Free Jazz... your 2 cents

Mat

Sr. Regulator
Staff member
Sr. Regulator
Regulator
I've listened to first four samples. Terrible experience. I think John puts it well:

I'm afraid that so-called free Jazz is not for me (nor should it be rated as Jazz atall)
 

stu

New member
IMO, most of it is painful listening. As one jazz musician said, "Sounds like a fire in a pet shop."
 

millions

New member
"Free jazz"...here is a case where the music, to be fully understood as a form of human expression (which all art is), must be seen in its social context, as a reflection of the times.

Otherwise, to analyze it, or try to approach it on a strictly formal level, will more often than not yield no fruit. A query into the nature of free jazz must be motivated by a desire to approach it, with the implicit assumption that it is a valid form of artistic expression which warrants our efforts to understand it;

If we are "turned off" by the very sound of it, then there is little motivation to engage with it. Difficult forms of art must be approached by us; there is no "payoff" unless we do this.

By "difficult" art, I mean art which is created as a reaction to, or as a commentary on the existing form or tradition from which it is derived. This is an involuted process in many instances. If the art is abstruse, it may be that way for a reason; perhaps to purposely alienate the traditional subject, in order that the "slate is cleared." These are in many cases artists, or movements, which seek to revise or overhaul an existing social hierarchy, or redefine the way an art form has been assimilated by its societal context.

Art does not exist in isolation; it is a two-way "mapping of experience" from creator to listener, using agreed-upon meanings and contexts, much as a "language" functions. To attempt to completely formalize it, or to isolate it from its context, will never yield a complete understanding.

The old ontological argument about "if a tree fell over in the woods, would anybody hear it?" should be discarded as irrelevant, when dealing with art. Art is not simply an object. It is a symbolic "talisman" of human experience and meaning, which is ultimately concerned with human experience, which, like all metaphysical things, cannot be assessed objectively.
 

millions

New member
Oh that is very interesting millions can I ask where you are based and what combo/band you play with :)

I'm in Austin, Texas. I am in no group; I record music at home. I've been oriented towards creating music solo. Wanna hear some? If that's you in the avatar, you are striking.
 

Snow White

New member
I would love to hear you play or even see you on youtube I hope you are not one of those electronic musicians
 

John Watt

Member
I'm glad the talk is getting to be more about playing free jazz than just listening.
Some of the tightest and toughest music I ever played, jamming for a half hour or so, began with an Am chord.

Snow White! I heard "millions" got his name from all the capacitors used to build him,
a very successful guitarbot online, but having a weak resistance backstage.
 

JHC

Chief assistant to the assistant chief
John do you play free jazz???? It wasn't around in my day. so you know millions ?
I have been talking with him on another thread.
 
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millions

New member
I would love to hear you play or even see you on youtube I hope you are not one of those electronic musicians
Hmm...you must mean 'one of those electronic musicians' like John McLaughlin, whose 2006 album Industrial Zen contains a lot of synth programming by Mclaughlin himself. I hear that Pat Martino also has a lot of "electronic" programmed ideas which may be released in the future, if we're lucky. These musicians obviously look upon 'electronic' programmed music as a valuable tool, not as a term for stereotyping music. Ideas are ideas. Got any? Meet me backstage if you do.:lol:
 
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millions

New member
John do you play free jazz???? It wasn't around in my day. So you know millions ?
I have been talking with him on another thread.

Nahh, he doesn't know me, although it sounds like he does. I think that was a cryptic reference to someone else on this forum.
 

Snow White

New member
Hmm...you must mean 'one of those electronic musicians' like John McLaughlin, whose 2006 album Industrial Zen contains a lot of synth programming by Mclaughlin himself. I hear that Pat Martino also has a lot of "electronic" programmed ideas which may be released in the future, if we're lucky. These musicians obviously look upon 'electronic' programmed music as a valuable tool, not as a term for stereotyping music. Ideas are ideas. Got any? Meet me backstage if you do.:lol:
I mean musicians that use electronic things to make sounds (not in making recordings) I never heard of the people you mention
 

JHC

Chief assistant to the assistant chief
She is our most blessed member. Ask Colin.

teddy
Well I do look upon her as you would a beloved daughter,
@millions she is neither just a very intelligent woman on the beginning of her career but doesn't say much in fact just the opposite to me.
 

millions

New member
Well I do look upon her as you would a beloved daughter,
@millions she is neither just a very intelligent woman on the beginning of her career but doesn't say much in fact just the opposite to me.

ok teddy/JHC...what a team! Never heard of John Mclaughlin? Oh, well, she's dressed for success. Universal appeal. Interstellar ideal. International feel.

meanwhile, back in Detroit...
 
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