In the past few years, I have found myself increasingly draw to Jazz, especially Coltrane-era. Miles Davis. Bill Evans. Cannonball Adderley. Etc. To the point that I now listen to Jazz almost every day. I think you nailed the reason why my soul has felt drawn to Jazz in the past few years. I myself wasn't sure why since I never listened to jazz previously. But this section resonated loudly with me:
"There’s no question of personal taste, since slop makes everything different the same. Jazz on the other hand makes the same different. It is a contrafact art. It takes “standards”, popular tunes or songs that are already familiar, and transfigures them during every performance."
That was lovely! As a fellow classical pianist who recently started getting into jazz, I enjoyed seeing Levine's textbook peek out from under the lead sheets of Nardis.
On the topic of the difficulties of listening, tastelessness, and the subsuming, passive lack of opinions induced by feeding on a mass of unindividuated slop, I would heartily recommend Adorno's 'On the Fetish-Character in Music and the Regression of Listening' (https://music.arts.uci.edu/abauer/8.2/readings/Adorno_Essays_on_Music_Fetish_Character_of_Music.pdf). It is quite applicable for something written in 1938 (especially abstracting from the musical context to general degeneracy of taste, vastly worse now than it was then), and especially takes both jazz and classical music apart from an enjoyably purist perspective.
Great article, it's been really cool seeing your body of work develop. Made me think of how when Pirsig talked about the quality of writing, good writers didn't follow rules, they just wrote well and the rules were modeled after them, and of course just following rules does not equate to good writing.
Also note 9 made me think of a bar in NYC called Burp Castle where you have to speak in whispers. Made for a really enjoyable experience. I would very much like to visit the speakeasy one day.
If I had a couple questions about Buteyko and Wuji, where's the best place to reach you? Email or twitter/substack DM?
In the past few years, I have found myself increasingly draw to Jazz, especially Coltrane-era. Miles Davis. Bill Evans. Cannonball Adderley. Etc. To the point that I now listen to Jazz almost every day. I think you nailed the reason why my soul has felt drawn to Jazz in the past few years. I myself wasn't sure why since I never listened to jazz previously. But this section resonated loudly with me:
"There’s no question of personal taste, since slop makes everything different the same. Jazz on the other hand makes the same different. It is a contrafact art. It takes “standards”, popular tunes or songs that are already familiar, and transfigures them during every performance."
That was lovely! As a fellow classical pianist who recently started getting into jazz, I enjoyed seeing Levine's textbook peek out from under the lead sheets of Nardis.
On the topic of the difficulties of listening, tastelessness, and the subsuming, passive lack of opinions induced by feeding on a mass of unindividuated slop, I would heartily recommend Adorno's 'On the Fetish-Character in Music and the Regression of Listening' (https://music.arts.uci.edu/abauer/8.2/readings/Adorno_Essays_on_Music_Fetish_Character_of_Music.pdf). It is quite applicable for something written in 1938 (especially abstracting from the musical context to general degeneracy of taste, vastly worse now than it was then), and especially takes both jazz and classical music apart from an enjoyably purist perspective.
Thank you, this is right up my alley. Will read.
Great article, it's been really cool seeing your body of work develop. Made me think of how when Pirsig talked about the quality of writing, good writers didn't follow rules, they just wrote well and the rules were modeled after them, and of course just following rules does not equate to good writing.
Also note 9 made me think of a bar in NYC called Burp Castle where you have to speak in whispers. Made for a really enjoyable experience. I would very much like to visit the speakeasy one day.
If I had a couple questions about Buteyko and Wuji, where's the best place to reach you? Email or twitter/substack DM?
Thank you!
Thank you Raj, I appreciate sticking with it till the end! And yeah, you can just dm me here.
This was terrific, thanks.
Thank you, I appreciate it!
Great read
Thanks Ire!