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Thanks David! I'd read that interview somewhere a while ago, but was never able to find it again! Perhaps it's fitting, seeing as how this thread evolved out of the Fripp v. Torn one, but it seems a few of the comments re mutantrumpetlooping have visited that same neighborhood of hierarchy and competetive rank that have led us to dress two grown guitarists, quite against their wishes, in chicken suits for a musical cockfight. I'm thinking mostly of the posting a couple of days ago that spoke of Jon Hassell's ability to shape and control his sound with advanced technique and lip control while dismissing Ben Neill's playing as done with a bunch of effects. Don't get me wrong; I absolutely love Hassell's playing. His work in the early 80's forced me to reconsider my opinion of the trumpet, and led me indirectly to appreciate Miles Davis. Hassell's incorporation of classical Indian vocal technique into his playing was brilliant, and he has continued to be an innovator. But Hassell and Neill do very different things, and to compare them as trumpeters/loopers/musicians is really a matter of apples and oranges. What appeals to me about Neill's playing is his ability to simultaneously control several instrumental voices in real time, many of which don't even sound remotely trumpetlike. (Live, I was probably most impressed with the looping bass tones that were rumbling out of his rig...) We've covered this ground before in guitar synth threads and discussions of "effects as a crutch"; when playing an amplified instrument through "effects" and looping devices, how much, if not all, of the circuitry can be considered part of the instrument? While Hassell is without question a master of a conventional instrument, albeit with very unconventional and original technique, Neill uses a trumpet (highly modified at that) as an element of a larger system. It's his controller of choice, but I consider him more of a synthesist than a trumpeter, and view the way he uses the total system as an instrument to be a more personal and unique statement of musicianship than if he were handed a regular trumpet and asked to "compete" in terms of conventional repertoire and chops. If we had to rank, for example, Wynton Marsalis, Miles Davis, Jon Hassell and Ben Neill strictly in terms of technical ability (and I'm glad we don't), Marsalis would probably "win" hands down, at least by conventional standards. But of these four players, I enjoy his music the least, mostly because what I enjoy about the other three is their individuality and the uniquely creative approaches they bring to the instrument they share. Tim ps: if anyone wants to hear Neill for themselves, I agree with David that Triptycal is probably his best work. At 11:36 AM 2/28/00 +0000, you wrote: >There was a on page interview with Ben Neill in WIRED, 5.04 - Apr 1997 >which is still online at: ><http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/5.04/ff_trumpeter_pr.html>