The Tortoise and the Hare

[Mike]

That tortoise sure has a dissonant disposition...
I don't think this piece would be popping up on any DJ's turntable
at a wedding reception, church function, etc. any time soon. But if it did I sure would take notice!
Actually, so would everyone else!

The Tortoise and the Hare
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=1176814&songID=11411715

It's a very short piece (1:16) so if you happen to sneeze while it's being played you'll probably have missed it!

 

[aldevis]

When you find a keyboard player able to play it live, please send me his number.

 

[Mike]

I always enjoy the non-traditional response! Actually, now that I think about it your response is traditional.

Technically speaking, this piece can be performed, for virtuosi. I'm sure there are countless in the world.
And if I did find a virtuoso keyboard performer why would I send his number to you? Apparently music such as this
can only find validation if it's performed. Performance was not my intention.

 

[Wade Cornell]

As ever I love it. Nice that you have incorporated the sax section backing via your discovery of pitch change. For me the picture was not so much tortoise and hare, but Alice in Wonderland merry-go-round.

 

[Mike]

As ever I love it. Nice that you have incorporated the sax section backing via your discovery of pitch change. For me the picture was not so much tortoise and hare, but Alice in Wonderland merry-go-round.

I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Alice in Wonderland Merry-Go-Round is perfectly fine!

Listening is in the ear of the beholder!

 

[aldevis]

I always enjoy the non-traditional response! Actually, now that I think about it your response is traditional.

Technically speaking, this piece can be performed, for virtuosi. I'm sure there are countless in the world.
And if I did find a virtuoso keyboard performer why would I send his number to you? Apparently music such as this
can only find validation if it's performed. Performance was not my intention.

But I know few people looking for a keyboard player that could play this.
I know one, but he lives too far away. Sometimes we meet and we have good food while talking about music.

 

[Mike]

But I know few people looking for a keyboard player that could play this.
I know one, but he lives too far away. Sometimes we meet and we have good food while talking about music.

Yes, you're probably right. Who would want to tackle something with a note velocity such as this?
What I adore about software is that, for the composer, it allows most barriers to become breached. It allows a freedom
that traditional instrumentation can restrict in composition. Sure, there are virtuoso's in the world but they are not at every corner we turn and they also qualify for top payment in union based recording.

Software permits the composer to fulfill their idea's without having their music sit in stacks of unheard promise.

 

[Wade Cornell]

Well said Mike.

 

[Mike]

Thank you!

Wade, on page 4 (bottom) Starting with
Magic, I've uploaded 15 very very early pieces of mostly saxophone work (1980-1988)
from cassette recordings. I used a cheap Casio in those days with a cheesy drum machine.
I'm 57 now but back then I was approx. 25 or so at the times of the recordings.
The recordings are what they are and I did some editing but not too much.

I got a kick out of them and possibly you will as well....... Or possibly someone else....
I've been on a nostalgia kick lately.... Struttin' down ole memory lane....I found some of them pretty funny!

 

[Wade Cornell]

Thanks for posting all of these. Have got through up to "Behind my Eyes", and will have to wait until I've got another free time to listen to the rest.

Knowing where you are now it's very interesting for me to hear these early works. They are mostly showcases for your prodigious sax talent rather than emphasizing composition. Having said that a few are pointing towards where you would go. "mindstuff" is definitely identifiable as yours and "behind my eyes" also shows your trying to bend "normal" chord progressions to suit a different soundscape.

Your sax work is very smooth and excellent on all (except behind my eyes which is saxless). Great playing on heart and soul "Double M" and others. For some reason "when I was little" isn't working.

Will try to get to the others in the future. Heck, I haven't even heard all the earlier ones posted.

Thanks again for sharing these. Must sound strange to you considering where you are at now and the primitive recording and synth sounds. Plenty to be proud of in your playing which was outstanding.

 

[Mike]

Thanks for posting all of these. Have got through up to "Behind my Eyes", and will have to wait until I've got another free time to listen to the rest.

Knowing where you are now it's very interesting for me to hear these early works. They are mostly showcases for your prodigious sax talent rather than emphasizing composition. Having said that a few are pointing towards where you would go. "mindstuff" is definitely identifiable as yours and "behind my eyes" also shows your trying to bend "normal" chord progressions to suit a different soundscape.

Your sax work is very smooth and excellent on all (except behind my eyes which is saxless). Great playing on heart and soul "Double M" and others. For some reason "when I was little" isn't working.

Will try to get to the others in the future. Heck, I haven't even heard all the earlier ones posted.

Thanks again for sharing these. Must sound strange to you considering where you are at now and the primitive recording and synth sounds. Plenty to be proud of in your playing which was outstanding.

Nice of you to spend some time with these relics Wade!
I find some of them quite amusing. This was the point where I was 'considering' putting my sax down, which I ultimately did, and concentrated on writing composition. I played a 1936 Conn in those days which I bought from a friend of Charles McPherson and I do wish I still had it....Long story!

It's funny...."When I Was Little' I thought I was pretty melodic with the sax lines for that time period.
Did you mean it wasn't working for you or it wasn't working on Soundclick? Some of original was damaged (cassette tape) I could have fixed it better. Maybe one day.
Without a doubt some of these may not be digestible. They're pretty raw recordings. But I'm glad I was able to save them. I still have so much more that I have to transfer to CD for posterity sake, and I think my page is full enough with the old stuff.

Thank you Wade!

 

[Wade Cornell]

I have no idea if "when I was little" worked musically. The link in soundclick didn't work, so couldn't hear it. That old Conn I'm sure was a good horn, but it didn't play itself. You had heaps of technique and used it well. You're more sparing now in your playing, a sign of maturity I guess and the years of composition work has probably taught you that "less is often more".

Thanks again for sharing these. Will get to hearing all at some time.

 

[Mike]

Very kind of you Wade, thank you again!

Yeah, less can be more and there will come a day when there will be nothing from me and it will be my best work!

 

[kevgermany]

Yeah, less can be more and there will come a day when there will be nothing from me and it will be my best work!

As in definition of an expert? Or more in the Glass line?

 

[Mike]

Ya know Kev, everything I have done and will continue to do is based on ego. Essentially that goes for everyone.
Does ego get in the way? How can we do away with our likes and dislikes when dealing with sound?
Take John Cage, who I have the utmost respect for. Through the I-Ching, Cage
has established his desire for sound through a non-ego approach. His use of chance operation is truly something that sets himself apart from all of us ego-based musicians.

At one point in my life I dabbled in chance operation. I have a video on my page based on it.
There was also a part of a different piece I had written where I wasn't decided if I should use sax or not. I left it up to chance and so as the part approached I played nothing while holding my horn. I felt that had as much integrity in it than if I was to physically blow into it. Chance is to be respected.

Playing nothing as opposed to playing something has just as much merit in the realm of art...........................In my opinion.
Music/sound never stops and we act in it as various forms of modulation. How we choose to modulate can be determinate or indeterminate. It's all part of the residual echo from the big bang.

The atoms that make up me, when I'm no longer, still play a role in how they are being resonated with the information they possess and how that resonance will act upon other atoms will nevertheless be out there somewhere.

Yes, it will be my greatest work!

 

[kevgermany]

Yes, I didn mean Gage when I said Glass. (Mouthpieces and glass guages mixed up in my brain, at least that's my excuse...)

Lol, I'm firmly locked in the past in many things. Including music. A lot of what's played/written doesn't turn me on. But... each to his own, and experimentation is important. I can't, for instance, stand Mahler - too much jerking around in different directions and it upsets me.

Funny though - Leroy Anderson's typewriter concerto really appeals to me, but I guess apart from using the typewriter as a rhythm/percussion instrument it's pretty conventional.

Important people experiment. But experiments in music, like other art forms, often have a minority following, even if they become mainstream later. I erember my father complaing about me listening to Led Zeppelin and ELP when I was in my teens. He mellowed a little when I found/played Pictures at an Exhibition and said it was based on Mussorgsky - turned out he had that. Nowadays, in his 80s, he doesn't notice when Led Zep comes on the radio. Maybe I'll be like that one day with your stuff..

 

[Mike]

I thought you may have been thinking of Phillip Glass which puzzled me. I figured you had your reasons.
It's an intricate process why we like what we like which is why I'm not fond of 'like' threads. The ultimate result can be 'like against like' and why we do. The same goes for Kenny G threads. People out there like him and others don't. It doesn't mean that the individual liking him is not just as passionate about their music as someone who detests him. Why should it bother anyone, ya know? The listening process is a free one. Those that profess that they can't stand him vehemently are indicating their immaturity.

Yeah, minority following comes with the territory with experimental composition. Possibly because most of it's not ordinarily traveled? The brain has to create a different why to listen and who wants to do that when the usual music that they're comfortable with is fine?

I feel that most that do experiment are prepared for what's to come as in reaction. If they aren't and they expect reaction, and good reaction to boot because they're original, then they're in for a rude awakening. Never expect anything as in reaction and if reaction, good or bad, does happen, then that's a plus. Even if the reaction isn't a good one, the composer shouldn't feel slighted or territorial to their work. The composer can never definitively imagine adequately enough how another individual hears it, or hears anything for that matter. It's impossible to understand how it will be heard by another set of ears. Someone describing it is certainly not adequate enough.

Well if my stuff is aired on the radio and no one pays attention to it, it nevertheless made it that far, miraculously.
If I can only make the muzak circuit. Man, then I would know I really made the big time! lol....

People love Zappa...People hate Zappa....Why in the world would anyone get upset that their music isn't liked? It's a redundant ritual.

I recently read somewhere, on this site possibly, that Thelonius Monk professed never play to the audience's wants. Man, this has been my premise for over 30 years! I'm glad he said that and I'm not surprised he did, knowing a thing or two about Monk. Let the audience come to you....Why be unnecessarily bogged down trying to figure the audience out?

 

[Nick Wyver]

I suppose it depends on whether you want to go out gigging and get paid for it or not.

 

[Mike]

I suppose it depends on whether you want to go out gigging and get paid for it or not.

I made some money in my day!
However, it was never about money!