audience expectations

[Edward_Chang@mail.amsinc.com]

>Some musicians _do_ play experimental music to receptive audiences (I'm
thinking here of the >mythical NY loft scene) - but if that's what the
audences are getting, they should be warned.  YOu don't >go to a play
expecting to be told that the company are about to make it up as they go
along

Being in NYC and having been an audience member and a performer in such a
scene, I feel that most attendees of these shows know that it's going to be
an evening of improvised music.  Experimental music (especially in the
improv underground) is far different from the Grateful Dead or what Fripp,
etc.. does I think.
Alot of shows ARE about hit-and-miss in public - that's where the
excitement comes from.  Hell, that's why I do improv shows.  I remember
Evan Parker saying something like  he prefers improvised music over notated
because if it's notated, there's no reason to play it - it already exists
in the readers' minds in it's purest form.  Now I know that's a bit on the
extreme side, but I agree with the gist of it.

Another reason that I attend these shows is to see unusual pairings to see
how 2 completely different musicians (who are both great in their own
right) can create music together.  For example the Cecil Taylor/Thurston
Moore show last month.  Hypocritically I couldn't make that show, and worse
yet I heard it wasn't that great, but knowing that, I'd still attend just
to see 2 musicians striving for a common ground.  It's the struggle that's
exciting to me, not the guaranteed enjoyment of it.

sorry for the long post...

ed chang