Re: gilded script on the inlay

[Marvin <physchem...>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Joshua Horowitz" <horowitz (at) budowitz(dot)com>
To: "World music from a Jewish slant" <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 16, 2002 11:17 AM
Subject: Re: gilded script on the inlay


> Okay, I'll be more careful with my humor. I don't use emoticons because I
> still have an old-fashioned weakness for double entendres and a
mischievous
> respect for ambiguity, so nothing in my mail was intended to inspire
anger,
> but rather levity. I would, however, like to steer this discussion out of
> the sandbox of the CD/Transcription issue and plunge headlong into this
> elusive issue of "how much information does one need to perform music?"
>
> Judith, you and I both come from the school of, "Learn as much as you can
> from all the old recorded sources possible and get your butt out to some
> toothless informants to internalize their style." But the fact is, most
> people making music in this (or any ethnic music) field don't have this
> perspective to the same degree. Some listen to a few old recordings and
are
> happy with that, some are more comfortable dealing with the written music
> and go directly from there. To expect everyone to develop an advanced case
> of the musical equivalent of anal fixation is to invite cultural
> constipation on an epidemic level.
>
<snip>
I once saw Yo Yo Ma play jazz with Stefan Grappeli at Carnegie Hall.  Ma did
fabulously well as long as he had sheet music.  In fact, the two of them
made a CD together.  Toward the end of the concert, several other jazz
musicians who had played in the concert all came out together for a jam
session.  Ma just sat there. I could read his lips when he turned to another
musician and said, "What do I do now?"  He's a wonderful musician who isn't
afraid to try something new, but can't improvise. On the other hand, I was
at the concert in Damrosh Park, where several top klezmer bands played, and
then Perlman came out and jammed with them.  He can improvise.

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