Too cold for June, still, raise the sash window and treat the street to Joe Gibbs' Africa Dub anyway as if the day's a scorcher and as the music plays I wonder if the music suits our street - of course it doesn't - what would? Wonder how many people have their windows open playing dub to the world - in London? There's a chance - wonder about musical taste - the most common soundtrack you hear in the streets? Usually Rap. Wonder about taste and how everyone more or less sticks to what's popular including ;street' or 'urban' sounds - of course - that's how things are....
...how did I get from Gary Glitter to Joe Gibbs? Is that progress? Funnily, though, despite the four-decade gap between Then and Now in my personal chronology both were recorded around the same time. How do musical journeys evolve? Some people's don't; they love whatever when they're teenagers and spend the rest of their lives revisiting old glories, recapturing lost youth (attmepting to) or dipping their toes into the Modern? I dunno...
...other people's listening habits...we see them courtesy of the social network...fellow travellers in the strange digital road, shared by strangers called @friends...
...so I'm improvising a homage to David Toop's latest book, Into The Maelstrom: Music, Improvisation and the Dream of Freedom, which I'm 25 pages into and admiring his efforts to get inside that most difficult notion; made up sounds, 'live', especially - and since he's done a lot of that he should be a good guide, whereas I've done none of it but came close playing records alongside Derek Bailey, who's music I can't listen to - sorry Derek - or, really, any of that thing called Improv yet, well, that other form of improvisation, Jazz, is another matter. Improv against the rules...no holds barred and no bars holding them in check - why not? I'm all for freedom, just don't force me to go to Cafe Oto to hear it - or perhaps you should - perhaps I will having read Toop's book - I'll listen afresh and appreciate it more....perhaps...
...a friend and I were at an Improv gig years ago - a bloke took his trombone apart and blew threw various pieces...we had to stifle our laughter as if in school, or church...
...well writing's a form of improvisation, isn't it? What else, unless transcribed from carefully considered notes - but the edit - ah - the edit is where it's polished for professional purposes and, no doubt, some blogs written by the more....cautious blogger...
...I rarely edit other than the enevitable spelling errors and grammar glitches (note glitch, not thought or whole sentence structure - hey, the spirit of Kerouac!) and it shows, yes, all right, it may do, but reading Toop's book reminded me, as he mentions, of the relationship between improvised sound and other art forms - the risk factor - dare you go out on a limb in paint, paper, word or sound? I do so sometimes because I've nothing to lose...
...you've nothing to lose but the formulaic chains and standards imposed by others that bind...
(note: this was going to be much longer but the cuckoo and door chime on Joe Gibbs threw me off the track and I couldn't get back and there's football to watch) Bye for now.
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