[Mike1955]

A virtual friend of mine these past 5 years, Steve Sachse, who I might add is a gifted composer, and just so happens to play guitar, had asked me if I wanted to do a duet of guitar and saxophone regardless of the fact that we live miles apart.

I told him I would write a bass part as a foundation and play sporadically to leave room for his guitar, and I'd send him both bass and saxophone. He in turn would apply guitar and do with it as he pleased.

Miles Apart
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=1176814&songID=11132956

If you so desire, here's a clip of Steve's piece Fractal Dementia being performed by Anthony Green.

 

[marton]

Hey, that's a spicy meatball. I like that

Everything sounds appropriate, the energy is good. Very fusionesque and works good without drums. Good harmony between you.

Tasteful playing

 

[swperry1]

Sounds like it was a fun project!

 

[Mike1955]

Thanks dubrosa22, Stephen, swperry1...
Glad it was enjoyable to ya's...

 

[Wade Cornell]

Well, this is a different for you. Very soul/blues based with the guitarist mostly just playing back modified lines you gave him (call and response).

Fine playing from both of you and this style certainly plays well under your fingers.

A pleasure to hear you step outside of the atonal and crack some different nuts.

 

[Mike1955]

Thanks Wade, I'm glad you liked it.
Did you geta chance to listen to Steve's piece? Anyone?
So much flavor!

 

[marton]

Just now listened to the video. The title is very apt I think - for some reason.

I liked it, but not overly. It's a bit dry for my liking, and a tad busy.

 

[Mike1955]

LoL...My first thought was, I didn't make a video for Miles Apart....My short term memory, ya know?
Yeah Stephen, the title is aptly appropriate. I understand your take on it. It's difficult music. I've listened to
it many times and the more I hear it the more I adjust to the density. I think adjust is the right word to use because of it's
intensity.
Much like an involved movie, dense in concept, the more times revisited the more we extract out of it.

 

[Wade Cornell]

OK, have listened to Fractal Dementia several times trying to find something I liked. The title is good. The recording is crap with the microphone too far away. The pianist is a poser (do you have that terminology in the US?) who acts like an impassioned artist but misses keys (smears) with his right hand. It has elements of good composition but stops and jerks around without a convincing flow that conveys much of anything (to me). If one only listened to small segments it's got potential, but doesn't add up to much. Feels like a series of different ideas strung together without an overall thought/feeling that makes it a single composition.

 

[Mike1955]

So in other words you really dig it? lol...

Actually, how a musician looks playing anything is irrelevant. That's for their own sake, as in what they are feeling. It's not something that I would consider important to what's being played. I usually close my eyes when I listen to music because I don't need outside stimulation to alter the proper perception. It's just something I always do. He did a great job in learning this piece of music.

The pianist didn't miss anything, as in 'missed keys'. I saw the score for this piece and everything that's being played is precise. I've gone through it several times when it was given to me via software.
In fact I've read a bunch of Steve's scores and he's quite agile with such a beautiful open ear for atonal composition.

What I've always loved about music like this is it's based on a particular sequence that defies most institutional instruction. There is such reflection on the atonality of nature.
This is incredibly subjective music without question.
Yes, they are different idea's strung together and one idea inspired a new one. Shouldn't that be the basis for all music?

I'm glad you checked it out Wade. Works such as this are always wide open, or vulnerable, to the elements because of it's inherent ability to indicate tension within the listener.
It resists the comfort zone which is environmentally instilled, which is important. However, when the comforrt zone is
strategically distorted with artisitic flair, well....Then that's everything one could want musically speaking.

Fractal Dementia is simply a personal musical observation based on idea's that depict that concept.

 

[Wade Cornell]

Glad to see/hear you so passionate about this music. My ear says that there are mistakes in here as in the end of the phrase at 1:17. I've spent much of my life around pianists (especially classical) so think I know a mistake when I hear one. Can also tell when a pianist exhibits a lot of bull **** moves that are supposed to impress that they are "feeling" the music. As you say though, close your eyes and don't look. Better yet cut the bull **** and just play without all the sway and swagger.

I can dig contrast but don't hear the connection between the piece's ideas. Doesn't matter to be told that one idea inspired the next as this doesn't ring true in my hearing.

All music is open and vulnerable. The more remote a composer tries to be the more likely they will not convey much to most (isn't this the purpose?). Esotericism has at its core the idea of separation from the masses and catering to an elite. Unfortunately this has much in common with the thinking of many who play jazz (not for the unwashed masses!). So we play to ever smaller circles while the masses suck in the commercial garbage they are fed. No easy answers, so yes, each of us may as well cling to and embrace our own pockets of esotericism and let time race past.

 

[marton]

Wade said it betterer than I

In a nutshell - flow interruptus

 

[Mike1955]

I've always considered forum activity a blight on communication, and my interest in it has been weaning steadily. Yes, it can become somewhat habit forming. However, I do not see any beneficial purpose for myself to contribute further. In anything I've considered to be potentially habit forming I've discarded it upon contemplation.
I'm nipping it in the bud in other words. I've compromised my own self respect in the fact that I've participated with compromised idea's based on the actions of the hierarchy. It's their forum and they can do what they wish to. Yet, I tolerated it and I wish not to. There's simply way too much bull s hit (purposely getting around ridiculous asterisks) circumventing which essentially continues to remain the status quo of online messageboards.

It's profoundly boring to exercise a defense in personal observation which is the essential crux of forum
praxeology.
Grade school was many years ago. I will not pretend to ignore that pertinent fact any longer.

Lurking is simply not an option for me so write what you must. My self respect will become intact once I press submit and it becomes memory. I will not breach that self respect with summoning up a series of 1's and 0's to satisfy curiosity. My imagination has always been extremely generous and I'll simply let it do what's it's always done.....Like any particle based in quantum physics, if not measured, it's simply in a state of quantum superposition. I choose not to measure the particles of thought that reside here so in essence they too can remain in a state of superposition as well.

(the dissonant sound of a door delicately shutting)

 

[marton]

Jeez Mike, if you were an artist in Paris in the forties you'd have been devastated all of the time. Those guys were table pounders discussing the merits of one form of art or another.

I thought you was cooler than this. Oh well, see ya.