Category: Art

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This was not my first reaction to a trumpet!

  By Music, Trumpet playing

Trumpet player tend to believe that the horn is wonderful torture. This was posted by Peter Bond is a wonderful trumpeter who was in the Metropolitan Orchestra for many years. His videos and book have really improved my playing. I was a drummer and one day I cam for my lesson and some other kids had returned the rented trumpets and cornets at the end of 5th grade.I was curious about it and the music instructor asked me if I wanted to take it home. I did. I enjoyed it. And then took lessons over the summer and was hooked. Continue reading

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It’s Best Done with Scissors: Improvisation and Editing in the work of Miles (and Groucho)

  By Miles Davis, Music

What problem were Miles and his produce Teo Macero trying to solve by their methods of constructing music in the studio in the late 60s and 70s?[1] What was the point of Teo turning the tape machines on while Miles and his colleagues played in the studio and then constructing long pieces of music from different parts of these tapes? One answer, I think, is this: Miles and Teo was trying to develop a new solution to the problem of combining three elements in jazz: collective improvisation, the density of a large band, and what I will call a long form of music. [1] This is the first of two papers on Miles electric music. It originated in an email to the fabled Miles list  in 1998. Eric Siegel, Patrick Brown, Steve Asseta, and the late Walter Oller, made very helpful comments on it at the time which has influenced… Continue reading

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Miles Davis on the Post-Modern Corner

  By Art, Music, Trumpet playing

This is the second of my short papers on Miles Davis’s electric works. The first, “It’s Best Done With Scissors” seeks to explain Miles’ new direction in music in the context of his own interests and history. It was very much improved by the comments of Eric Siegel, Patrick Brown, and Steve Asseta. This paper is based on another email I sent to the list in which I compared On The Corner to a work by John Adams that I heard the composer conduct with the Philadelphia Orchestra. The email listed five ways in which these two pieces of music by Miles and Adams were not only similar but in which they both exemplified a post-modern aesthetic. I haven’t been able to find that email but I do remember Eric Siegel appreciating it–including my little joke of saying, twice, that one point of similarity between the two works was repetition.… Continue reading

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Meeting another Wild Thing Trumpet Player

  By Trumpet playing

A few weeks ago I was in New Orleans hanging out listening to Marty Peters and the Party meters at the Spotted Cat. It was busy and it wasn’t easy at first to see all of the band. Then I heard the trumpet player, who I learned was Jeff Kreis, take a solo which was really wonderful…inventive and swinging. And the sounds  was great–lovely broad, resonant sound with a lot of color. Then I thought, it sounds really familiar. So I started craning around others to see the player and the horn. Even at a distance and angle, looking at the bell flair and shape I was pretty sure it was Wild Thing. And so it was. I chatted for a bit with Jeff Kreis during a break and we talked about the trumpet which of course he loves. You might think that a Wild Thing is the optimal horn… Continue reading

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My New Practice Mute

  By Trumpet playing

My new practice mute at my Harrisburg house. With Olds Ambassador cornet. I got it so I could practice quietly late in a row home. To my surprise though, it has a nice sound and feel reminiscent of a Harmon mute (which is the one Miles used for most of his career.) So it’s a good way to practice technique with a Harmon, that is, getting a variety of sounds out of it depending on volume and attack. (And it is that variety you can get with it is the reason, I believe that Miles and Roy Eldridge both used it.) I always wondered why trumpet players look so serious when they play. And then look at me. It really does take concentration! Update on my playing: Ihaven’t given updates on my trumpet recently because, sadly, the combination of too much work and my shoulder and back problems cut down… Continue reading

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Thinking about the West Side Story Debate

  By Art, Film, Uncategorized

The recent New York Times piece on the reaction of Latinx people in the arts to West Side Story has drawn some sadly uncharitable responses from people whose political instincts are typically progressive. So, even though my initial and concluding thoughts about the whole issue is to say that the arts are, thankfully unlike politics in that the best work does not come from agreement and compromise but a willingness to put forward distinctive, unique, challenging and often upsetting work, I do want to say a few words about why I think we should not be divided about the wrong things when it comes to West Side Story and other works of art that raise issues of gender, race, and class. It’s important to note to being with that there was no unanimity of opinion in the article let alone an effort by the voice of the New York Times… Continue reading

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Chuck Berry and the Invention of Rock and Roll

  By Music

In the mid-90s, when I was in my forties, a friend of mine, the late political theorist Jean Elshtain, came to deliver a talk at the university at which I was teaching and hung out for a few days at my house. We talked  gossiped, talked about politics and, as we frequently about music. At that time I was well into jazz and didn’t much listen to contemporary pop or what had become of rock music. But Jean was a still a rocker who loved Bruce, whose music I knew, and a bunch of others whose music was new to me. She asked me if I had been into jazz when I was a teenager. I said, “yes, but rock was what really moved me, then.” She seemed a little surprised. “Rock is the music of angry teenagers and I was an angry teenager,” I replied. I was thinking about… Continue reading