i guess you can call me a Comma Chameleon. eh eh eh

I hate to say it, sounds so wishy-washy, but I like both styles. Depends on the context. I love Thomas Wolfe (not Tom so much) and Michael Chabon, both writers of lush thickets of words. But I also admire Hemingway and Dashiell Hammett.

my jazz trio – when we were working regularly – used to play “One Note Samba”. great tune!

[2] As for Morandi, one of my favorites, my drawing teacher told me to check him out for a project called copy someone’s work and then do your own. He may only have a few items on the canvas, but his work be far from minimal. Neither what I copied nor what I drew made any sense.

[2] As for the late Mr. Heinz, you know we share the utmost respect for him. At the mere mention of the story, I reread it before writing this post. Sheer genius.

Attended a Charles Lloyd Quartet concert Sunday night. He is a minimalist, I think. He said at a pre-concert lecture, and I am paraphrasing just a bit, “… if I could find one note, one perfect note, that would be enough for me.” Guy lives on a very high plane, he does.

maybe i shouldn’t have used the word “minimalistic.” i do like some minimalism, but i’m not a huge fan. i was using it as a poor substitute for simply playing *simply*.

i never read the Great Gatsby (i’m not much of a book reader…), so i was just commenting on the quote that was here.

i also think ‘restraint’ might not be a perfect correlation between writing and music. there are similarities, certainly, but not a flat out comparison. overall, i might prefer it in writing, ‘coz i’m not a great reader. i like and appreciate it in music, but i generally prefer ‘fuller’ playing.

i’m kinda sensitive to this sorta thing as an artist who makes a living expressing himself through notes & rhythms. sometimes, i have a lot to say. sometimes, i don’t. i understand both schools and have found the ‘simpler’ crowd never really understands the ‘busy/overplaying’ crowd and has harsh feelings towards them. however, you don’t see that the other way around too very often.

on most of my jobs, i’m required to play “less.” this is more than fine and i thoroughly enjoy it. but when i get in a situation where i’m allowed to let loose, i feel like a caged tiger that just got a ticket to the wild and i’m rip-roarin’ ready to embark upon a cathartic run through the jungle.

One thing that comes to mind is a Vin Scully call I heard a few years ago. Remember when the Dodgers hit four straight homers in a game and later won it on a grand slam? Well, I heard about it and clicked on MLB to see the highlights. I found Scully’s calls to be so non-existent that it was troubling (this coming from someone who is accustomed to Michael Kay’s histrionics). Then a few days later I visited a friend, a Dodger fan, who had the game on dvr. When I watched the entire inning, Scully’s lack of drama fit perfectly, it just was lousy as a highlight sound bite.

i actually like the original draft of the Great Gatsby sentence. i’m a “comma” fan, so i do dig the comma in the revision, but i definitely miss the “dazzled by the alabaster light…”. i don’t find the flourish distracting, at all; in fact, i find it captivating. without that detail, it’s sorta dull. i like the word “threshold” in there, too…

i’m all about simple and minimalistic music, but i’m also *very* much into deep expression with a lot of chops. tons of notes, busy & complex rhythms, fast tempos. those characteristics don’t all have to be combined.

i find that a lot of people simply dismiss busy/fast/complex music. file it under categories of “technical” and the like. usually, in my experience, it’s by folks that don’t have the capacity to understand the emotional depth and deep musical understanding of the player. and i’m talking multiple genres here – classical, jazz, indian classical, fusion, heavy metal, et al.