Another great thing: hearing "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You" and realizing that the place I've heard it before is on a Monk CD (well plenty of them), and that the fabulous rendition of it from Mingus makes it even clearer what Monk did with it.

(But WHAT DID HE DO WITH IT?)

Listening tonight: the first 12 of Shostakovich's Preludes and Fugues, and Charles Mingus' Mingus Plays Piano.

Now, I understand there's a considerable amount of difference between the two, but listening to Mingus play I'm frustrated with how straitlaced Ashkenazy is because what Mingus is doing seems so much in the ballpark of what Shostakovich was doing (at the very least), that Shostakovich could have met Mingus halfway, if you follow me, and loosened up a bit rhythmically.

Yes yes it's my now-becoming-perennial complaint again, that western art music is rhythmically dead. And I know that the sharp ones will say, oh, but since you're actually dead fucking wrong about how similar their compositional goals are, it doesn't even make sense to demand that Shostakovich be more rhythmically like Mingus. Well, yeah. Fine. But it seems to me that there's plenty of room for a music that's as harmonically "advanced" as Shostakovich's, only with some oomph to it. And some variation. I'm well aware that there's all sorts of rhythmic JUNK there, but it feels so much more monolithic - just sort of neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeennrnr while all the harmonic development glides along underneath. Yes, this is a foolish caricature.

And yes, "Shostakovich" here is standing in for lots of people. But I suppose I should keep in mind his Bach inspiration here. I mean, in his string quartets - I have a lot less to complain about there. "Folk rhythms" indeed.

I chose the Ashkenazy set instead of the Jarrett because I've heard the Jarrett was sort of fussy and dainty, something one could justifiably be worried about getting from him, I think. So of course I apparently have gotten fussy and dainty from Ashkenazy. I guess it's the music, not him - his "Pictures at an Exhibition" has no problems whatsoever in this area.

And no, this is not a demand for more Gershwin. Fuck George Gershwin unless he's writing pop songs.

The Mingus, by the way, is subtitled "Spontaneous Compositions and Improvisations" and it is the greatest thing ever. It's all solo, and relaxed as hell. The notes indicate that he basically just sat down and played - some standards, some of his own compositions, some things less composed than that (but with his composition methods, well...). And on "Orange Was the Color of Her Dress, Then Silk Blues" (a slant on "Song with Orange in It", he SINGS! For like one whole phrase, kind of mumbly, but obviously intended to be audible.

There are some interesting things in Paul Berliner's Thinking in Jazz: The Infinite Art of Improvisation about the breadth of improvisation, of the many ways and degrees to which it can enter into a performance. Including ways closer to "embellishment" of a "straight" reading of a pre-planned composition. (This doesn't always mean playing more notes.) Maybe a big part of what I'm constantly complaining about is that I hear too much paper (which I think I'm stealing - the phrase - from a criticism of Wynton Marsalis, ha, but I also remember the liner notes to a Bobby McFerrin thing called "Paper Music" where he did his schtick to Mozart; the phrase comes from some Africans he worked with who described western music as "paper music" because of, well, the way it is) in western art music performances. Ohhhh, but the variation, the expressive qualities performers bring to their readings of the works, etc. etc. blah blah blah. Save it. There's an argument to be made there, but it would take a lot more sophisticated one for me to buy it.

Another thing I am aware of: rambling and grumpy nature of this post.

I did change it slightly, substituting "Life" for "Human Being", and putting in "Following Through" before "Ellen and Ben", stretching my one-band-only rule even further.

Murph tells me he was suspicious of the Stevie Wonder at first (!!!) but that it won him over (of course).

Today I listened to Laika very loud, and The Dismemberment Plan is Terrified, and the things for finishing Murph's tape, and later disc two of Bitches Brew. Now I am listening to Emergency & I. I feel very sad for no apparent reason (or at least none of the reasons I can find seem to add up enough), like a lot in the past month. So I'm listening to Emergency &; I because it's the record that makes me the happiest and I don't want to fuck around about it. Tonight I am going to sit down and finally read Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground until I finish it.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, my month-long break from classes ends next week. I can't say for sure but I suspect that will mean a slight drop in josh blog entries again, since it usually does (even though technically there is no reason why there should be).

I'll be teaching discussion sections for a moral problems course, and taking seminars in modern (read: old) philosophy and aesthetics, and maybe a thing on democracy and education. And starting an aesthetics reading group, woo hoo.

ALSO: I sympathize with Tim in two ways. I think Closer Musik's "Departures" is absolutely riveting. But it seems so simple (especially because the main thing I seem to be drawn by is the up-down-up-down/left-right-left-right synth burble) that I feel hard-pressed to explain why I'm riveted. It seems awfully close to describing why someone playing those singing dishes (the kind you rub around the rim to make them vibrate - no, I don't know why this came to mind) is playing something really great and simultaneously really simple. So I sympathize with Tim's recent frustrating (if it's that) at not writing enough about the sounds and such, and with his tendency to write about the music on a higher level (relationships between styles and such).

Also, come to think of it (also also also), a remark he made once about how deciding whether he likes a dance track or not is a lot easier and more immediate than the same for some other genres, because of something to do with how... uh. I forget it exactly. Tim?

Also there's something so slightly ominous about the way the beats make time seem to shift around on "Teaser" (oho) that I almost don't want to call it "ominous", but I don't know what else to call it.

Also I think I am in love with the singer on Lawrence's "Teaser" just as I am in love with the vocalist on Jaxx's "Kissalude". The German one is probably singing something stupid, but what do I care?

Another one of my favorite CDs of 2001 was the Total 3 experimental tech-house compilation for the Kompakt label.

Like I said earlier, some of my reasons for liking this are similar to my reasons for liking Rooty. This record didn't really present a potential challenge like Rooty did, though. To put it simplistically, Rooty has a lot more pop, and a lot more sex, than I'm used to. So the fact that those things come in the form of dance music maybe made the dance music harder to get used to (although, as I said, it wasn't really hard). On the other hand, Total 3 is like the dance album I've always wanted to buy.

It's got neat sounds all over it. I could listen to just the bassline to Michael Mayer's "Hush Hush Baby" all day, I bet (and in fact for part of the track everything else drops out, and it sounds sublime). The sound just has so much dimension to it that it delights me to hear the figure repeated again and again. And the texture: kind of farty and burbly, but with some clickiness too.

It's trance-inducing without being annoying. The good kind of trance. I suspect this has a lot to do with the entire combinations of rhythms, synth sounds, production, and notes repeated. They all seem kind of distant to me. And gentle at the same time, though that makes no sense. I would even say it's mantric, though most of the music is instrumental. But the vocal tracks are literally mantric, including my favorite, "Tomorrow". "Tomorrow... I will be happy."

It's moody, brooding, atmospheric, spacious, watery, all that jazz. You know I dig that. I'm reminded of a less desolate Consumed, or some other Plastikman junk.

Uh. Yeah. I'm feeling a little inarticulate, so this is where I stop.