This sort of thing always makes me wonder and think about the following things, not that I really have any answers or anything... Is any musician / composer ever creatively relevant (or whatever we want to call it) for their whole career? (Excepting those who quit or die young) Why do some people (not Patrice, obviously) think that an artist continuing to produce art somehow changes (or tarnishes even?) their previous work? Neil Young made a bunch of very different albums in the 80s, many of which didn't work so well, but that doesn't make 'Everyone Knows This is Nowhere' any less good. Should we expect Brotzmann, Parker, et al to do anything different really? Why? It's true that when they started they were breaking new ground and that "free-jazz" is as solidified of a genre as hard-bop or trad or whatever, but so what? Dizzy Gillespie did his thing his whole life, why should it be different for Evan Parker or Mick Jagger? Can't we just say Brotzmann is a great free-jazz stylist and his style is popular? Rob Quoting "Patrice L. Roussel" <proussel@ichips.intel.com>:
On Fri, 28 Jun 2002 08:39:46 -0700 skip Heller wrote:
SY are going to have an interesting time of getting older, moreso than
most
bands. On the other hand, has anyone in history in any medium ever aged LESS gracefully than the Rolling Stones while still getting respect?
The problem that you are raising would make sense if they had not done anything. I don't care what the Stones have been doing in the past 20 years, but for what they did in the '60s and '70s, they deserve all my respect (which I am sure they can live without :-). I still listen to them (old stuff) and often hum one of their songs. In short, that are still actual... with their old stuff.
Since you are talking about the Stones, don't you feel that the improv scene is also similar (in its uncritical attitude toward the icons): we keep on raving about people who produced their breakthrough 30-40 years ago (Taylor, Brotzmann, Bailey, Parker, Coleman, etc). Yes, we don't throw our underwears at them, but is the infatuation so different? And even when we are not talking about these gods, it looks like we are looking for them behind almost 90% of the actual improv production.
Patrice.