.

I saw the Frisell night as well as the Torture Garden night of the Zony
Mash shows last week at the OK Hotel in Seattle and I saw lots of
microphones in the back of the room. My buddy Chris, who was running the
board estimates 4 or 5 direct to DAT tapers each night. I'd really love to
get copies of at least these two nights. Please email me for trade
possibilities.

Thanks

Todd Bramy
[e-mail]

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 19 Aug 1997 10:41:42 GMT0BST
From: DR S WILKIE <[e-mail]>
Subject: scherer

does anyone have info. on Peter Scherer's "very neon pet" cd
(mgb9401)? thanks...

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 19 Aug 1997 07:28:50 PDT
From: "David Brunelle" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Daevid Allen/Palominos

I just got a copy of Dividedalienplaybax80, but there's no info on it
other than song titles. Does anyone know when and where it was recorded
and who the players are?  It was my understanding that it was (as with
New York Gong's "New York Now:) that the original Material players were
on this. Also, does anyone know why Anton Fier disbanded the Golden
Palominos?

Dave Brunelle
[e-mail]

______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 19 Aug 1997 08:17:39 -0700
From: dayna <[e-mail]>
Subject: Parachute Box

Ok.
So there was a larger than expected response for me to pick up a couple
of Zorn's Parachute Years Box Sets from work.  And seemingly a lot more
people read this list than post to it.

I will try to get in touch with the Koch Dist. buyer today to let him
know that there are X number of sets I need.  There may be a chance that
these pieces had to be ordered very early b/c of the limited nature of
the set; and also cautious buying because of the price.

Some people asked me about shipping to Europe; The postage will be
considerably higher; it's a heavy set.  I'm guessing $90 U.S. to get it
to you air mail. I wouldn't want to chance surface mail for this.

Again; I'm only doing this because I have (hopefully) access to these
sets at work at a lower cost.  I wasn't sure how to do it, but I am
going to need the checks ahead of time simply because if 12 of the
people who wrote me are serious, I'll have to bring about $1000 cash to
work to pick these up.

As for the people who want to know WHAT the box is; be advised I'm NOT
liable for taste; if you LIKE this music or not.  I've had a tape of
Archery (one of the albums to be re-released on Parachute) for years
that frankly I almost never listen to it.  In fact it is probably my
LEAST favorite Zorn piece.  This set will certainly be a Difficult
Listening (7) Hours. More details to follow as I get them.

Mark M.

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 19 Aug 1997 11:14:37 -0500
From: PETSITTER <[e-mail]>
Subject: Parachute years or Masada?

Hi, this is my first time writting to this list.  I have only been
listening to Zorn for about 3 years, but am as enthusiastic as some one
who has been listening for longer.  As soon as I first heard Zorn I
wanted to try and collect every thing he has.
    The only Masada CD I have is number 6.  I would like to purchase the
others.  I have been hearing a lot of talk about the Parachute set.  I
fear if  I do not purchase it I will never find it easily.
    I have found a place where I can aquire all the Masada's.  My question
is, as a collector, would it be wiser to order the parachute set or
first get the Masada CD's?

Jeff Schuth

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 19 Aug 1997 09:27:24 -0700
From: "Patrice L. Roussel" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Parachute years or Masada?

On Tue, 19 Aug 1997 11:14:37 -0500  PETSITTER wrote:
>
> Hi, this is my first time writting to this list.  I have only been
> listening to Zorn for about 3 years, but am as enthusiastic as some one
> who has been listening for longer.  As soon as I first heard Zorn I
> wanted to try and collect every thing he has.
>     The only Masada CD I have is number 6.  I would like to purchase the
> others.  I have been hearing a lot of talk about the Parachute set.  I
> fear if  I do not purchase it I will never find it easily.
>     I have found a place where I can aquire all the Masada's.  My question
> is, as a collector, would it be wiser to order the parachute set or
> first get the Masada CD's?

If you like Masada, I would stick to it.

The music on Parachute is extremely important from an historic point of
view (than from a pleasurable one :-). Chadbourne, Cora, Zorn, etc were
very influenced initially by the English school of free improv (Bailey,
Parker, etc). But the music of the Parachute years already shows that
they had took their distance from it and that they were defining a new
genre of improv (Zorn's first game pieces, for example).

There is a very interesting article by Fred Frith where he gives his
impressions of the music Zorn, Chadbourne, etc were creating in the
late '70s. If people are interested, I can post it.

    Patrice.

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 19 Aug 1997 12:29:41 -0400
From: "Ockham's stubble" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Parachute years or Masada?

yes, please do.
- -b

   There is a very interesting article by Fred Frith where he gives his
   impressions of the music Zorn, Chadbourne, etc were creating in the
   late '70s. If people are interested, I can post it.

       Patrice.

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 19 Aug 1997 10:38:19 -0700
From: [e-mail] (Douglas Tapia)
Subject: Re: Parachute years or Masada?

>There is a very interesting article by Fred Frith where he gives his
>impressions of the music Zorn, Chadbourne, etc were creating in the
>late '70s. If people are interested, I can post it.
>
>        Patrice.

That would be great!  Please post it.





Doug Tapia
General Manager, MTP

UNC Music Tech Press
University of Northern Colorado
Fraiser 108
Greeley, CO 80639

Voice: 970-351-2614
Fax: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]

http://arts.univnorthco.edu/mtp

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 19 Aug 1997 17:43:50 +0000
From: Scott Russell <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Parachute years or Masada?

- --MimeMultipartBoundary
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Patrice L. Roussel wrote:
>
would it be wiser to order the parachute set or
> > first get the Masada CD's?
>
> If you like Masada, I would stick to it.
>
> The music on Parachute is extremely important from an historic point of
> view (than from a pleasurable one :-). Chadbourne, Cora, Zorn, etc were
> very influenced initially by the English school of free improv (Bailey,
> Parker, etc). But the music of the Parachute years already shows that
> they had took their distance from it and that they were defining a new
> genre of improv (Zorn's first game pieces, for example).
>
> There is a very interesting article by Fred Frith where he gives his
> impressions of the music Zorn, Chadbourne, etc were creating in the
> late '70s. If people are interested, I can post it.
>
Patrice

I, for one, would be interested to read anything Fred Frith has written
about music, especially Zorn. Regarding the parachute box, this thread
is in danger of getting hysterical. Many of us who would like this set
haven't actually heard much, or any of this period Zorn. Perhaps it
would be useful if someone in the know could advise us of exact nature
of the material. For example, you mention British improv as an influence
on these discs. Does that mean extended bouts of skronking and scraping
a la Derek Bailey and AMM? If so is it any more difficult than 'Yankees'
for instance (which is curious but interesting)? On the other hand is
the music anything like Cobra (which I find very entertaining indeed)?
Or is it further away from either?


Scott Russell
++++++++++++++++++++++
Scott Russell
Information Systems Specialist
Scottish Media Newspapers
Email:[e-mail]
Tel: [phone] ext3628
++++++++++++++++++++++
- --MimeMultipartBoundary--

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 19 Aug 1997 09:47:10 -0700
From: "Patrice L. Roussel" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Fred Frith article from MUSICS

From MUSICS, No.23, November 1979

       2000 STATUES AND ZU MINI-STATUES, by Fred Frith

New York, 5-9 June, 1979.


  The Zu-place -- 3 small lofts and a basement full of junk in W.24th St. On
the top floor Giorgio Gomelski is picking up the pieces in the final stages of
a 34-date tour by GONG, MOTHER GONG, YOCH'KO SEFFER and the ZU BAND;
economically disastrous and unthinkably chaotic, but nonetheless the first
attempt to bring 'European' rock music to America on a co-ordinated
'alternative' basis and as such worthy of admiration. Actually he is asleep
and remains so throughout most of the day.

  On the middle floor his deprived dog stalks around, no doubt contemplating
the final solution.

  Below, a large orchestra of improvisors, assembled by guitarist Eugene
Chadbourne to play two of his pieces and one by reed-player John Zorn, limber
up for the first time.

  The Orchestra consists of some students and alumni of Karl Berger's Creative
Music Studio in Woodstock -- 'cellist Tom Cora, Chuck ver Stracton (trombone)
and Mark Kramer (trombone and organ) -- plus Bob Ostertag (synthesizer) and
Jim Katzin (violin) of Fall Mountain, Evan Gallagher, a percussionist from
Mississippi, Davey Williams (guitar, banjo, mandolin) and LaDonna Smith
(viola) from Alabama, John Zorn and Polly Bradfield (violin), Andrea Centazzo
(drums), Toshinori Kondo and Lesli Dalaba (trumpet), Wayne Horvitz (piano and
double bass), Mark Miller (percussion), myself, Steve Beresford and
Chadbourne, presiding with his usual manic enthusiasm, jovial insults and
energetic vagueness. The excitement in the air verges at times towards the
atmosphere of a Boys Brigade Summer Camp.

  The Schedule is 4 days rehearsal, with 3 concerts in the evenings at ZU.
These will consist of small groups and solos in which nearly all the orchestra
members are featured (why not all?). Finally a day in a recording studio to
put down Eugene's 'English Channel', and a concert at Columbia University of
the fruits of our work.

Rehearsals
The Three Pieces: The English Channel.

  The players are numbered. The score consists of boxes with appropriate
numbers in them. The boxes themselves are numbered and one proceeds in a
relatively orderly fashion from box to box until the end of the piece, which
is in 3 sections. Contained in this structure are solos of almost everyone,
some seen as final events in a box, others as whole boxes. It's difficult
to make out if there is supposed to be a quantitative or qualitative
difference between these two types of solo, but it's scarcely important.

  The only other written instructions are directions as to which instrument
to play (for those with more than one) and hints as to ambience -- 'Texas
Chain Massacre', 'I Walk The Line', 'An imitation of Anthony Braxton',
'Swing', 'R & B Trades', 'Noodling', etc. There are 3 more or less set pieces
- -- a fragment of West Coast jazz, a loony calypso entitled 'I am the Dentist'
which Eugene sings inaudibly into a contact microphone, and the inevitable
Disco section. Oh yes, and an Incus Records takeoff.

  In the last 'movement', the idea is that a melody line moves around from
instrument to instrument, but a melody line generated spontaneously by the
musicians themselves. When the piece was performed by an orchestra of
students at Woodstock, this was apparently very successful; here it remains
unclear and Eugene decides to cut it from both the record and the concert.

  There are some inevitable contradictions at work, especially the old
favorite of the composer saying that fundamentally he'd like us to do what
we want in the improvised sections, only later to reveal that he has quite
specific ideas about what it should sound like. Why not write them down?
Attempts to discuss this and related issues during and after rehearsals were
generally unsuccessful. A popular response was to questions about structure
and improvisation seems to be 'This is the way I work'. Frustrating.

  The most helpful description of the piece for me was when Eugene said that
what he was really after was for it to sound like him if he happened to be
an orchestra. As such, it sounds pretty good in the end.

Psychology

  This appears to be based on the idea of strip comics, and presents words
or phrases for players to interpret freely, like 'plumbing', 'Miami',
'domesticity', 'Only one-horrible!', 'escape', 'dressing-up'. The orchestra
is divided into 3 simultaneously unravelling strands, a Song Band, the Brass
Section and Andrea Centazzo (Everything Italian).

  For me, this piece contained both too many instructions and too few. I mean
I'd rather have had more specific things to do as in 'Stripsody' or just
completely improvised a strip comic, which I've also seen done successfully.
Anyway, we got bogged down and Eugene withdrew the piece after one rehearsal.

Archery (John Zorn)

  'Archery' is a complex set of instructions with a tendency towards the
mathematical. We only barely had time to rehearse it with any degree of
success, and it would take several performances for it to achieve any real
coherence in my opinion.

  Players are identified by their initials. The 3 basic strands of the piece
are clock events, duos-and-trios and solos. Every time the clock reaches
zero, any number of players can 'improvise', in however sparse or dense a
manner they please, for up to 60 seconds (in practice, it was usually between
5 and 20). These events take place during the first and last thirds of the
piece, but not the middle third.

  Duos-and-trios occur in order, by sections. The sections are labelled A to
O and each is divided into 14 sub-sections (O has 12). Each sub-section
corresponds to a specific duo or trio combination from the Orchestra. The
duos-and-trios proceed in strict consequence, but they can overlap and be of
any duration (in practice, mostly pretty short). They can also consist of,
or end with 'fixed points' or 'help points'. Solos can be taken up at any
moment in the piece, but only one at a time -- the soloist stands up or
indicates to the 'prompter' that s/he is taking a solo.

  That's the basic structure; there's a lot more, to do with 'divisi' --
other sections of 'clock events' (variously timed free sections), or other
duos-and-trios, or events which divide the orchestra into different equal
numbers of musicians who then improvise as a sequence of soloists (one at a
time, each cuing the next). These 'divisi' are cued to the 'prompter' by
specific players holding up cards; they override the basic structure
(Archery), which has to stop at the next clock-zero to allow the cued section
to happen; they are in turn overridden by any breaking of the rules (but in
practice usually by a soloist standing up to signal a return to 'Archery'
which happens, in theory, at once).

  Since durations of duos-and-trios, cues of divisi, solos and choice of
whether or not to play 'clock events' are all in the hands of the musicians,
there are inevitable struggles; we only begin to touch on the possibilities.
During rehearsals there's a nagging feeling in the back of my mind that this
could be a lot more fun to play than to listen to; plus incomprehension at
some of the claims John makes for his piece in his notes to us on
improvisation. Can it be said, for example, that this piece constitutes 'an
analysis of an improvisation' anymore that an improvisation constitutes an
analysis of an improvisation? And shouldn't any improvised piece require the
same alertness and care in making choices as we were required to exercise in
'Archery'?

  The rehearsals are good-humoured but concentrated, intense; they have to be
to enable us to play the thing at all. I think this concentration has a
tangible effect on the concerts at Zu -- I've seldom seen such consistently
good, diverse, surprising improvised music as there was over those three
nights. It was as if we all felt the constraints of the days lifted, a sense
of release.

The concerts

  I can't review the Zu concerts properly; it would be difficult as I was
involved to some extent each night, and not having intended to write all this,
I didn't make notes. However, I'll try and pick out some details.

  For example, the solo performance by John Zorn. He used silence effectively
and often, but it was not one of those tense, cerebral affairs. The tension
has its element of wit, the technique, rather than hingeing on simultaneity
of sound was linear, consisting of a rapid succession of quite different
timbres and variations of dynamics, crammed into short moment's and
interspersed with pauses, shuffling noises, quick changes from mouthpiece to
mouthpiece. Rivetting.

  I also really liked Davey Williams and LaDonna Smith's duo. They've reached
a rare degree of telepathy and manage to be fiery without being aggressive,
delicate without being ephemeral. LaDonna also manages beautifully to suggest
the tension between the degree to which she is in command of her instrument
and the degree to which it wilfully carries her off to some other planet.

  Polly Bradfield's solo playing was quite different -- harder, less lyrical
and treading a tightrope between controlled and contrived. I thought she had
a lot of bottle actually, because she's chosen a difficult path; her playing
is austere and uncompromising, a little stiff; she takes chances; her use of
silence is similar to John Zorn's, though her humour's dryer (it's there
though). After she'd played I felt mentally excited but earthbound.

  Chadbourne, Centazzo and Kondo cropped up together and in various
combinations with those already mentioned at Zu. The three of them fit
together in my mind, seem to represent a particular side of what was going
on, inseparable from each other. Chadbourne and Centazzo in particular rest
in my memory of that week as a kind of joint venture in bad taste, colossal
and hilarious, refined in the former case and crude in the latter,
energetically imposing their obsessive and quite singular ideas on whatever
context they found themselves in, playing jokes and insulting at least each
other and simultaneously carrying the music headlong and head-on. Kondo
perfectly suited their schemes in his sensitive, extrovert way and managed
to hold the balance, preventing them from ever sinking into meaningless jive
by his timing and talent, while appearing on the contrary to encourage their
excesses. His performances were real tours de force. The sextet with these
three, Zorn, Bradfield and Tom Cora was particularly good I thought.

  Steve Beresford sat in with various groups. I like his playing very much
when it's in shord burst like that, it becomes more concentrated and he
doesn't have so much opportunity to get bored, an important factor in his
longer concerts I always think. In the recording and at the final concert
he played two great piano solos which gave me as much pleasure as anything
that happened during the rest of the week.

  Bob Ostertag is the first synthesizer player I've heard (Sun Ra always
excepted) with any kind of an interesting approach to the instrument. He
derives a lot of his raw material from the radio, and is careful and
discriminating.

  (It's clear that in remembering the concerts I've concentrated pretty
much on personalities; but that's because for me, the concerts came across
more sharply on that level than any other. Or is it a function of my memory?
Of not having made notes about precise musical occurences at the time?)

The recording

  A very strange experience, engineered with great skill in a small
professional studio by the genial Les Paul Jnr. A whole album in a day, with
a 17 piece band; problems like the brass sitting next to the strings in the
same room, acoustic and electric guitars playing at the same time, three
percussionists... the mixing was never likely to be anything less than
erratic, but Les did a remarkable job.

  Eugene entered into his mad genius persona ("That's really awful --
fantastic!"), pressing on in the face of our murmuring voices wanting to do
things again. In the end there were no 2nd takes of anything at all. It
probably wouldn't have made much difference under the circumstances. Lesli
Dalaba played two fined trumpet solos, quiet, slow, subtle, sure; in fact
all the solos went much better than the ensemble improvisations, which was
entirely predictable as a lot of us couldn't hear what half of us were doing!

  On leaving the studio I inadvertently broke a door. It cost us $100. I
could have mended it myself for 2...

The concert

  Eugene's piece in the first half, John's in the second. On the way to the
theatre Tom Cora and I walk out of the subway and find ourselves in the middle
of Harlem. A mistake. Thirty seconds of another world. We are firmly directed
into the subway again by an amused local.

  100 people in the audiences (it is a 1000 seater). There's a week-long
festival of new music downtown, pretentiously packaged and extensively
covered in the press, which has no doubt diverted many of the potentially
curious.

  It's hard not to be inhibited by the structure of the music. We have fun,
there are stirring moments, but the contrast with the energy of the first
night and now is clear. It never quite takes off. Eugene's piece seems
entertaining but lightweight. Is this a criticism?

  What most strikes me about John's magnum opus in its 1 1/4 hour performance
is on the one hand the importance of the visual element, constant patterns
of hand-gestures, holding-up of cards, eye-contact, concentration on the
clock; and on the other, the degree to which the bones of the game dominate
the flesh, players hurrying to exercise control, to counteract each others'
cues, with little apparent thought as to the intended effect, what it will
sound like.

  Not that that mattered -- in fact it led to a few moments of hair-line
humour when the prompter found himself desperately juggling pieces of card
and paper while simultaneously trying to keep an eye on the clock, to the
accompaniment of a strained and puzzled silence from the musicians and
giggles from the audience. I enjoyed that bit!

  By the end, when we all tiring, I felt that there was a tendency to respond
to cues by making a noise, any noise, just to fulfil our obligations to the
score on a minimal level, to bring it to a close. It was as if we were trapped
inside the piece with a long slog ahead to get out of it. This was an obvious
drawback, though a surmountable one -- provisions for ending could be much
clearer. I'm looking forward to hearing the tape.

  Reactions varied. A critic friend found it over-weight, old-fashioned and
boring but enjoyed individual performances. Others thought it visually
compelling, often startling to listen to, but much too long. It needs to be
played some more. I can't make up my mind, not only about the piece but about
the philosophy of this approach to improvising. Should we merely be 'open' to
all different kinds of improvisation, or should we at least develop some kind
of critique to discover what processes are at work and to discuss them? Is
this imposition of structure an anachronism? A contradiction in terms? Are
restrictions placed on improvisors legitimate means to specific ends or are
they just interfering with a richer creative process? Does free improvisation
relate to anarchy in the same way that structured improvisation relates, say,
to democracy? These are other questions...

------------------------------

End of zorn-list Digest V2 #101
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