-
Posts
19,509 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Donations
0.00 USD
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Blogs
Everything posted by A Lark Ascending
-
Which New Release is grabbing your ears?
A Lark Ascending replied to Chicago Expat's topic in New Releases
Not heard Allen Lowe's but my ears are caught by the latest by another board regular: Particularly taken by the track 'Elmoic' this evening. -
Interesting topic, Bev, but I'm struggling to be sure I understand and accept the premise. My concept of "pop culture" (in the U.S., at least) revolves around the increasing trend toward a throwaway culture, where everything is increasingly aimed at teens (and younger and younger teens, it would seem). [Just to be clear, I'm focusing on music here.] The idea that anything new is at a disadvantage (let alone a "huge" disadvantage) seems backward to me. I understand that everything from the past seems to be more available than ever, but it doesn't really seem as omnipresent as ever. Back in the day, you turned on the radio or the tv, and there was a lot of overlap (and people seemed to care more about tracing back the connections and the influences and the history of popular music). My kids (and their friends) range in age from 19 to 23. When I was their age, I was not only up to my eyeballs in a variety of excellent contemporary music, I was also curious and interested in where it came from, and wanted to explore the music of the past to every possible extent. I knew a lot of people who were like me in that regard. I'll make a long story short and cut to the chase: If it were not for my input (and to some extent, the "Rock Band" and "Guitar Hero" video games), neither of my kids would have been exposed much to the music of the past, and left to their own devices (no pun intended), they and their friends would likely not have explored or been randomly exposed to even the biggest names from the past (e.g., The Beatles). I could go on and on about this, especially due to the fact that my son has taken up the guitar, and I'm in the process of trying to establish common ground and some bases to work from in teaching him. I have wide musical tastes and interests, and an open mind, and (obviously) a huge reservoir of music from the past to draw from, but his generation hasn't had the exposure- in terms of variety- that ours had. On the one hand, the author refers to an obsession with the "immediate past" (which makes some sense to me), but the "new" being at a "disadvantage" doesn't necessarily fit with that concept, in my mind. The generalization that pop culture is addicted to its past, unless we're talking about each generation perhaps being addicted to their own (which I wouldn't even necessarily accept as being true) just doesn't make much sense to me. It (clearly) also touches a nerve for me, because I've been increasingly frustrated by knowing how much of our rich musical culture from the past has been stored away in digital form, and marginalized (Youtube is great, but you generally don't enjoy it while driving, or run across it randomly as one used to experience with music on radio and tv). At any rate, I can barely keep up with the idea of trying to give all of this music the respect I think it deserves (and enjoy it all in an ongoing way), just for my own purposes. I don't think today's youth really have much of a clue just how much music has been created in the past, and how much they may miss out on if someone doesn't step in and offer to show them. I don't want to derail the topic by going off on tangents, so I'll stop here for now... I suspect most of us here on this board engaged pretty deeply with the past in the way that you mention in our formative years. But I'm not sure the majority of my peers did - music was just one of the many parts of being a teenager. I suspect that there are equally as obsessive teenagers today but not the norm. What a lot of teenagers do recognise is a very superficial idea of 'style' - there is a huge interest in the Sixties, for example (and I could bang on about how that period is often given undue focus in schools, largely because a lot of the people who are influential in education now grew up in that period). The kids I teach don't just have their own contemporary musical tastes but a love of things they've found in their parent's collections (Pink Floyd, Led Zepp, the Beatles, Abba and above all Queen. They love Queen). I'm not sure where Reynolds is going with his argument. I've just finished a long chapter looking at earlier backward looking trends - traditional jazz, rock'n roll revivalism etc and have yet to get to the big conclusions. One think he only briefly addresses - and might undermine his argument - is the way 'tradition' is actually celebrated in folk musics. If you read the diktats that come down from the UK's leading folk music magazine, folk and world music can only have credibility if it is 'rooted in a tradition' i.e. the past. And I can see that up to a point - I tend to gravitate towards the earthier, messier approach to folk music rather than the more polished or self-consciously modern. Reynolds is writing from a perspective that views the pop music of the 80s and early 90s as progressive (he's big on the techno/dance culture) and sees himself as someone on the side of constantly breaking new ground. He sees contemporary pop/rock as being a mash-up of past influences rather than a using of the past to strike out in new directions. I'm reminded of debates you see on jazz boards like this, lamenting the fact that the forward thrust of jazz that seemed a constant until the 60s/70s seems to have vanished and we are now in an era of tributes and revisionism. Classical music fits the bill too - anything that gains a broad listenership seems to rely on going back to earlier styles. Of course their are avant gardes in jazz and classical that claim (musicians and sympathetic listeners alike) that they are carrying the torch. But they have such a small audience - it's not like when Coltrane or Miles were changing things by the month (and I know even they did not have a mass audience but they were known about to listeners in other fields (rock listeners like myself)); it's a very specialised rock listener who will know of Peter Brotzmann, William Parker or Evan Parker. Whether his argument holds up or not it's a fascinating read and not remotely academic (apart from the odd reference to cultural studies theory). The thoughts of a passionate music fan.
-
I just though Branagh was flat. The plots are pretty standard 'crime amongst the bourgeoisie' plots like Morse or Lewis. Where this series (like Morse) goes to another level is in the characterisations and the really wonderful sense of place. Yes, Krister Henriksson is absolutely superb. [Having said that the plots are fairly standard, I was on the edge of my seat in the episode where first Martinsson and then Wallander's daughter get kidnapped by the chap who infiltrates all their surveillance equipment].
-
Started watching series 2 when it was serialised on TV. For some reason my recorder missed episode 7 and the DVD does not come out until late Sept so I've been hiring series 1. Up to episode 8. A wonderful supplement to the books. The relationship between Wallander and his daughter is marvellously portrayed in these programmes. All the more poignant knowing that sometime later the actress who plays Linda committed suicide. I enjoyed the other Swedish series (based on the books), didn't care for the couple of UK versions I saw. But this series is very special. And like in the books, Ystad is a character in itself. Makes me want to visit again.
-
Can you name every Monk tune when you hear it?
A Lark Ascending replied to Hardbopjazz's topic in Miscellaneous Music
Agnus Dei, Kyrie, Credo... Sorry! -
Can you name every Monk tune when you hear it?
A Lark Ascending replied to Hardbopjazz's topic in Miscellaneous Music
Apart from 'Round Midnight, I'm always stuck. Unless I know a vocal version. Then the words materialise in my brain and I get it. Happens with Kenny Wheeler tunes too. -
In the early 70s country in the UK meant something very middle aged revolving around Jim Reeves and the 'Nashville Sound' of the early 60s - maudlin songs with anodyne choirs in the background. There used to be a big festival of country at Wembley each year. The very sound of the pedal steel would send me running for the hills (English hills, not Appalachian). It was cottoning on to Emmylou Harris, late 60s Dylan, The Band etc (a good 10 years after the even in my case) and the slow seepage of influence of Neil Young and Manassas albums that changed my perspective. But I didn't fully overcome my dislike until the 90s. Pedal steel guitars still make me faintly nauseous.
-
One of the points he is trying to make is that the current obsession with the immediate past is rather different to previous revivals in that there is so much more access to that past. Historians, archivists etc, artists prepared to seek it out have long had a pretty wide access. But the onset of the internet has just multiplied the possibilities. And made it available to anyone with a computer and a connection to the web. We've commented here many times about the availability of the Miles Davis catalogue in the UK. As late as the early 90s you had to look long and hard (imports) to get hold of much of the mid-60s music and a fair bit of the early to mid-70s. I never had a clue (or an inclination) how to obtain bootlegs. Now you can get not just the entire catalogue (and a choice of boxes [sorry!]) but endless live recordings. Another of his key points. Pop used to be a hear (sic) today, gone tomorrow thing. Now, like paintings or classical music or Egyptian sculptures, it needs to be 'curated'. ************* My own view is this is not another of those 'end of history' situations. It's a hiatus - humans have a habit of finding their way out of such dead ends.
-
I don't think it's as simple as either/or. I don't think we're either gullible consumers or independent free spirits - our individuality works an a world of very powerful shaping forces, most of which we hardly comprehend. Discontent with what comes out of the radio will be a frequent genuine response. I'm sure our attractions to less mainstream music are equally genuine. But it doesn't happen in isolation. I grew up in a culture where pop/rock was mainly dismissed as ephemeral; things like jazz and classical (more recently country/Americana...if you only like the old stuff!!!) were portrayed as sophisticated, intellectual, worthy of a fine mind. We might not consciously decide 'I'm going to listen to Haydn because then people will think I have a fine mind.' But the build up of those assumptions over time will often steer us in those directions. I started listening to classical music around the age of 18 because I'd heard various snippets in prog-rock contexts and other bits in my father's random record collection. But I'm sure I also decided to chance exploring because I was subconsciously aware that enjoying classical music was something clever people did!
-
Reynolds is at pains to emphasise that there is plenty of very enjoyable music today. And he comments on how bands from the past who reform are often much better (technically) at playing than they were in their heyday. His main point is how pop/rock - which portrayed itself as about 'Now!' - has increasingly become part of the heritage industry (and he broadens this out to culture at large). Of course it's always been with us - I recall in 1970 when I was just getting excited by rock I used to hate radio programmes where a DJ in his 30s played 50's R'nR and went on about how much more exciting it was then. Sha Na Na at Woodstock - only 10 years after the event! I think we all like to think we explore what we explore out of personal choice. But I suspect we are all creatures of wider social forces in ways we don't like to think. One of the interesting (and uncomfortable) features of reading the book is to be brought up sharp on that. There are things that jar for me. He follows the party line on the poorer quality of downloads compared with 'real' records or CDs. And I think he generalises about how the iPod makes you more of a grazer than a listener. I'm never tempted to skip around as he suggests and, apart from some playlists that I like to use as a jukebox occasionally, stick religiously to album format.
-
I think that's what he's getting at. There's a vicious circle at work - we've never had access to the musical past so completely as now and so the weight of the 'greatness' of the past (it's master musician X's birthday, you MUST play something by him today (even though he can't join in the celebration as he's been dead for 50 years)) is so in front of our vision (and musicians' vision) that it increasingly gets plundered in very obvious ways (previously we all had a very partial vision of that musical past and consequently distorted it which made the influences bend and break into something different). As a result audiences fail to hear anything very new in the present so they retreat into the past when the second hand sounds of today were new and revolutionary. Don't care for contemporary jazz tribute albums? Seek out those obscure 60s avant garde albums (I was doing just that yesterday morning before the book arrived - seeking out some John Stevens/SME albums from the late 60s)! It's a much more complex argument than my summary but I think he's onto something.
-
This arrived yesterday morning and I'm already 150 pages in. It's not the attack the title might suggest. Reynolds is 'one of us', someone with an insatiable appetite to acquire more and more recordings. But he's stepped back to think about what is going on. It is largely focussed on pop/rock (and his youth lies in the 80s) but you find yourself drawing the parallels to jazz, classical etc. In a nutshell he's exploring how music (and culture in general) has become increasingly obsessed with its immediate past (as distinct from, say, the 19thC Romantics becoming obsessed with the distant Medieval past) and the impact of particularly the internet, You Tube, the iPod etc to make everything available all the time. He's particular interested in the way that the availability of the entire cultural past at the click of a mouse button puts anything new at a huge disadvantage. Ideas that get discussed here all the time. Lots of 'ouch!' moments. Like where he talks about people with large musical collections differentiating between being a 'collector' and an 'enthusiast' (former, bad, latter good!). Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! You can get a taste here: http://retromaniabysimonreynolds.blogspot.com/ Very good summary here: http://www.tnr.com/book/review/retromania-simon-reynolds
-
Support your local uh ninja
A Lark Ascending replied to David Ayers's topic in Miscellaneous - Non-Political
Good to know that the mean streets of Somerset market towns are getting some real protection. -
Alyn Shipton's 'Jazz Library' now archived
A Lark Ascending replied to A Lark Ascending's topic in Jazz Radio & Podcasts
Not relevant to the thread title but fits with some of the meandering here... Did anyone watch the David Hare drama 'Page Eight' last night? Quite slight overall but some marvellous performances. But there was lots of jazz in it - a Dankworthesque opening sequence, a scene where Billy Nighy shows a young woman the Lester Young/Billie Holiday film from the late 50s and later buys her a Young CD. And the marvellous line when an angry ex-wife turns to Nighy in a crisis and barks words to the effect of: 'You're no use. You listen to jazz.' -
Jazz or non-jazz photos
A Lark Ascending replied to Christiern's topic in Miscellaneous - Non-Political
Very evocative photo. You don't get many streets that wide in UK towns! -
Alyn Shipton's 'Jazz Library' now archived
A Lark Ascending replied to A Lark Ascending's topic in Jazz Radio & Podcasts
Here's something interesting: From Temple Music site. -
Alyn Shipton's 'Jazz Library' now archived
A Lark Ascending replied to A Lark Ascending's topic in Jazz Radio & Podcasts
Recall seeing Tempest (or was it Colosseum II?) around 1974/75 in the student union building at Reading Uni. All a bit too 'rawk' for my tastes from what I can recall - don't remember who was with Hiseman. In fact the gig sort of merges into a similar Isotope one around the same time. I'd never been that big on rock guitar frenzy and my tastes were changing so I probably wasn't very receptive. I do remember Hiseman throwing his sticks in the air during a drum solo. This was what passed for a stage show on the college circuit (you had to be Pink Floyd or David Bowie to do anything bigger!). -
Alyn Shipton's 'Jazz Library' now archived
A Lark Ascending replied to A Lark Ascending's topic in Jazz Radio & Podcasts
Good news. Wondered when they'd get around to doing Alan Furst. Given TV's obsession with WWII/Nazis, his books are naturals for the Le Carre area of drama. Indeed. All sorts of technical stuff about clarinet registers which even I understood. No jokes, though! I enjoyed that one whilst lost in Plymouth three weeks or so back. -
Alyn Shipton's 'Jazz Library' now archived
A Lark Ascending replied to A Lark Ascending's topic in Jazz Radio & Podcasts
Excellent programme this afternoon on Artie Shaw with Alan Barnes providing a musician's perspective. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b013xpxv Only on the outer periphery of my listening but I'll have to give the Properbox a run through now. -
I joined a school in Yr 8 (2nd Year then) where everyone has 18 months of woodwork behind them and I had none. The teacher made me make a bread board. Every week I'd spend 80 minutes planing the breadboard and bring it for inspection. "Nah,' he'd say looking at his set square, "It's not level yet." I did this for a term and a half and ended with a bread board the size of a cheese board for nouvelle cuisine. And the bugger had the nerve to charge me for it! The good old days of the grammar school when standards were maintained!
-
Hope all of you affected get through this OK. I can't imagine living somewhere where this degree of danger is ever possible. We have such a mild climate (and geography) in the UK.
-
No such thing as 'Woodwork' these days. Along with what was called 'Metalwork' it is now termed...wait for it...'Resistant Materials'! I kid you not.