[Dixielandjazz] Well, you caused me to think. Sorry.

[Charlie Hooks]

Just checked out

                http://lunarpages.com/tienkuo/songs.html

and still can't quite believe what Yankees can do with some word (like,
"Waco") that they know nothing of.  But then again:

    is a perfect example of Gonzo journalism extended to its end:  fact and
truth are now laughable (giggle-able?) terms.  They are not the point, man!
The point is, catch up the (Jr. High mentality) kids in a fun fun hustle
that is its own justification.  Hey!  Catch up, Dude..."

    Musically, the anology is to hang hang high on a cutesy-poo motif,
idiotic but "catchy," with an even more idiotic repetitive bass line
underneath.... Sorry: attempting to describe idiocy is itself idiotic. You
see it, smell it--or you don't.

    I'm going on too long, but I need to:  musicians playing OKOM are
already a bit odd, a bit out of it, not herd creatures.   But that is why we
must persevere.  

    We matter.  

    We are not merely Nominalists, believeing and playing as though notes
are merely names.  No: we see what is Real, the conception,   We understand
that the five senses are very fun but hardly the Point. The point is...well,

    What is Real is what we hear in our Minds.

    It is not be-bop technique, although technique is a blessing, Lord
knows!  Reality is a thing we percieve, somehow, not always, God bless when
it happens, INSIDE our minds.  It is an intuitive perception that comes
from...where, we don't know.  But when it is there, we play our asses
off....

    For those philosophical: recall the 14th century when the Plague nearly
wiped out civilization.  And when William of Occam introduced "Nominalism"
to the world, leading to an even worse intellectual Plague: materialism. For
the past 500 years it has led to the ignoring of the Transcendentals: if you
can't see it, smell it, touch it, taste it, feel it, hear it, it doesn't
exist.  Umm.  Well...

    I gotta ask, just in case: about the great choruses you've played over
the past many many years: if any of you've ever smelled them, tasted them
touched them, seen them, heard them except on your horn?  No?  Then you are
Realists.  You know what is Real, and it forms in your head, in your Mind.
Your touch, your fingers, lips, technique are all tools used to convey the
Reality of Music.  All the rest are just "the names of stuff;" the Reality
is elsewhere, is otherwise.  We all know that.  That's why we play.

We are "Realists" in the mediaeval sense, the true sense: those who belive
that the Great Forms are Real.  Who believe that Truth actully exists, and
thet we may approach it.  We are all crazy enough to believe in Music!  We
think it exists.  That this music here may well be, surely is or is not,
greater than that music there.  We have standards because WE HAVE STANDARDS:
and some meet up, and some do not.  Way it goes....

I'm signing off because I'm more than a bit overserved.

But I love you, just the same.

Charlie

 





    



             
 persevere.