[NewMusic] Zorn/Taylor Lincoln Center review in NYTimes

[Phillip Greenlief]

-----Original Message-----
On Behalf Of Damon Smith
Subject: Re: [NewMusic] Zorn/Taylor Lincoln Center review in NYTimes

On Mar 14, 2007, at 12:39 PM, Kristian Aspelin wrote:

>  while improvising musicians such as yourself and Damon understand 
> that what Cecil is doing now is not necessarily "new" or radical

Cecil's playing is both new and radical. What piano trio has gone 
beyond the Feel trio? None.  In recent weeks I have listened to: 
"Looking Ahead",  "Neferttiti, the Beautiful", The Feel Trio + strings 
I mentioned earlier, the Willisau Concert (solo) and a recent radio 
broadcast of the Dixon/Taylor/Oxley trio.
The differences of those recordings were huge, and the similarities 
were only superficial.

Damon
 
PG:
I"ve got to run, because I'm volunteering tonight at 21G.
Otherwise, I would talk about how you're merely making claims and doing
nothing to support them.

Here's your best hole card:

DS:
"The differences of those recordings were huge, and the similarities 
were only superficial. "

If you were writing an article, I would criticize you for the same kind
of thing that I criticized Ratliff for - making claims with no
supporting evidence. How are these recordings you're talking about
"different"? 

"Huge" is not an adjective that I can use to mark the differences.

Further, I have nothing to gain from arguing the "who has more records"
thing - I usually come back to the same argument: the last few times
that I have seen Cecil LIVE, it was a disappointing experience (it
counts more to me than recordings - always have - that's just my
aesthetic, and I recognize that yours is for the recorded medium - let's
put all of that aside for a moment). I'm not hearing much advancement in
his piano language, neither in the melodic language (which still seems
connected to silent tongues) nor the language of form (which is rehashed
all throughout most of the recordings from the 1980's (any of the live
hat art stuff). That's my experience. I would respect that you are
hearing something different if you could describe it for me - your
descriptions don't give me real evidence. I have to run - I'm late.

You are right when you talk about some of those recordings with Oxley,
et al. - But I have to attribute that music to the entire ensemble, not
Cecil in particular. I think those groups in the last 15 years have
pushed Cecil in a good way. As much as I would like to say they are
"his" groups, it's an ensemble - that's what's great about improvised
music - the end result is hopefully more than the sum of its parts.

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