Review: Cut Chemist/Shadow
A great review of the latest Cut Chemist DJ Shadow show by Oliver Wang over on Soul Sides.
This is a continuing work that started with the historic Brainfreeze.
In the review Oliver notes a particularly interesting shift from Brainfreeze:
It was an entirely different kind of performance, less oriented on playing dozens of obscure records in a row and more about building a series of conceptual sets - all made using records, but less about the actual records and more about what one could make with them.
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5 comments:
These types of performances are a powerful argument for the basic thesis that mixing and live sound selection are music creation just as surely as is strumming a mandolin.
Almost sounds like..jazz..to me. The few times I've heard dj's go one to one in a jazz/improv setting though, I have been really ..."disappointed" (po' me, huh?)..it came down to speed and dexterity, with the jazz instrumentalist coming out way ahead..I've also heard the same thing in a "world" music and dj improv thing. A dj seems to be able to set beds, albeit shifting beds, to which the improviser can respond, but a primary focus of (some) jazz/improv is that immediate response, and I dunnknow sports fans, it never seems to pan out. i WANT it to pan out, I was hoping DJ Logic could improv as well as Mediski (FE), but it didn't happen..
having said all that..were people dancing?
if by 'jazz' you mean "they're making it up as they go along" as in the lighting instant-composition perfected in the basements of Harlem and the Village in the late 40's and 50's then no, I think there's a lot more pre-determined composition going on
if by 'jazz' you mean the harmonic melding of the blues music of African slaves and their descendants with the French impressionistic orchestral arrangements as interpreted by New York Jews then again no, I doubt very much the music Chemist and Shadow are doing is related to that in any real way.
if by 'jazz' you mean sophisticated rhythms based on rolling 8ths variation and orchestrations of Sousa-style marching (aka swing with horns) then no, I seriously there's any corollary to what these guys are doing.
if by 'jazz' you mean the free expressionism and Eastern influences (not to mention drug induced) experimentations of the 60's (as expressed by our mutual friend Chaz) then er, maybe although there's absolutely no musical lineage that I know of between Coltrane and Shadow even though comparisons have been made.
from an interview with DJ Shadow in "I Like Music":
"The best advice I could ever give anybody, and it doesn't matter what they do: Just try and put your own personality into your craft, because, that's the only thing that separates any artist from another artist".
Victor opined:
"if by 'jazz' you mean "they're making it up as they go along" as in the lighting instant-composition perfected in the basements of Harlem and the Village in the late 40's and 50's then no, I think there's a lot more pre-determined composition going on"
sounded like there was some of that going on too..
"if by 'jazz' you mean the harmonic melding of the blues music of African slaves and their descendants with the French impressionistic orchestral arrangements as interpreted by New York Jews then again no, I doubt very much the music Chemist and Shadow are doing is related to that in any real way."
yes Victor, that is what's I usually mean..by jazz..I think most of the 45's (at least that's what the review said) were coming off that tree (s)..unless they were spinning
some "non impressionistic orchestral arrangements" f.e. Bach cello suites..which I happen to play sometimes in my jazz musings..so now it is getting confusing :)
"if by 'jazz' you mean sophisticated rhythms based on rolling 8ths variation and orchestrations of Sousa-style marching (aka swing with horns) then no, I seriously there's any corollary to what these guys are doing."
sheesh Victor I always mean THAT..the last time I saw DJ Logic he WAS doing that or attempting it anyway..
"if by 'jazz' you mean the free expressionism and Eastern influences (not to mention drug induced) experimentations of the 60's (as expressed by our mutual friend Chaz) then er, maybe although there's absolutely no musical lineage that I know of between Coltrane and Shadow even though comparisons have been made."
I usually don't lean on that too much (Chaz aside..)but comparing shadow to trane..?hunter thompson-esque article aside..hoo boy-o
anyway, yep, I think I usually mean all four definitions.and a few more.
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