Let's talk music, no genre boundaries
This is an offshoot of the jazz thread. I and others found that we could not talk about jazz without discussing other musical genres, as well as the philosophy of music. So, this is a thread in which people can suggest good music of all genres, and spout off your feelings about music itself.
I suspect you are misinterpreting "calling out". To "call out' actually means to "draw critical attention to someone’s unacceptable actions or behavior." Thus, this is the opposite of "calling for" or "supporting" !
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I am going to post a poem below about music in general and specifically about jazz. I think that my poetry might be more difficult to understand than I thought, so below the poem, I will take you through it and help you understand it. What the poem describes really happened. I was driving home from work over a busy L.A. freeway.and an interview with John Coltrane came on the radio. I had never heard John Coltrane's speaking voice before. He moved me so much I had to pull off the freeway, park my car, and listen to him talk and then play "Green Dolphin Street." I felt as though I was listening to a god, but in retrospect I realize that I was listening to a man who had touched god, or at least come as close as the hand of Moses portrayed on the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. The poem was written much as jazz is played. No thoughts preceded the words. They simply came out in one flow without my thinking about or worrying about the meaning. Still it is one of my best poems and has been published several times. I think, like a jazz musician, I was able to develop a story and resolve it, from the inside out. ON HEARING A RADIO INTERVIEW
The first lines describe what @mahgister talked about earlier. Music is beyond an instrument or whatever produces it. It is something deep inside a person and it can be felt whether it is reproduced well or poorly. What could be more poorly produced than scratchy car speakers? And yet, something alive and feline stepped our of the speakers, a gospel (true) intelligence.This is how I heard Coltrane's persona. stepping out of the past In the next stanza I talk about how music was not doled out over "cloistered walls/ it comes from the streets/ where women's bodies turn rags to style." All music comes from the street, if we go back far enough. For so many years, European music was controlled by the church, and some masters were able to transcend the church's dogma. But certainly we can see jazz coming from the streets where women's bodies turn rags to style. Isn't that the truth? You get the right woman and put the right rags on her and you've got art, and music is art. he doesn't say it
When I talk about Coltrane's hands like Icarus's wings, i didn't exactly know why I used that metaphor. If you'll remember, Icarus's father made him a pair of wings to fly but told him not to fly too close to the sun or the wings would melt. I watched more of Ken Burns' Jazz series last night, and repeated over and over again was how jazz musicians risk their lives on stage. They have no idea what they're doing. At any moment they could fall. After that, I knew my image of Icarus's wings was correct. I stop the car & I hate to sound hubristic, but these last lines I think are perhaps the best lines I've ever written. Again and again in the Jazz series, there were so many examples of great musicians that seemed so unlikely to be geniuses. it was as if they were touched by "snowflakes/ promiscuously kissing faces." Rude Miles Davis was kissed. Wasted Billie Holiday who would spend away her talent was kissed on the face by a promiscuous snowflake. & think that grace lands anyplace Hopefully this helped you understand this poem. If you want to take it further run the poem through chatgbt which is an amazing analyst of poems. It can't write one, but it can tell you about what is in a poem. Just type in "Tell me about this poem:" |
I dont doubt that you and me or the poster himself are not fascist... But i am very surprised to categorize music as "fascist" or anti-fascist"... The National hymn of the Nazi for example and some political song are fascist music... But when Bob Dylan denounce the assassination of JFK in a written song with words, is it anti-fascist music ? No it is a song denouncing an injustice... but perhaps i misinterpret his post... "le chant des partisans" in France is specifically a beautiful anti-fascist song... But generally speaking there is no fascist music or antifascist music genre... Most music is written for a specific event... Fascist event or anti-fascist event but these are exceptional and from the past history... My surprise is that i never thought of music as fascist or antifascist music in general... Then if i come and write in a post that i like anti-fascist music it sound strange when i read this... Who is fascist nowadays ? Biden ,Trump, Macron, Putin, Xi ? or Trudeau ? The concept of fascism is dated...And never used to speak about music ...and today politics is way over past distinction as fascist/anti-fascist,CommunisT/capitalist,left/right, these distinctions made less and less sense with the passing years... I like music denouncing injustice... Protest songs...but these are songs with written words, not anti-fascist music which do not exist anyway as a genre ... Perhaps i misunderstood this one line post... I apologize then ...
I just think again about a great classical work which is antifascist and not a song ... Rzewski... It is clearly an antifascist work...( against fascist general Pinochet put in place by US who battle against fascist 30 years before US selected Pinochet) ... And it is an antifascist work from not long ago (against capitalism) ... My favorite version is by Rzewski himself all others interpretation lack the pulse the composer push in his piano playing ... It is one of the great American classical work of music in my opinion ...I was stunned the first time i heard it 15 years ago... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnJ9wHo9Mgc&list=RDKnJ9wHo9Mgc&start_radio=1
Then i overreacted to the post and i apologize...
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**** The concept of fascism is dated...And never used to speak about music ...and today politics is way over past distinction as fascist/anti-fascist,CommunisT/capitalist,left/right, these distinctions made less and less sense with the passing years... **** Very insightful and so true! As true as is the word itself overused these days; often without understanding its true meaning. |
