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-- random thoughts while procrastinating on doing my taxes -- It seems to me that improvisers who pay attention to each other should be able to play together regardless of differences in instruments, styles, techniques and musical knowledge, by bringing big ears to the session and responding at some level to the essence of what each other is doing. IMO Big ears beat big chops any time, and big chops (and musical knowledge in the traditional sense) are a tool, not an end in themselves. I don't listen to much high energy techno any more, but when I did, I often imagined a high energy jazz saxophone improvisor wailing over the beats, with the DJ responding in turn to the sax. The same could be true of looping music. I confess I have a few DAT's sitting around of complex looping sessions with horn playing friends in which I (or they) were processing their sound and looping synths on top and the whole thing turned to mud on listening -- big ears can be challenged when our machines are doing things so complex we can't pick them out, -- "The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function." F. Scott Fitzgerald Visit "Before the Fall -- Images of the World Trade Center" at http://www.foryourhead.com Emile Tobenfeld, Ph. D. Video Producer Image Processing Specialist Video for your HEAD! Boris FX http://www.foryourhead.com http://www.borisfx.com