Actually, and this is from the April 21, 1962 issue of Down Beat, the reviewer is relating a conversation he had with Dolphy: "He described how bird calls had been recorded and then slowed down in playback; the bird calls had a timbre similar to a flute. Conversely, he said, a symphony flutist recorded these bird calls, and when the recording was played at a fast speed, it sounded like birds." Dolphy went on to explain how birds sang using notes that were not on the western scale, and that he was thus inspired to play using quarter tones, and that he thought it was pretty. I guess that's imitating a bird in some abstract sense ... Dave
on 10/8/02 8:18 AM, Dave Egan at mr.dave@attbi.com wrote:
Hmmph. Isn't that what the critics used to say about Eric Dolphy?
Dave
I thought the Dolphy mention was because he had actually -- and I remember him discussing this in an interview -- recorded some birdcalls, slowed them down, and transcribed them.
skip h