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Looper's Delight
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> >With the caveat that the last time I saw DJ Spooky perform live, he had a >number of instruments with him (including an electric upright bass), and >*played them live*. Yes, he sampled himself and then mangled them, worked >them into samples, and spent much of the performance working with other >peoples' sounds, but it's not quite accurate to say he only reassembles >others' sounds. > By coincidence, I just got the new DJ Spooky CD, "Optometry", this week, and have been listening to it quite a lot. It's a collaboration with a number of excellent NYC avant jazz types: Matthew Shipp (piano), William Parker (bass), Joe McPhee (sax), Guillermo Brown (drums). Spooky is credited with laptop, kalimba, turntables, and upright bass. Amazing record, there's obviously looping and sampling, but lots of live playing as well. And the liner notes talk a lot about the meaning of "jazz" in the current culture. It's part of Thirsty Ear's Blue series discs, curated, I believe, by Matthew Shipp, and this has been one of the most interesting series of improvised music discs in recent memory. As far as the live/memorex thing goes, I have this argument all the time with friends of mine. Surprisingly, the people who are often the most adamant about the looping/turntables/sampling/etc front not being music are non-musicians, but people who consider themselves "informed" listeners, fans, etc. Most musicians I know are fairly open to the concept, at least those under 50 or so. My personal feeling is this: I listen to the results, not the means. If I hear something that kicks my ass musically, I don't care that much whether it was made by someone who has studied the saxophone for 60 years, or someone messing around with a turntable for the first time. Of course, I have a lot of respect for anyone who has mastered an instrument, but mastery is not necessarily related to musicality. I have heard plenty of extremely capable instrumentalists who bore me to tears. I've also heard my fair share of inept amateur performances, naivete does not automatically equal inspiration either. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dave Trenkel New and Improv Music http://www.newandimprov.com improv@peak.org -------------------------------------------------------------------------