Some excellent posts and commentary recently; thanks everyone. Acman3, that Weather Report live clip is amazing; I had not heard that previously. Probably my favorite lineup in that band with Jaco and Peter Erskine (who sounds amazing). Fusion that for me captures the spirit and feeling of jazz without having to apologize for not being jazz-jazz. You beat me to the punch with the Dixie Dregs clip; they were going to be part of my 1978 list. I like your description of them as a possible "gateway band" to jazz. For anyone who cares about this sort of thing and to show the influences that come into play, that band was started by jazz students at the University Of Miami School Of Music (my alma mater) and was first called the U of M Rock Ensemble. Speaking of Ro(c)k:
Rok, not intended as further argument, but simply dialogue about some interesting topics and related to comments that you made and in no way intended to try and change your mind about anything:
****It has no impact what so ever. Music is an emotional thingy, just like all Art. Critical analysis does not change how it affects a person, it's just nice to know information, good for academic study, or conversation over drinks. Nothing more.****
I've already expressed my feelings about this topic, allow me to use an example to make my point:
You are absolutely correct, it is an emotional thingy; however, I recall commenting on and sharing music by the great Paul Desmond and pointing out to you something in the music that you had not noticed before. In the arrangement of a particular ballad there was a point when Desmond, while soloing, reacts to the orchestration and "answers" the musical line that the woodwinds in the orchestra play with the same musical figure, but now incorporated in his improvised solo. I also recall that your reaction was "I burst out laughing when I heard that!" Now, if that is not an emotional reaction as a result of critical analysis then I don't know what is. I'll take it a step further:
We have also discussed "quotes" in improvisations; something that, as far as I can tell, was also something that you had not noticed previously. Well, much later and after first discussing this, I noticed comments by you re clips that you posted about musical "quotes" in those clips. Are you trying to say that the recognition of these quotes have no impact on your emotional reaction to this music; that your experience with the music is not enhanced by that recognition?
Cheers
Rok, not intended as further argument, but simply dialogue about some interesting topics and related to comments that you made and in no way intended to try and change your mind about anything:
****It has no impact what so ever. Music is an emotional thingy, just like all Art. Critical analysis does not change how it affects a person, it's just nice to know information, good for academic study, or conversation over drinks. Nothing more.****
I've already expressed my feelings about this topic, allow me to use an example to make my point:
You are absolutely correct, it is an emotional thingy; however, I recall commenting on and sharing music by the great Paul Desmond and pointing out to you something in the music that you had not noticed before. In the arrangement of a particular ballad there was a point when Desmond, while soloing, reacts to the orchestration and "answers" the musical line that the woodwinds in the orchestra play with the same musical figure, but now incorporated in his improvised solo. I also recall that your reaction was "I burst out laughing when I heard that!" Now, if that is not an emotional reaction as a result of critical analysis then I don't know what is. I'll take it a step further:
We have also discussed "quotes" in improvisations; something that, as far as I can tell, was also something that you had not noticed previously. Well, much later and after first discussing this, I noticed comments by you re clips that you posted about musical "quotes" in those clips. Are you trying to say that the recognition of these quotes have no impact on your emotional reaction to this music; that your experience with the music is not enhanced by that recognition?
Cheers