------------------------------
Loopers-Delight-d Digest				Volume 97 : Issue 127

Today's Topics:
  jamguy fs                             [ Rick Canton <rpc@cyberportal.net> ]
  Re: Midi standards                    [ "Jonathan Brainin" <jbrainin@intera ]
  Re: Midi standards                    [ "Matt McCabe" <mattm@bi-tech.com> ]
  Re: Fela : RIP                        [ improv@peak.org (Dave Trenkel) ]
  Re: LOOPING PHILOSOPHY (ad infinitum  [ improv@peak.org (Dave Trenkel) ]
  Re: tyrannical ambient front          [ improv@peak.org (Dave Trenkel) ]
  Re: LOOPING PHILOSOPHY (condensed)    [ pycraft@elec.gla.ac.uk (Michael Pyc ]
  Re: Midi standards                    [ Kim Flint <kflint@chromatic.com> ]
  Re: tyrannical ambient front          [ "Stephen P. Goodman" <sgoodman@prim ]
  Re: LOOPING PHILOSOPHY (condensed)    [ Dave Stagner <dstagner@icarus.net> ]

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------------------------------
Date: Tue, 05 Aug 1997 11:19:27 -0700
From: Rick Canton <rpc@cyberportal.net>
To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Subject: jamguy fs
Message-ID: <33E76EAF.246A@cyberportal.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

i saw an ad in the local paper for a 32 sec jamman

"$350. c.o.d. shipped anywhere" from a guy nammed Frank in mass.
fconsig@ma.ultranet.com
# 617-861-9710

goodluck,
rick

------------------------------
Date: Tue, 5 Aug 1997 11:46:08 -0400
From: "Jonathan Brainin" <jbrainin@interactive.net>
To: <Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com>
Subject: Re: Midi standards
Message-Id: <199708051543.LAA00665@onyx.interactive.net>
Content-Type: text/plain
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

> From: Matt McCabe <mattm@bi-tech.com>
> To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
> Subject: Re: Midi standards
> Date: Tuesday, August 05, 1997 10:38 AM
> 
> How does this work?  Are you using the Control One?  I'm assuming that in
> order for this to work, you have to plug the foot controller into the
MSB+
> first.  How do you power the Control One then?  It gets it's power from
the
> 2101.

AAAGGH!  Yet *another* non-standard midi implementation!  Almost makes
me appreciate the wallwart (or battteries) that my FC200 (Roland) uses.  
Back to the drawing board.  Have you considered one of those PC only
foot controllers? <G>
 
> > PS., I'd much prefer to control my Jammans with CC than with Program
> > Change messages.  Much easier to avoid conflict between different
> > devices.

Oh yeah, how did the meeting with Mr. President at Lexicon go last week, 
Bob?  Any inkling as to when the eagerly awaited Jamman upgrade (the 
EAJU for future reference?) makes it's way to the greedy hands of the 
public?  I'll take two...

Jonathan Brainin
jbrainin@interactive.net
my karma ran over my dogma

------------------------------
Date: Tue, 5 Aug 1997 11:29:27 -0700
From: "Matt McCabe" <mattm@bi-tech.com>
To: <Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com>
Subject: Re: Midi standards
Message-Id: <199708051828.LAA16698@gw1.bi-tech.com>
Content-Type: text/plain
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

> From: Kim Flint <kflint@chromatic.com>

> Actually, for that much you could buy a used footpedal that sends just
about
> any midi command and could probably handle both units. I got my digitech
> pmc-10 for $100. It can store 500 presets! It even has a midi in, which
in

You sure love that PMC-10 don't you Kim??? :-)  Know where I can pick one
up?

Anyone have any experience using Rocktron's All Access foot controller?  It
basically looks like a Bradshaw pedal board with those beefy switches (like
a RAT distortion pedal).  From the brochure I read a few months back if
sounded pretty sophisticated.

Matt

------------------------------
Date: Tue, 5 Aug 1997 12:12:34 -0800
From: improv@peak.org (Dave Trenkel)
To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Cc: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Subject: Re: Fela : RIP
Message-Id: <v01510102b00d242e51b5@[128.193.5.54]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

At 1:38 AM 8/5/97, andre wrote:
>At 07:35 PM 8/4/97 -0800, you wrote:
>>I just learned that Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Nigerian musician, bandleader and
>>activist died friday in his sleep.
>
>oh my god!! that's quite a shock ?? how old was he ?? early/mid 50s ??
>Strange/funny - i had just just thought a lot about Fela, having NOT thought
>of him in ages - but reading up on the new Eno at some website - several
>quotes from mr Eno - lauded Fela - and he said how he had TONS of his
>albums. - This caused me to think how lame i was for only having 1 or 2
>??@!!!!! But, having heard quite a few of 'em... then i actually wondered
>where he was, what doing, etc. Very strange. And sad.
>
He was only 58, rather surprising given how long a career he had. I'll
include an obit from the London Times at the end of this message for anyone
interested.  I got into Fela after reading about Eno raving about him in
the late 70's.

>anyone unfamiliar with this man - check it out... another GENIUS , yes, the
>comparisons to Miles, Sun Ra, etc are right on.... Talking heads from Remain
>in light to the next 3-4 albums would not exist without him and his
>hybrid.... there's a great album he did in like 1970 with ginger baker
>also... whew. another one gone. our counter culture is dying. we must
>preserve it.

Yeah, it does kind of make you wonder where all the true visionaries are in
the younger generations. Are we the people meant to carry on the legacies
of these musicians? Whew, that's a huge responsibility.

I have been thinking a lot about this stuff lately, excuse me if this gets
a bit overly personal and morbid. The same day I found out about Fela and
Burroughs,  a friend of mine, a woman I had gone to music school with, was
killed in a car accident. She had just found a job as a music educator,
after searching for several years, and was looking forward to finally
having a career in what she wanted to do. And all gone in an instant. I
don't mean to use this list as a therapy forum or whatever, but these
things have been on my mind lately, how incredibly fragile our existence
is, and what we have to contribute while we're here and what remains when
we're gone. In a recent Keyboard mag, Freff wrote, in his usual back page
philosophy rant, about a quote he keeps by his computer, "Procratination is
the denial of death." This phrase has been with me a lot in the last few
days, how easy it is to put off the creativity, producing the music or
whatever while just surviving, making the house payments, doing the job,
etc.

I guess the important thing is to just keep making the music, by any means
necessary, the arguments of whether what we do is ambient or what looper is
best, or the validity of live looping versus sampling become trivial in the
face of our own mortality.

Anyway, end of depressing lecture, here's the Fela obit from the London
Times. Typically, I didn't see any of this kind of coverage in the american
press.

Date: Tue, 5 Aug 1997 06:57:29 -0700 (PDT)
From: MichaelP <papadop@peak.org>
X-Sender: papadop@kira
Subject: London Times obit. on Fela Kuti
MIME-Version: 1.0
Sender: owner-ykboo@peak.org
Precedence: bulk
Status:

If you've heard this musician's work, you'll know something about the
man. If you havn't heard it go out and find some.
MichaelP

London Times   August 5 1997

                                 FELA KUTI

    Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, Nigerian singer and political activist, died of
    an Aids-related illness on August 2 aged 58. He was born on October
                                 15, 1938.

   A FLAMBOYANT singer of international acclaim and an outspoken
   political opponent of successive military governments in Nigeria, Fela
   Anikulapo-Kuti mixed music with social criticism, and revelled in
   being a thorn in the side of the authorities. Known to his fans simply
   as Fela, he also won a reputation for smoking marijuana, sleeping with
   hundreds of women and dressing only in his underpants.

   As one of the earliest and most vocal post-colonial activists, he
   influenced many through his music, and in Lagos he commanded a
   militant following among the poor and dispossessed.

   He was one of five children. Their father was an Anglican cleric and
   ran a rural grammar school in Abeokuta, a small town in Ogun province,
   western Nigeria. Their mother also worked at a grammar school, and she
   was the first to sow the seeds of Fela's political activism.

   This was nurtured when he came to Britain in 1960 to study music at
   Trinity College in London, where besides singing he played the piano
   and trumpet and met his first wife, a Nigerian. His years in London
   opened his eyes to the social neglect in his native country, and when
   he returned to Nigeria in 1963 he formed the Koola Lobitos band.

   His early music was high-life jazz, and his songs were critical of the
   rich and the growing neglect of roads and other amenities. His
   political focus was sharpened in 1968 by a tour of the United States
   with his band. He met members of the Black Panther movement and was
   exposed to the writings of Malcolm X. Subsequently his music evolved
   into Afrobeat, a mix of jazz and more traditional African music, and
   his pan-Africanist advocacy shone through his lyrics.

   By the early 1970s he was on his way to stardom with records that
   pulled no punches in criticising military rule in Nigeria,
   highlighting the brutality and corruption of the country's leaders and
   singling out individuals for particular criticism. Inevitably this led
   to confrontation with the authorities, and in 1977 he had a
   spectacular clash when soldiers stormed his house in Lagos. His mother
   was thrown from a second-storey window and died six months later from
   her injuries. Fela received a severe beating that resulted in a broken
   leg and arm, leaving him unable to play the saxophone.

   His confrontation with the authorities reinforced his growing legend
   as a champion of the people and a crusader for human rights. In 1979
   he formed a political party, the Movement for the People, and he was
   urged to run for president, but the party was disqualified from
   elections. It was around this time that he persuaded his brother Beko
   Ransome Kuti, a doctor, to enter the political fray. He assisted Beko,
   who became president of the Nigerian Medical Association, to organise
   doctors' strikes, and later his brother formed the human rights
   organisation Campaign for Democracy.

   In 1981 Fela received another beating from troops using rifle butts,
   and afterwards he told family members that he felt as if his body had
   left him. Subjected to continued harassment, he was detained several
   times and imprisoned. In 1984 he was jailed for 18 months on
   trumped-up charges before being freed after the judge admitted having
   been under pressure from the State.

   His political fire dwindled in the final two years of his life, even
   though his brother Beko had been imprisoned by the military strongman
   Sani Abacha and was being kept in solitary confinement. Fela was said
   to be disillusioned because the changes he had fought so hard for had
   not materialised. He stayed mostly at his home in Ikeja, a
   working-class district in Lagos, and gave infrequent performances at
   his club, the Shrine. He would smoke marijuana on stage and the weed
   could be purchased, ready rolled, on the premises.

   Earlier this year he was held by the drugs squad, which said it hoped
   to reform his character and wean him off marijuana. There was uproar
   when he appeared on national television in handcuffs, and officials
   released him, admitting defeat.

   During his heyday Fela changed part of his family name from Ransome to
   Anikulapo, which means "one who keeps death in his pouch". He is
   survived by 27 wives and three children.

________________________________________________________
Dave Trenkel : improv@peak.org  : www.peak.org/~improv/

"...there will come a day when you won't have to use
gasoline. You'd simply take a cassette and put it in
your car, let it run. You'd have to have the proper
type of music. Like you take two sticks, put 'em
together, make fire. You take some notes and rub 'em
together - dum, dum, dum, dum - fire, cosmic fire."
                                            -Sun Ra
________________________________________________________

------------------------------
Date: Tue, 5 Aug 1997 12:12:50 -0800
From: improv@peak.org (Dave Trenkel)
To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Cc: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Subject: Re: LOOPING PHILOSOPHY (ad infinitum)
Message-Id: <v01510104b00d30963c19@[128.193.5.54]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

I think this debate is pretty interesting, but ultimately futile because
we're treating music as an abstraction, and music is not an abstraction,
it's perhaps the most sensual and direct art we have. I learned years ago
to judge music on the sound I hear and not on the process that the musician
uses to create it. I totally respect Andre (The Man!)'s approach, and I'd
love to hear it applied to his music, but there is a danger in abstracting
an individual method into a rule for producing music. For example, Fripp is
an exemplary looping guitarist, his self-discipline is admirable, his
technique with looping devices is deep, etc, BUT, his last few Soundscape
CD's have bored me to tears. Why? Because there's no passion, no fire, no
grit, no funk, all I hear is theory and rules. Now, I'm not putting Fripp
down, his music has meant a lot to me over the years, and there are some
things he plays that still kick my ass, but I think he's got a tendency to
over-theorize, and needs the feedback of some more instinctive musicians to
really make interesting music.

Anyway, I didn't mean this to be an anti-Fripp rant, I guess what I'm
trying to say is that we have to judge the music on it's own merits. To use
Andre's "Black Dog" example, in theory every guitarist will bring his own
history, his own passion, whatever to the lick. In practice, I've heard too
many musicians who are too content to play something safely, to not take
risks, to be generic. I'd rather just hear Jimmy Page in all his sloppiness
than someone slavishly reproducing the recorded lick. As far as sampling
the lick, again it all depends on the creativity of the person doing the
sampling. DJ Spooky or Hank Shocklee would probably take it into an
entirely new direction. A lesser artist probably won't. I won't keep myself
from appreciating the person who takes the creative path because of his
method.

I personally use real-time looping, sampling, midi looping, whatever it
takes to make music that interests me and will hopefully engage listeners.
I'm kind of an obsessive recordist/archivist, I ran a small studio for a
few years and I still do occaisional concert recordings, editing jobs,
whatever. One of the things that people who hire me have to accept, and
anymore it's mostly just friends that I do recording with, is that whatever
they record with me will be going into the sample mill, and who knows where
I might re-use something of theirs. Actually, most people totally respect
this, and are intrigued at the possiblility of what I might eventually do
with their sound, there have been a few that aren't into it. I have a shelf
of DATs of all kinds of music, classical recitals, punk bands, sound checks
from recording sessions, interesting licks dubbed off the multitrack master
when the band wasn't looking, whatever, and sometimes when I'm looking for
inspiration, I'll pull down a tape at random and see what I can find.
Because the musicians on these tapes are friends, there's a resonance I get
from working with the music that I wouldn't get from pulling samples off of
records, and I hope that this resonance carries through in the work.

________________________________________________________
Dave Trenkel : improv@peak.org  : www.peak.org/~improv/

"...there will come a day when you won't have to use
gasoline. You'd simply take a cassette and put it in
your car, let it run. You'd have to have the proper
type of music. Like you take two sticks, put 'em
together, make fire. You take some notes and rub 'em
together - dum, dum, dum, dum - fire, cosmic fire."
                                            -Sun Ra
________________________________________________________

------------------------------
Date: Tue, 5 Aug 1997 12:12:44 -0800
From: improv@peak.org (Dave Trenkel)
To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Cc: loopers-delight@annihilist.com
Subject: Re: tyrannical ambient front
Message-Id: <v01510103b00d2a66c7ac@[128.193.5.54]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

At 5:33 PM 8/4/97, Sarajane wrote:
>Caution: The following remarks are by a card carrying member
>of the "Tyrannical Ambient Front". Those easily offended by the
>lack of respect given to tradional musical logic, should avert their
>gaze now................or read on, and gather new scorn.
>
Aha, the ambient mafia reveals itself! No one expects the ambient inquisition!

Seriously, thanks for the input.  I totally respect your approach, I know
from experience that it's incredibly difficult to create music that works
gracefully as true ambience. My problem is that the word ambient has become
a generic catch phrase, and is on the verge of losing whatever real meaning
it had as a reference to music. Too many times I have tried to explain what
it is I'm after in my music, only to have the listener nod sagely and say,
"Ah, you do ambient music." Oh well, at least they're not calling it
jazz...

I've recommended this book before on this list, but David Toop's "Ocean of
Sound" is a terrific read. One of his major hypotheses is that this century
has seen 2 simultaneous forces that have potentially created a whole new
aesthetic of sound. One is the rise of music whose "meaning" is too
complex, too personal, or too ambiguous to be clearly read from just the
sound (I know this is very vague statement, hey, it takes Toop, a much
better writer than I the whole book to put this forth, what do you expect
me to do in a sentence?). This includes most contemporary classical music,
and much of the outer fringes of the pop and jazz worlds. The other force
is that the sound world we live in is increasingly complex, and includes
more music, whether we are listening to it consciouly or in the background,
than any previous era in human history. These forces have made us deal,
both as listeners and performers, with music in an entirely new way.
Anyway, it's a pretty thought-provoking book, I read it twice while I had
it from the library and will buy a copy soon.


________________________________________________________
Dave Trenkel : improv@peak.org  : www.peak.org/~improv/

"...there will come a day when you won't have to use
gasoline. You'd simply take a cassette and put it in
your car, let it run. You'd have to have the proper
type of music. Like you take two sticks, put 'em
together, make fire. You take some notes and rub 'em
together - dum, dum, dum, dum - fire, cosmic fire."
                                            -Sun Ra
________________________________________________________

------------------------------
Date: Tue, 5 Aug 1997 21:18:24 +0100
From: pycraft@elec.gla.ac.uk (Michael Pycraft Hughes, PhD)
To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Subject: Re: LOOPING PHILOSOPHY (condensed)
Message-Id: <3008.199708052018@rank-serv.elec.gla.ac.uk>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

The Man:

>I agree -- I'm not saying that guitar-based music is fundamentally better 
>than computer-based music.  Here's (yet another!) different perspective 
>on it: If you want to tweak a sample, you have to put it through a series 
>of external apparati and processes which are part of a seperate and 
>ditinct entity from who and what you are.

Like making patches using a signal processor?  (Which I can understand, in
a way - I'm not keen on them myself)

>If you've playing a guitar, 
>then this process happens automatically -- it's "hard wired" into your 
>system.  (Too bad it's harder to get a good upgrade!)

I just upload the CD-ROM on the cover of Guitar Player.  Just out of
interest, do you get the month's Notes On Call CD on the cover of GP in the
US now?
We do here...

>The way I see it is this: If you've got individual samples of drum 
>sounds, waveforms in a sample-playback synth, etc, there's no inherent 
>musical phrase there, unless you're triggering a factory loop. 

But then  - the fatal move!

>And in the mea culpa department, there *are* some factory-loaded loops in
>the GR-50 memory, which I'll probably be using in my solo gigs.  How do I
>justify this in light of the last 5,000 posts I've made?   I'd also
>have to say that these loops aren't available in the factory presets; they
>have to be user-tweaked, and I've spent some time doing some serious
>tampering with them to get them to the point where they are right now. 

Check,,,and mate.  :)   Deep Blue would be proud....

>Which is exactly what all the pro-DJ arguments have been advocating all
>along, I know.  Is this an atom bomb-sized hole in my whole argument?  
>Could be. 

'Reckon.   Hmmm.... that's that thread over.  Now, what next?  Maybe Kim
can tell us about foot controllers....  Hey Kim!  When's the Echoplex Quad
update (v3) coming out...?   :) 

Michael

/-------------------------------------------------------------------\
|Dr Michael Pycraft Hughes | Tel:0141 330 5979 | Fax: 0141 330 4907 |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------|
|Bioelectronics, Rankine Bldg, Glasgow University, Glasgow, G12 8QQ |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------|
|  http://www.elec.gla.ac.uk/groups/bio/Electrokinetics/main.html   |
\-------------------------------------------------------------------/

------------------------------
Date: Tue, 05 Aug 1997 13:55:48 -0700
From: Kim Flint <kflint@chromatic.com>
To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Subject: Re: Midi standards
Message-Id: <2.2.32.19970805205548.009e2800@pop.chromatic.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

At 11:29 AM 8/5/97 -0700, you wrote:
>> From: Kim Flint <kflint@chromatic.com>
>
>> Actually, for that much you could buy a used footpedal that sends just
>about
>> any midi command and could probably handle both units. I got my digitech
>> pmc-10 for $100. It can store 500 presets! It even has a midi in, which
>in
>
>You sure love that PMC-10 don't you Kim??? :-)  Know where I can pick one
>up?

I just found someone selling it online. I bought most of my guitar rack from
that one guy, actually. And it's not that I find the pmc-10 particulary
lovable, just that it keeps striking me that there's cheap, well-made stuff
floating around out there that's a lot better than most of the things
available new. Most of those talented engineers who worked in the music
industry a few years ago are now making a lot more money designing add-in
multimedia products for pc's. :-)  Sort of like if you had wanted to buy a
ford mustang in 1981, you would have been better off getting one made 10-15
years before that...

>Anyone have any experience using Rocktron's All Access foot controller?  It
>basically looks like a Bradshaw pedal board with those beefy switches (like
>a RAT distortion pedal).  From the brochure I read a few months back if
>sounded pretty sophisticated.

I know several people who have tried every pedal ever created, and they now
use the All Access. It's expensive, but apparently worth it. And the color
is so cool!

kim
________________________________________________________
Kim Flint		       408-752-9284
Mpact System Engineering       kflint@chromatic.com
Chromatic Research             http://www.chromatic.com

------------------------------
Date: Tue, 5 Aug 1997 14:01:18 -0700
From: "Stephen P. Goodman" <sgoodman@primenet.com>
To: <Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com>
Subject: Re: tyrannical ambient front
Message-Id: <199708052103.OAA12042@usr09.primenet.com>
Content-Type: text/plain
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

> At 5:33 PM 8/4/97, Sarajane wrote:
> >Caution: The following remarks are by a card carrying member
> >of the "Tyrannical Ambient Front". Those easily offended by the
> >lack of respect given to tradional musical logic, should avert their
> >gaze now................or read on, and gather new scorn.

And at 1:12 PM 8/5/97, Dave Trenkel <improv@peak.org> emitted:

> Aha, the ambient mafia reveals itself! No one expects the ambient
inquisition!

Well, actually, NO.  It should be as thus (...Biggles!):

     "Noone can discern (or chooses to ignore) the ambient inquisition!"

Sorry, I think the current weight of subject quotient requires comedic
relief in droves...!  But I think the true nature of 'ambiance as we think
we know it' is actually a Subjective Thing when attemptedly applied to
anyone else but yourself.  Some folks like it, some don't, and some don't
appreciate it enough to even know what it is.  Or perhaps it's like David
Byrne coined in the film "True Stories":

     "Do you like music?  I know - most people SAY they do..."

Which could be a zen item on its own.  Yes?

* Stephen Goodman            It's the Loop Of The Week!  And it's free!
* EarthLight Productions      http://www.earthlight.net/Studios

------------------------------
Date: Tue, 5 Aug 1997 16:09:40 -0500 (CDT)
From: Dave Stagner <dstagner@icarus.net>
To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Subject: Re: LOOPING PHILOSOPHY (condensed)
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.3.95.970805153701.29659A-100000@icarus.icarus.net>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

On Mon, 4 Aug 1997, Michael Pycraft Hughes, PhD wrote:

> The Man attracted The Controversy:
> 
> >> But the whole idea of (re)contextualising comes from how the sample is used
> >> in another piece of music. Sure 5 guitarists will play "Black Dog" slightly
> >> differently, and 5 techno artists will use the sample from "Black Dog" in
> >> different ways in wildly varying styles, but the guitarist is still just
> >> playing "Black Dog". 
> >And the DJ is still "just" sampling it!

Recontextualization isn't limited to sampling.  Hell, I've been
recontextualizing a Zeppelin tune myself lately... my solo acoustic
version of "No Quarter" (DADGAD tuning).  If I can find a good,
reliable percussionist, I want to form a band doing nothing but
acoustic covers of rock tunes.  That's a whole band concept formed
around recontextualization, without a hint of electronics.  And
recontextualization isn't just "musical"... it can work on entirely
different levels.  I like playing "I Touch Myself" by the Divinyls.
Songs about masturbation take on a whole new meaning when sung by a
man rather than a woman!  (The next step... making it a medley with
Joan Osborne's "Right Hand Man".  Think about it).  

Recontextualization is the basis of virtually all postmodern art, in
any media or genre.  Traditional rock is itself a recontextualization
of the blues.  Recontextualization plays with the audience's
expectations, takes advantage of their preconceived notions.  This can
be a crude abuse of familiarity (like Vanilla Ice using a well-known
Queen riff), or an all-out assault on the source (Jimi Hendrix at
Montery, playing Frank Sinatra's "Strangers in the Night", the #1 song
in the country at the time, while setting fire to his guitar, with the
rhythm section pounding out "Wild Thing").  

So, getting back to a point... I don't think the guitarist vs DJ
comparison is a useful one here.  Recontextualization isn't a function
of performance, but rather of intent.  If the average guitarist can't
play Black Dog exactly like Jimmy Page, it usually isn't for a lack of
trying!  Heck, NOBODY can repeat a riff perfectly.  However, a
guitarist is just as capable of recontextualizing Black Dog as a
DJ... just play in an unexpected context.  

> >> So in a way, just as the guitarists sensibilities
> >> affect how he plays the guitar riff, a DJ's sensibilities affect how he
> >> uses the sample in a song or dropped into his set.
> 
> >But again, the "sensibilities" that are at work with a guitarist are an
> >intangible, organic, built-in thing, and they're there from the crack of
> >the cosmic DNA.  
> 
> Woah, I think there may be a touch of overemphasis on that point. 
> Guitarists are no nearer the cosmic source than anyone else ('cept maybe
> Jerry Garcia), we're just hittin' bits of wire an' wood in a way that
> pleases us.  I _do_ understand where you're coming from, in that I find
> synths etc sort of "isolating" instruments where I don't have enough
> control over the sound, like I do with guitar.  But that has nothing to do
> with the quality of music produced.

Again, there are two things at work here... aesthetics, and
technique.  Don't mix them up.  Playing a riff differently because of
limited technique isn't the same as playing a riff differently for
artistic intent.  Now, there is a middle ground here... taking
advantage of our own limitations to personalize someone else's music.
And to be absolutely clear, I don't consider lack of technique a
disadvantage.  For that matter, I don't consider the limitations of an
instrument to be a disadvantage.  I currently play only unplugged
acoustic guitar, IN ORDER to limit my instrument.  Then I play around
with extended technique in order to extract more or different sounds
from the instrument.  And yes, I consider myself an acoustic loopist.
Most of my music these days is "loops" of ambient and percussive
sounds generated by hand on an acoustic guitar.  

> >This is all very true.  I think for me the bottom line is that if you're
> >working with samples, even if you're tweaking and recontextualizing the
> >thing to the nth degree, you're still working with blocks of other
> >people's material, in a way that's far more overt and undiluted than if
> >you're translating that material through your own performance.  

I disagree completely with this statement.  To me, a creative sampler
like DJ Spooky, who twists samples into unrecognizable shapes, is far
LESS "overt and undiluted" than the typical guitarist, who is merely
aping his heroes.  Who is more creative and original... DJ Spooky, or
the kid playing Nirvana tunes down at the guitar store?

Simply put - recontextualization is primarily a function of
aesthetics, not technique.  Let us not confuse the technical
limitations of the instrument and the player with lofty artistic
goals.  More importantly, let us not hold accident over intent when
judging aesthetic value.  Even accident can be used intentionally.

-dave

By "beauty," I mean that which seems complete.
Obversely, that the incomplete, or the mutilated, is the ugly. 
Venus De Milo.
To a child she is ugly.       /* dstagner@icarus.net */
   -Charles Fort              

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