Why Bother?
I’ve spent a lot of time this week buying songs and posting about artistic merit, and why I enjoy certain songs I bought. But one thing stuck in my head more than anything else I wrote.
It was something yesterday about how Michael McDonald sounds great because he puts so much effort into his singing, and how Randy Travis sounds great because he doesn’t.
So how does that work, exactly?
All things being equal in terms of quality, is the performance better because of the effort put into it?
Take sax players. Charlie Parker could play hard. He breathed in air and blew out light. He could wail and get the pulse racing. So could Gerry Mulligan.
Ben Webster, on the other hand, or Paul Desmond - they were cool and smooth and played like cold silk sheets. They were relaxed. They sounded the way empty gloves look.
But the performances are just as stirring. Which goes to show that the perceived effort may have nothing to do with the appreciation. Or it might.
Maybe it’s both what you do and the way that you do it that gets results.
I dunno.
Maybe creative process and should, and always will, remain a mystery.
So just enjoy it.
Have a good weekend.
February 24th, 2006 at 11:59 am
Yo do the same.
‘played like cold silk sheets’ and ’sounded the way empty gloves look’ are amazingly poetic descriptives.
You ought to write those down and use them somewhere.
February 24th, 2006 at 12:41 pm
Right on, Cliff. Well said. As usual.
Have a lovely last weekend of Feb.!
February 24th, 2006 at 6:22 pm
I guess it’s a matter of how the artist can best tap into his or her nature.
I’m sure you could get a koan out of it, though!
February 24th, 2006 at 8:42 pm
Are you sure that smoking pot and giggling a lot doesn’t have something to do with it?
February 24th, 2006 at 9:24 pm
Nature! Patita, that’s exactly it! Here’s me trying to figure it out, but basically, as long as it’s true to their selves and souls - there’s the value.
Nice work once again.
February 26th, 2006 at 3:05 am
IS it creative PROCESS that you’re thinking of or is it creative INTERPRETATION of said proces tha thas you confused?
February 28th, 2006 at 4:55 pm
There is something to what you wrote. I can barely play guitar. Basic chords, really, the barest of the bare.
But Ed, who is an accomplished guitar player, swears he’d rather listen to me than himself.
(Ed is full of shit sometimes…)
March 4th, 2006 at 4:11 pm
I love Paul Desmond. I think it probably takes just as much effort to hold back for that sort of restrained breathy cat-brushing-against-velvet sound as it does to really let rip.
Stan Getz, too.