i wish, have a bloody fine time Dave, post a few pics if you can get em, and a wee report on the show would be good, love to know if the master can still go soooo free then string it all together like it was no big deal in that way that only Ornette can. ;-)
Ornette and his band pulled off the impossible last night. They were even better than two years ago!
Ornette blew his heart out. Tony Falanga played inspired arco and plucked acoustic bass, Al Mcdowell seemed to have taken the electric bass off in a direction that I hadn't heard before, and Denardo had taken some drum lessons :-) OK. I mean that he wasn't playing that lopsided thudding beat nearly all the time. He played with swing and funk and the blues, and even brushes at one stage.
After two or three numbers - Ornette didn't announce any of the titles - the band locked into one. They've either been gigging a lot, or it was just one of those evenings when everything came together. And they played a hugely rearranged Lonely Woman as an encore. Bliss!
I hope Jazz on 3 have managed to get Ornette to allow them to record it this time.
Just one complaint. The sound was muddy (although it did clear up a bit as the concert progressed). Frankly, there's no excuse in a venue like the RFH, which is used regularly for non-classical music. It's really hit-and-miss. Sometimes it's good, and sometimes it isn't.
Compare that to the Barbican, just over the river, where the sound is always top-notch, whatever style of music I've seen.
Ornette and his band pulled off the impossible last night. They were even better than two years ago!
Ornette blew his heart out. Tony Falanga played inspired arco and plucked acoustic bass, Al Mcdowell seemed to have taken the electric bass off in a direction that I hadn't heard before, and Denardo had taken some drum lessons :-) OK. I mean that he wasn't playing that lopsided thudding beat nearly all the time. He played with swing and funk and the blues, and even brushes at one stage.
After two or three numbers - Ornette didn't announce any of the titles - the band locked into one. They've either been gigging a lot, or it was just one of those evenings when everything came together. And they played a hugely rearranged Lonely Woman as an encore. Bliss!
I hope Jazz on 3 have managed to get Ornette to allow them to record it this time.
Just one complaint. The sound was muddy (although it did clear up a bit as the concert progressed). Frankly, there's no excuse in a venue like the RFH, which is used regularly for non-classical music. It's really hit-and-miss. Sometimes it's good, and sometimes it isn't.
Compare that to the Barbican, just over the river, where the sound is always top-notch, whatever style of music I've seen.
Hi-fi nut goes to live music? Perhaps.
Dave, I've told you before: Live music, it's overrated. ;-)
Thanks Alan - I'll leave Ben to figure out his position as a musician :-S
It really was great. Fantastic to see someone at 83 or something still going for it and delivering the goods.
Not sure what it is Dave. I think there's several issues that steal away from me some of the enjoyment of live music... None of them paint my personality or behaviour in a very favourable light. (And by 'live' I mean amplified live.)
1. The sound. I suppose this is the subconscious hifi snob in me. I just find poor sound very distracting. It's not a conscious attempt to be on my highhorse. It's simply a subjective fact that if the mics or PA is poor I struggle to enjoy the performance. In fairness, over the past 15 years this is less of an issue. PAs today are hugely better than those to which I was subjected in the early 90s. 2. The great unwashed. A bit like your 'Everything popular is wrong' signature Dave, when it comes to music I have always had an automatic suspicion (again it is not a conscious or calculated thing) of anything that is popular. I have always avoided things like Glastobury simply because a part of my brain sees it as being for mindless sheep. Terrible really, I've denied myself so much because of this. I can't bare being at a gig which is being attended by anyone who seems to be there because it is fashionable or the done thing to be so. Again, I find it distracting. I cannot help this. i note that most of the music that has attracted me has had, at the time of the attraction, an 'underground' aspect to it. Like I'm (or my immediate peer group is) discovering it for myself (whatever that means), and so staying one step ahead of the pack. Very sad. 3. Musical fussiness. Perhaps related to point 2. My musical taste is genuinely fussy. Most music that I hear I do not enjoy. Again this a subjective fact, and is true for live and recorded music. 4. Short attention span. Even for most of the bands that I do like that I see live, gigs are too long for me. Over an hour and I want the gig to wind up so I can go to the pub or go home. (Exceptions would be Galliano and Cymande). TBH this is true for recorded music as well. Rarely do can I listen with enjoyment to a whole album. (In fact I was thinking of starting a thread "How many actually good albums do you actually own" before I realised that it was I who had the problem.) Personally my attention is generally held more regularly by live comedy (that I could watch all night) than it is by live music. 5. Envy. Having experienced the enjoyment of the successful live performance, when I go to a gig I am further distracted by the knowledge that I would rather be on the stage than infront of it. Again, my damned ego.
Always interested in hearing your left-of-field musings, Ben.
1) Most of the gigs I go to have good enough sound for me as a hi-fi nut. In the case of the Ornette gig, the sheer weight of the playing pushed the disappointing sound aside.
2) I quite often get accused of liking music for its obscurity. Nope. That's wrong. I like music for its emotional and visceral impact, its intellectual challenge sometimes, its fun...
3) I avoid things I don't enjoy - pop/pap/manufactured music - but always try to dip into new stuff looking for kicks.
4) I know that feeling. But if the gig's good enough, time just drops out.
Comments
Ornette blew his heart out. Tony Falanga played inspired arco and plucked acoustic bass, Al Mcdowell seemed to have taken the electric bass off in a direction that I hadn't heard before, and Denardo had taken some drum lessons :-) OK. I mean that he wasn't playing that lopsided thudding beat nearly all the time. He played with swing and funk and the blues, and even brushes at one stage.
After two or three numbers - Ornette didn't announce any of the titles - the band locked into one. They've either been gigging a lot, or it was just one of those evenings when everything came together. And they played a hugely rearranged Lonely Woman as an encore. Bliss!
I hope Jazz on 3 have managed to get Ornette to allow them to record it this time.
Just one complaint. The sound was muddy (although it did clear up a bit as the concert progressed). Frankly, there's no excuse in a venue like the RFH, which is used regularly for non-classical music. It's really hit-and-miss. Sometimes it's good, and sometimes it isn't.
Compare that to the Barbican, just over the river, where the sound is always top-notch, whatever style of music I've seen.
Hi-fi nut goes to live music? Perhaps.
;-)
(And by 'live' I mean amplified live.)
1. The sound. I suppose this is the subconscious hifi snob in me. I just find poor sound very distracting. It's not a conscious attempt to be on my highhorse. It's simply a subjective fact that if the mics or PA is poor I struggle to enjoy the performance. In fairness, over the past 15 years this is less of an issue. PAs today are hugely better than those to which I was subjected in the early 90s.
2. The great unwashed. A bit like your 'Everything popular is wrong' signature Dave, when it comes to music I have always had an automatic suspicion (again it is not a conscious or calculated thing) of anything that is popular. I have always avoided things like Glastobury simply because a part of my brain sees it as being for mindless sheep. Terrible really, I've denied myself so much because of this. I can't bare being at a gig which is being attended by anyone who seems to be there because it is fashionable or the done thing to be so. Again, I find it distracting. I cannot help this. i note that most of the music that has attracted me has had, at the time of the attraction, an 'underground' aspect to it. Like I'm (or my immediate peer group is) discovering it for myself (whatever that means), and so staying one step ahead of the pack. Very sad.
3. Musical fussiness. Perhaps related to point 2. My musical taste is genuinely fussy. Most music that I hear I do not enjoy. Again this a subjective fact, and is true for live and recorded music.
4. Short attention span. Even for most of the bands that I do like that I see live, gigs are too long for me. Over an hour and I want the gig to wind up so I can go to the pub or go home. (Exceptions would be Galliano and Cymande). TBH this is true for recorded music as well. Rarely do can I listen with enjoyment to a whole album. (In fact I was thinking of starting a thread "How many actually good albums do you actually own" before I realised that it was I who had the problem.)
Personally my attention is generally held more regularly by live comedy (that I could watch all night) than it is by live music.
5. Envy. Having experienced the enjoyment of the successful live performance, when I go to a gig I am further distracted by the knowledge that I would rather be on the stage than infront of it. Again, my damned ego.
Hope that I'm not now excommunicated.
:-O