Re: Freedom's just another word....

[SoundFNR@aol.com]

>  Instead you're giving
>  the audience a foothold to help guide them into a musical world that 
>quite
>  often is rather foreign and challenging to them.  There are just not 
>that
>  many folks who can be plopped down in the middle of some particularly
>  twisted improv & feel immediately comfortable.

I think there's maybe an idea that music such as is labelled
'free-improv', 'avant-garde', or 'experimental'  is unfamiliar to 
audiences, 
and that this is the root of its unpopularity.
...but that stuffs been going since the 60's, (at least).
and while the exponents may feel themselves to be at the 
'cutting edge of musical exploration' the negative reaction I've
most often witnessed is 
'oh no! they're doing that stuff again'
( but mostly there's just a small audience of appreciative fans) 

To hint that the potential audience is in some way to blame for being not
well educated enough isn't very helpful. People appreciate Beethoven (for 
instance) without knowing how 'clever' it is. 

I was struck by Steve Lawson's suggestion that 'serious improvisers'  
might 
stop what they were playing and have a bit of a laugh with the audience if 
things didn't go well. sorry Steve, those guys never smile;-)

So I'd say that 'free-improv'/ 'avant-garde'/'experimental' is a genre in 
the 
same way as Rock and Roll before it, and Progressive Rock after it.

Let's not knock it, it's a genre which has produced superb music (and 
still 
does),
but let's not give it 'special' status beyond other genres.

andy butler 
(next one on-topic, promise)