RIP Damo Suzuki (Ex-Can)

I remember seeing him here in Portland, and I was not exactly impressed. To me, and I have heard many of the albums since, the band behind him did not quite understand the depth of it all, and I thought that did not realize that he was also working off what he heard, which was a bit too formulaic for my tastes, and not exactly conducive to words (for me ... as a writer and poet) ... although there is a major difference in how folks react and feed off the environment. Even though he played with a lot of different folks, I think that for him it was just a challenge to survive in it, and he did well, however, it was not in its entirety, it was in spots, and the band and him had to "come back" to known bits and pieces, for the audience to feel and relate to his earlier material as well ... I kinda thought that given the more attuned musicians to improvisation and experimentation, that this would not be necessary, and it even showed for several minutes in the tribute to Jaki, with musicians that were very well versed and experienced with letting go and fly away to help Damo.

It is, in general, a very tough thing to do for any actor on stage, let alone a singer that is expected to hit the right notes that we are familiar with. The courage to be there, with or without any errors or mistakes, is one of the most empowering things for the person ... those are the moments that teach you what to do next, and this is the subtlety and touch that so much rock music, that is cleaned up on a DAW ... does not have and will never have ... they are missing the "real" touch of the life of the music, which has been either salted or sugared to the tastes of the listener ... which is not the same thing as what the singer/actor is working on at that very specific second.

Hi,

The book pretty much states that he wants all kinds of different combinations, but on several occasions he had to default to one or two folks that he worked with before, and I think they were slightly better at running all over the place, instead of just sticking with scales and variations thereof, which was what the band that he had here in Portland, just about did ... and when compared to what we saw in the Tribute to Jaki ... is in another planet and the beauty shows ... and maybe in a few moments, that was missing here. It was still good, not great all of the time, but for me, having to hear stuff he had already done, as a way to make sure the band is working together, kinda brought the whole improvisation down some ... but then, as a director for theater, and having worked with actors, it is easy for me to see, and say that ... and musicians, are the least "trained" to work in the areas of improvisations ... what key is he in? ... which you can translate into ... you are not listening hard enough to be able to adjust to that specific moment ... and in acting, it means you missed the magic bus! In music ... folks stop the rehearsal (the worst thing to do!!!) and start again! With not a whole lot of ideas of how to work with different, odd and other time elements within your work ... it's already marked in cement and stone in someone's mind so his solo will be better?