I'm with Efren that Hemophiliac is a good album. I don't like "Wierd Little Boy" though. I'm not sure what it is though. I think that's what makes free improv so hard. There are fewer boundries, lines, definitions, et al. about what makes the music good. It seems to be more of an intrinsic quality that, to me anyways, is extremely hard to define compared to more established forms of music (and yes, I agree, there's been a lot of improv but it is not as developed of a field as other "genres") Certainly, I think Trey had a lot of great things to say about improv music and noise. I tend to like it when "out" musicians play "in" music anyways. The avant-garde seem to bring really subtle, but lush qualities to more popular forms of music. I THINK that's why I tend to like Zorn's "The Gift," Trey Spruance's "Book M," Carla's "Two Foot Yard," or Marc Ribot's Los Cubanos Postizos. albums. There's just some sort of shine that these musicians have in the way they're approaching indo-pakistani, "exotica," folk, or latin music that other artists don't have. I'm not saying that they are the best at that genre, just that there is a subtly different estetic approach that is enjoyable. It seems to be some sort of undeclared movement within the avant-garde (for lack of a better adjective) community. [Oh yeah . ..the pricing on the Hemophiliac show has more to do with the venue than it does the band. The Boulder Theater is just trying to make there money back on the show (to cover the large artist fees). Zorn/Patton/Mori don't have anything to do with "Gold Circle" . . .for better or for worse. . .that theater always has reserved seating up front that is more expensive and called "Gold Circle." Great venue though, even if the price is a bit steep (note that our Frith show that we personally produced was under $15 . .way cheaper than NYC)] --- zorn-list-request@mailman.xmission.com wrote:

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Message: 5 Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2004 13:47:17 +0000 (GMT) From: alastair@pretentious.co.uk Subject: Re: Hemophiliac in SF Guardian To: efrendv@yahoo.es, zorn-list@mailman.xmission.com Message-ID: <73905.1077716837216.JavaMail.root@172.16.100.50> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Efren wrote:

...

So anybody who enjoys something you dislike is silly or what?

Err..what. I used the phrase "silly Patton-head" to describe those who feel they have to have everything by the man and will pay ridiculous prices on E-Bay for stuff. I didn't suggest that anyone who likes it is silly. Our views on the content differ quite strongly, but there you go. I don't feel that they're breaking any new ground at all, and the ridiculous prices quoted by another lister for their live shows (something about super deluxe VIP seats or some such? "Golden Circle"?) makes me wonder how sincere the project is.

I used to be a "silly Zorn-head", but realised I couldn't afford it all and that he releases the odd duff record. All in all, I think he's still got a very high average. I did buy" Weird Little Boy" though, and don't feel the need to ever listen to it again. Seeing as our tastes seem to differ, perhaps you have something you can trade me for it...

Alastair

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