source file: mills2.txt Date: Wed, 5 Jun 1996 12:11:13 -0700 Subject: Hard to Listen to Partch From: hyperpoodle@mail.sisna.com (Doren Garcia) Dis-tune-guished ears, Sometimes music that is hard to listen to is ultimately very rewarding. I listened to Sun Ra's music for a year (on the advice of a friend) before I "got" it. Some music is mostly valuable in its contribution to the intellect. Personally I find Ornette Colman and Partch to be mostly music that appeals to musicians, good theorists but not something listened to often. This is why I'm a big fan of Miles Davis. His music was intellectual and swinging and those qualities together are where it's at. I don't mean that Coleman or Partch are not important. Sun Ra said he never heard any music he didn't enjoy, but Duke Ellington said "It don't mean a thing if it don't swing." Some jazz guy said "To play jazz you have to learn the theory and develop the chops and then forget them." My epiphany came listening to the Mahavishnu Orchestra. The emotional experience was so overwhelming it was life changing. It is why I am here, hoping that this tuning thing will be the nest for the epiphanies of the future. A last quote (for Gary): Someone once asked a young Duke Ellington what kind of music he was playing. Ellington replied "Its juss music man, juss music." Juss became jass or jazz. Doren hyperpoodle@sisna.com Los Angeles Mvsevm of the Modern Poodle Received: from eartha.mills.edu [144.91.3.20] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Wed, 5 Jun 1996 21:23 +0100 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id MAA10698; Wed, 5 Jun 1996 12:23:22 -0700 Date: Wed, 5 Jun 1996 12:23:22 -0700 Message-Id: Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu