RE: Looping/music/audience/commerce

["Liebig, Steuart A." <LiebigSA@Maritz.com>]

> ----------
> From:         dtapia@unoco.edu
> Reply To:     Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
> Sent:         Thursday, February 19, 1998 10:07 AM
> To:   LiebigSA@maritz.com
> Subject:      Re: Looping/music/audience/commerce
> 
> >For every musician who wants to
> >carry around a ton of gear and make strange, beautiful and probably
> >unusual music . . . 
> 
> But do we really _need_ a ton of gear, or is this just kind of a
> techno
> security blanket?  Seems to me, all that's really _needed_ to loop
> sucessfully is a couple of pieces of gear, at least in my world.  Much
> of
> looped music IS crap, as is much of music in general.  I've long been
> considered an "out" player, however I feel that one MUST take into
> acount
> the musicality and purpose behind everything we do on stage or in the
> studio.  People's tastes will vary, but at no time should we use a
> piece of
> technology simply because it exists.  (ANY technology:  eg. If a Piano
> is
> going to muddy up the texture in an undesirable or unmusical way, WHY
> USE
> IT?)
> 
Right just pointing out the extremes. I'm with you on the usage of tools
(caught some flack for that earlier on). Personally I dumped a stereo
processor/looping rig, for a Walter Woods and an EH-16 plus a couple of
pedals so that I could be MOBILE and play small plcaes with a minimun of
set-up time involved.

> >[By the way another
> >thing about guitar players being the nexus of this stuff, we bass
> >players-and drummers?-are practically taught that effects and
> anything
> >but the sacrosanct "GROOVE" are verboten.]
> 
> Don't mean to let my jazz roots show too much, but have you ever heard
> of
> Gerry Hemmingway or Jaco?  Both these guys have _LOOPED_ and I've
> never
> heard anything that these guys have done that hasn't grooved _HARD_.
> 
Yeah I've heard of 'em . . .  am I supposed to feel put down? 
Still they are the anomolies. I have tons of Gerry Hemingway stuff, and
Jaco . . . well I am a bass player after all. By the way, Les McCann's
bass player in the early '70s, Jimmy Rowser, used to do an Echoplex/loop
solo that both grooved (and he could) and had cool be-bop melodic and
harmonic shit going on . . . (also are you all hip to the fact that Les
used to have a FOUR-channel Echoplex that he did looping solos with?)

Just talking about the perceptions that one has to fight against. I'm a
bass player, I loop and don't always play "groove" music . . . whatever
the moment requires.


> Can't argue here.  Personally, I love the small venues and being able
> to do
> what I do without corporate types breathing down my neck to play a
> certain
> way. (Lived that, and, well, no thank you.)  To me, musical wallpaper
> sucks, but we are entertainers.  We can sit here and verbally
> masturbate
> about how we are creating high art and all that all day long, but if
> there's not at least one person sitting in the audience tonight, I'm
> not
> performing, I'm practicing.  I'm happy playing to that one person if
> they're really into it, and if I can pay my bills, and have a dental
> plan,
> then my "day job" has served it's purpose.
> 
Just pointing out that there's a price to pay for the daily bread that
doesn't always have to do with being creative. I've been through the
corporate meat grinder too, hence some of my opinions. I have a day job
PRECISELY beacuse I don't want o ruin an important part of my life. I
wonder if a painter feels the same about an audience. I feel that "art "
has its place. I don't know if Im "creating high art" all I can do is do
what makes me happy, and "keep fighting the good fight."

> most people on this
> list have as much in common with the superstars of pop as we do with a
> trial lawyer.  (My appologies to any looping lawyers out there.)
> 
My point exactly.


> >I guess that what I'm saying is that the "how to get to people"
> question
> >is not going to be easily answered being, as I see it, a societal
> >awareness issue. WE ARE ANOMALIES. Most people don't want to know
> >anything other than what they know, they're pretty much happy with
> what
> >they have . . .  and if they aren't,  they search something else
> >out-they're already looking and may have found the EDP, insane music,
> >etc.  How do we nurture these people? I think by creating "hubs" of
> >activity (see below).
> 
> Yes, yes, and YES!  (Preach brother)
> 
Um, . . . okay (?)


> Seems to have worked for our friend John Zorn and the
> downtown/Knitting
> Factory scene musicians.  What?  Zorn owns two lables now and is
> commited
> to getting the unusual noticed.  No, no Zorn record will ever go gold
> or
> make the charts, but the "small" audience is pretty large and is
> global.
> What's more, this audience is commited to supporting creative music
> and is
> passing this love on to another generation.
> 
Right, that's a good case in point. I played at the Knit in January
(travelled from LA to make 50 bucks, what a dweeb . . . seriously it was
great fun). I was impressed by the fact that they basically have three
bands a night in the alterKnit, a "lounge," and a main stage where they
have more high-prfile artists. TIm Berne has his own label now too,
likewise Vinny Golia in LA (there's a decent scene here too, likewise in
SF). You're in CO? How are things out there? Ron Mles is from Denver,
right?

> >Support Creative Music where you can.
> 
> Amen.
> 
> 
Amen

stig