New Book

Portuguese, by way of Brazil, ended up in America at 15. English is my 2nd language. Father is well known name in Portuguese Literature.

The original BBC (I think it was ... !!!) special on "kraurock" had 6 parts, and the 6th was scrambled, likely because it had too much David Bowie is my guess. Edgar's comments were on the first hour of that special, but the rest is interesting and sometimes not great ... seeing one of the FAUST folks just hit a cement mixer and calling it music, is nove and silly, but sometimes it stretches the whole thing into oblivion. But the number of folks talking in it, was excellent.

Being "there" is not important ... but the understanding is ... and my comment was more about the way that folks look at a lot of that music, instead of getting into and figuring out why it was so different. The funny thing is that this particular scene also had film, theater, and other arts and it is like no one realizes that the mixes in people's heads are basically the same but the instrument they used was a musical instrument, the other was a pen, the other a camera, the other a stage ... it's the same thing about the other great movements of arts in history ... all of the "major" periods of art included music, paintings, literature ... and so on ... thus, to simply recognize rock music by itself completely isolated from its roots, is removing it from its source.

I do not think of "shallow" when people misinterpret music or the arts ... the visceral reactions are all valid, however, many of these are related to some things that are not artistic ... like religion, and a government or two. I came from a Fascist government and if there was a "shallow" bunch of folks they were it! Same thing in Spain and Italy. To the point that my dad, who had gotten a name as a reviewer of films by Elia Kazan and other major film makers, had a publication with 30 reviews EDITED ... so the review was totally incomprehensible. Someone published these together to give folks an idea, and by the time you look at it, the comments ... just won't stop! 

As to the "death" of classical music, from its glory days that kind of ended in the 60's, when major stars sold out in minutes, to the point much later when even Pavarotti could not sell out the Met! But, in my book, Jethro Tull's cover for "Passion Play" had already predicted that ... with a dead ballerina in the cover! It was time for a new music and this has been the case.

My views on "subjective/objective" will remain private. I do believe that some folks are using "subjective" as an excuse to say something personal that has nothing to do with the art whatsoever ... sort of like ... you go to see Mona Lisa ... and say "stupid" and move on to the next room. Sadly, the history and the time and place, meant absolutely nothing, and the same thing is happening with a lot of those folks ... in my book. Doesn't make them bad people ... but I think they are hurting the music more than they are helping. 

I never find music lacking in "substance" ... what I find is the ILLUSION that lyrics often give us that this music is about this and that ... and if you take the lyrics out, no one will remember the lyrics, and your vision will be totally different than mine! I remember an album, Mahler's 3rd Symphony I think it was ... and it is all instrumental (of course), and the terror I had thinking that some rock music folks ... all they can say is ... just meandering crap that is not needed! ... and it reminds me of the end of the film by Ken Russell ... he wrote something for his wife ... and she still walked out without bothering to listen to it!

Bass guitar ... I had one for years, but never had the time to learn it ... and in the middle of those years my pinky on the left hand lost some nerves and I have switched hands ... the funny think about what I liked to play, was that I was trying to learn something else at the same time ... my teacher actually liked it ... in a bunch of songs, we would play and such, and somehow I always had a different touch of ending, that he always enjoyed hearing ... it was as if I was bored, but I wasn't ... but on different days, times and places, the feeling is different and that ending will be different again!

There are a lot of bass players I like and many I don't seem to worry too much about ... the experimental ones are the most important, since they go all over the place and almost no one else does. My tastes in music changed 55 years ago, when I became more aware of how good rock music and jazz music was ... which at the time were considered just pop music and not valuable ... but in the middle of all that I went almost straight to ECM ... sister had Keith Jarrett for several years, and then I hear Jan Garbarek and followed him (didn't click on that early jazz stuff at all!!!!), and then one day in 1972 I heard Egberto Gismonti ... and a lot of the pop music took a dump ... I only kept YES, ELP (had been with Keith since the start ... he is a classical music composer and one of the best!), The Doors (always ... movie music!!!), and a lot of the SF stuff, though I also had Chicago.

I'm not sure I can think of one I like better than the other, because so much music is so different ... but one of my favorite listens is LOTHAR MEID with Amon Duul 2 (all the way to Vive La Trance), whose touch is unlike so many others ... it's like he is on his own ... you don't think of what he is playing as "rhythm" at all ... and Renate once said that they wanted to have a sound that was more classical music oriented ... and that means that the rock music ideas are out the door, as well as the ones from the Berlin Music School ... music with no western influences! And that meant that the bass being played like we teach it ... as rhythm and must be in tune with the drums ... is not what music is about ... and I think that is a major idea ... although I would definitely step aside to hear an opinion that makes sense of the music a lot better than I did, and can explain the differences ... a "bass" in an orchestra is not there for "rhythm", thus, for my ears, a bass is wasted in a rock band, just like the drummer is, when you can use a metronome to keep track of the time, and all the drummer can do is hit the snare drum every 4 beats and double up on hits on transitions! Wow ... a great musician! No wonder it's a joke in classical music circles!

I do like Chris Squire a lot, although I think that he became a copy of himself after Relayer ... the last great album by that band for me ... but I would have a hard time comparing him to Charlie Haden, and other great well known bass players, even Stanley Clarke .... Jaco Pastorius comes to mind ... some thing it was too much, but he managed to make it seem fine within the work he was doing. Mick Karn. Tony Levin is considered one of the best Stick players, but Don Schiff is much better to my ear and the stuff he did with "The rocket Scientists" a few years back ... and his resume, is scary! You're not gonna get that much work without being good!

That's about it for now ... thx for asking!