Kind of Blue - Mostly Other People Do the Killing

[Teasing the Korean]

http://www.jazzwax.com/2014/10/sort-of-blue-clone-or-art.html

[jazzbo]

Very interesting. I'm interested, but it seems it's only available as a digital MP3 file, and I don't do those. . . . If a cd appears I'll try it.

[sonnymax]

Very interesting. I'm interested, but it seems it's only available as a digital MP3 file, and I don't do those. . . . If a cd appears I'll try it.

It is available in CD format at Squidco, so I assume you can (or will soon be able to) get it from other retailers as well.

On the other hand, this is advertised as a note-for-note copy of the original KOB, and the sound clips appear to confirm this claim. So (as others have asked), why bother?

Edited October 10, 2014 by sonnymax

[Stefan Wood]

I've listened to and reviewed it. I have very mixed feelings about it. Well done, but so what? I understand it is a clone of KOB, and as a visual artist I well know the aesthetics and conceptual ideology behind it. The question is: conceptually does it work in the audio arts as well as the visual?

Edited October 10, 2014 by Stefan Wood

[jazzbo]

Thanks sm. I ordered it from Squidco.

[uli]

I am listening to All Blues from the linked jazzwax clip. sounds good but that's no wonder to me. I am sure solos are note for note however they sound different. that's no wonder to me either.

Edited October 10, 2014 by uli

[Guy Berger]

Ummmm, somebody should tell these guys that Pierre Menard was a fictional being

[colinmce]

I have no doubt this makes a lot of people frothingly angry, but I can't be bothered to be bugged. Whatever. I would never pay money for this or listen to it but I appreciate the dedication to both the transcription/playing as well as the gag (or "concept").

[soulpope]

This may be an interesting project to be pursued in general - but the only usp of the finished product (aka the product to be sold) depends on the question, whether the same music (note-by-note) performed by different artists sounds ....differently ?

BTW see no reason, why people should feel frustrated/offended, as there is no obligation to buy this product....and at the same time, this project`s approach is at least not light years away from the one or other classical music production`s....

Edited October 10, 2014 by soulpope

[jazzbo]

On the other hand, this is advertised as a note-for-note copy of the original KOB, and the sound clips appear to confirm this claim. So (as others have asked), why bother?

I guess I'm bothering for two reasons: to see how this copy comes off as a technical project and as an artistic statement. And with my stereo system, which I enjoy listening to immensely, it will be fun to compare the recordings themselves--will the ambience be similar/identical, will there discernable differences because of recording equipment, etc.

[Larry Kart]

It doesn't concern me if and when someone two doors away masturbates while looking in a mirror. Nor would I find it interesting. Likewise...

[jlhoots]

But isn't most "classical music" the same notes every time???

[Stefan Wood]

Interpretations are different. This is an effort to play it exactly like the original.

[mjzee]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/09/arts/music/09fireworks.html?_r=0

[Brad]

I thought the allusion to classical music interesting. I don't pretend to be knowledgeable in classical music but don't many conductors play it note by note?

[soulpope]

Interpretations are different. This is an effort to play it exactly like the original.

Actually I didn`t speak about or compared with Classical Music generally.....but again there are recordings/performances where an individual interpretation is hardly recognizable and the final result in the end is very near note-to-note.......

Edited October 10, 2014 by soulpope

[Big Beat Steve]

I thought the allusion to classical music interesting. I don't pretend to be knowledgeable in classical music but don't many conductors play it note by note?

When compared to the essence of jazz and related styles of music where personal interpretations and retransformations of the "source material" are what it is all about - certainly.

Just imagine somebody in the field of classical music taking an opus of composer X and setting to recording it on the premise of "I feel like playing this in double time throughout" or other radical diversions from the original, wouldn't this be heresy to many hardcore classical music partisans? Or just be treated as a "gimmick" of no artistic value?

Of course this is an oversimplification but still ...

Too bad you probably don't read German, but the problem of an interpretation of a works straying too far from the original in classical music (which by the standards of jazz would amount to still being a copycat through and through ) is well described here in the section of "Werktreue" ("faithfulness to the orignal"):

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpretation_%28Musik%29

(the English version of this entry unfortunately approaches this subject in a totally different manner).

[jlhoots]

I believe "interpretations" is open to interpretation.

[Big Beat Steve]

Very much so.

[Hot Ptah]

Mostly Other People is an irreverent group which seems to have an offbeat sense of humor. I wonder if this is meant as some type of joke, even if done with respect to the original.

[AllenLowe]

1) Larry: Different strokes...................

2) I hate this group; all gimmick and surface; I call them Other People Do the Playing (which I think may be the title of my next cd)

Edited October 10, 2014 by AllenLowe

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Well, I did have 'Kind of blue' in the sixties, but soon got rid of it.

Maybe I'd like this one better

But I don't care enough. I like Jackie Ivory's version of 'Freddie the freeloader'.

I spec y'all will hate it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6cXq2_CDuc

MG

PS the Youtube version is from a shorter 45 issue. The edits rather fuck it up, even though they didn't take much out.

[xybert]

This article explains a lot regarding their intentions: http://www.popmatters.com/feature/185662-kind-of-kind-of-blue-a-conversation-with-mostly-other-people-do-the-/

[Hot Ptah]

That article reveals that the whole thing was not just a prank, no matter what you may think of the album, or the intentions of the group in recording it.

[Teasing the Korean]

The fact that they have raised the dander of a bunch of aging male jazz purists indicates that they have succeeded on some level.