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| RTomens, 2022 |
Yes, a remix of another thing I did that was pure type this time made via digital trickery using electrickery - remember Catweazel? of course you don't, you're too young.
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I'm cycling - it's dark - streetlamp light makes my shadow and reminds me of my dad, who also cycled to Work wearing a cap - the shadow could be him - I could be him - I wear an overcoat, collar turned up, looks just like the donkey jacket he wore in Winter - how old was he when I remember him? Snapshots through the decades...but when he's cycling to Work and my shadow is him he's...50? Maybe 60. Always 'the old man' - now I'm his age when I think my shadow looks like him - 63 and his whole working life in England spent at the London Brick Company since he came over from Latvia after the war...
I talk with someone about fate, destiny, circumstantial effects on behaviour and the path your life takes...can't resist mentioning that without Hitler I wouldn't be here but it would be a bit too...inconsiderate to say "The world should be grateful to Hitler for my existence and what pleasure I give through my Art!" Ha-ha - it wouldn't be funny.
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| RTomens, 2022 |
And so to the Art of Improvisation - you know, I had an idea to form the Art Ensemble of Camden the other day whilst doing the washing up - trouble is, I'd have to tolerate watercolour paintings of Hampstead Heath and Scenes From The Market and suchlike - no doubt - I couldn't run an Art group - Street Art too, probably! Bansky has a lot to answer for. All around Camden there are Bansky-like depictions of Her Majesty the Queen Amy Winehouse. Somewhere there's a statue. "Where's the Amy Winehouse stature?" they ask in the shop. I don't know (politely refrain from adding "And I don't fucking care.").
I might create The Art Ensemble of Camden just for a laugh - no advertising - just the name - copyright it...put my art on trees and lampposts with the logo on it to fool people into thinking there really is an AEC - different style to form the full illusion, although my watercolour rendition of Camden Square at Dusk would be terrible - then again, so what? Art For The People! Even those who can't paint but try to be 'realistic'...even do Figurative.
And so to Meaningless, which is almost totally 'improvised', by which I mean made up as I went along even more than usual because I had spare energy to spend on the typewriter keys and just wanted to cover the page - you see? You could call it Total Improv as opposed to Partial Improv (my usual style) - I make it up as I go along, no planning, no predetermined structure in my noodle but what starts to happen is a structure determined by Improv and with that in mind I create something of a structure - geddit?
So as I listen to Roscoe Mitchell of the Art Ensemble of Chicago I wonder how much he's 'making up' and what the hell the art of Improvisation entails in the chops of a musician...thinking, if I understand correctly, that within the...bars (?) he can wander at will - no, no, that's for Be-Boppers, fitting it into a tune whereas the AEC work in vast open fields to be filled with sounds, usually. Like the Free folk, but unlike the Free folk the AEC also made tunes or even melodic as hooks on which to hang their sonic travels sometimes - hence their slogan: Great Black Music - Ancient To The Future.
Did I tell you about the time I met the AEC's trumpeter, Lester Bowie, in the bar at Ronnie Scott's? I wanted to ask him about his kaleidoscopic sound ideas containing the silliest brass farts and most poignant heartache lonely-people-of-New York parts - but I was struck dumb and stupid, so I didn't. I saw them 'live' a few times. Yes, some of my fondest concert memories. Here's a very big comp of them and associated configurations...
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