Eating chocolate at the edge of the precipice

Hello from the crumbling Empire that was once known as the United States of America. We were also once quaintly known as a republic and a democracy. All of that’s a bit sketchy at the moment, and I know that’s not just felt here at home, but all over the world. Therefore, before I get into the body of this post, (whatever it’s going to be,) I feel it would be remiss not to apologize to all my European friends. All I can say is, we tried, but to put it bluntly, as it turns out, you really just can’t fix stupid. The real question is, is DJT that good a con man that he could bamboozle more than half the voting public twice? The resounding answer is unfortunately, yes.

So what does a sensitive soul who is more interested in art, music and culture than the constant beating of the drums of divisiveness and the shrieks of political rancor do every day? I make coffee, of course! I grab my coffee, give myself an hour to view the news and check out the socials, answer email and texts, and then go about my day trying to forget about it, and do something productive and reasonably benign.

For me, that entails sitting at the piano every day, as I once again attempt to heal a lifelong injury that eventually sidelined my performing career. It’s the subject of a larger essay that I am writing, so this is just a teaser.  In a nutshell, I discovered the secret to recovery of my particular condition, which is a kind of movement disorder, was to slow down. But not just slow down in th conventional sense, as most of us do when learning to play something new, but to take tempos that one would consider to be almost impossible to consistently feel. I’m talking radically slow, glacial even, or perhaps even at lower “temperatures,” perhaps those one would might find on the planet Neptune. At the same time as I discovered Radical Slowness, the answer also turned out to be the Slo Mo Bros duo. Teaming up with my collaborator and performing partner of some 50 odd years, we started getting together almost 7 years ago right before Covid. Both of us were suffering from some form of injury (although mine’s the more serious one,) and were passionately interested in reworking our technique from the ground up. He’s a classical guitarist and singer who has been playing jazz and Brazilian music for many years, but wanted to get deeper into improvisation on his instrument. So I started thinking about what the ideal music would be for this project. I began writing out the Slo Mos book, consisting of a ton of my own transcriptions of ECM tunes and some pretty obscure tunes from all around the multimusicverse, as well as some of my own things. This is an ongoing project which takes up a lot of my time and energy. Much more could be said on this subject, but I’ll end here for now by saying that what has come out of this process turned out to be far more profound than I ever expected, something that goes far beyond music making.

When I’m not doing that, I’ve been listening to things to take my mind off of the disheartening state of the planet. These days, tend to listen to things that soothe my soul. 

I very much like the latest Arvo Part album, And I Heard a Voice. I think it’s one of the finest releases of his music to come out in some years. Perhaps my only criticism is, it’s a bit too short. 

I’ve also been listening to Soren Bebe’s new album, Gratitude. Soren has always had a penchant for playing  ballads, but this album firmly enters SloMo territory, and my slow world welcomes it. Soren Bebe is an interesting composer. His music is not overly complex, but he almost always throws a harmonic monkey wrench  into the mix, a surprising modulation, an ambiguous chord etc, yet always brings you home. It’s extremely approachable, at times almost bordering on cloying, but it never goes there. 

I’m enjoying the new John Scofield duo album with Dave Holland.  Some people dismiss Sco as too bluesy. I have never had a problem with that – that’s his style. But here is a different side of Scofield, melodic, chromatic, and extremely disciplined in terms of developing his themes. Not much new can be said about Dave Holland, who is simply one of the greatest bass players on the planet. He supports the music and is such a strong soloist. He’s got it all.

I’ve been enjoying Anouar Brahem’s After the Last Sky since it came out earlier this year. I think it’s one of his strongest to date, although there really isn’t a Brahem album I don’t like. It’s so enjoyable that I decided to subscribe to Deutsche Gramophon’s app in order to watch a live concert of this group in Paris. I have since watched it in the archives several times. A very high level of playing going on. Deep listening – every solo, in fact, every accompanying note, is in service to the music. In the concert video, you can see the joy of Dave Holland and Anouar Brahem in a duo where the smiles and intuitive interaction are infectious.  The audience picks up on it too, and gives them the most rousing round of applause of the whole evening.

I’m currently digging the Bill Evans remastered Portrait in Jazz and Explorations, which are presented on the new release, Haunted House. There are also a ridiculous number of alternate tracks presented, in fact, a staggering 26, including 17 that have never been released. Most of the time I would say that’s way too much, but this is the classic Evans trio with Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian, so all of it is worth hearing. But the most amazing thing about this release besides the music is the way they remastered it. There is some kind of tone on analog tape, way up there in the high frequencies that they homed in on and realized that they could use it as a means of smoothing out any tape wow and flutter. This resulted in an amazing clarity and solidity to these recordings. I honestly can’t believe how much they benefited from remastering in this way. I think they call it the Plangent process or something. Whatever it is, it’s pretty miraculous.

Another thing I’m enjoying is the newly remastered Beatles Anthology presented here in America on Disney+. These were originally aired sometime in the 90s and present a Beatles eye view of the band through the entire 10 year span of their career. While Paul and Ringo, the two living Beatles at the time it was made, had the most say, there’s enough footage of John and George, so that they get their fair share as well. I haven’t seen these for decades and was pleasantly surprised by how well-made they are and how good they look due to Peter Jackson’s incredible remastering magic. He also edited them so they’re not quite the same as the originals, but I don’t think the differences are that noticeable. There is a new ninth episode, which is all new, culled from some of the extras from the original DVDs as well as unseen archival footage. I haven’t gotten there yet, but I’m enjoying this very much. Giles Martin did an amazing job re-mixing these through a highly evolved  process that separated the various instruments so that he could really get a hold of them.  Listening to these, one doesn’t hear any of that, the result being it sounds like the music as you remember it,  but Way better. Giles has got to be one of the best people out there doing these forensic remixes. And the guy’s got good taste.

Lastly, I’ve been delving into some smart sci-fi. There’s not much in that department to see despite the major releases that keep coming down the pike. In fact, the best sci fi movies today aren’t even movies. Being a fan of the genre, I’ve watched a number of things this year, but the ones that are the most intriguing to me happen to be on Apple TV. 

The first one, Severance,  has been around for a few seasons,  and takes the viewer down a rabbit hole that is frightening, humorous, and surreally allegorical. I’m not going to go into the plot here because it’s so convoluted. I’ll just say it reminds me a great deal of Philip K Dick, who described his work not as sci-fi but as “metaphysical fiction.” I think Severance owes a great deal to PKD, because like the author of Blade Runner, the show’s creators are far more interested in the philosophical and psychological questions that arise than any fat fetched science behind the Deux ex machina that the premise hinges on. This is the opposite of a typical American action film. There are very few if any chase scenes and most of the action is entirely cerebral. The show is also emotionally compelling. There are a few ringers in the cast  such as Christopher Walken, John Turturro, and Patricia Arquette, but all the players are strong, as is the almost cinematic direction and look of the series. 

Lastly, there is Pluribus, Vince Gilligan’s (of Breaking Bad,) first foray into sci-fi. This series also reminds me of PKD in the best way, because, as he once said in an essay, entitled “how to create a world that doesn’t fall apart in one day”, whenever he wanted to present a metaphysical/existential issue he would just make up a device so that his characters would have to respond to it, as their reality begins to crumble around them.

I guess this is one of my favorite devices because it’s a great portal into mayhem and wonder, terror and bewilderment, philosophical meanderings, and sometimes,  but not always, healing and redemption.

Pluribus turns an old sci-fi trope on its head. I really don’t want to say anything because anything I say further about this show is a spoiler and it’s just too good to spoil. I will say this though – unlike so many movies that have used the tropes alluded to here, it takes a sharp left turn and after an episode or two one realizes this is like no other sci-fi show we’ve seen. A lot of profound questions about the nature of humanity and identity are posited, but even to mention one would be saying too much. 

Rhea Seaborn, who was the brilliant costar in Better Call Saul, the prequel to Breaking Bad, is perfectly cast in the role of a smart writer with a chronic chip on her shoulder, who is thrust into a completely changed world. She is magnificent in this role. I hope it leads to more leading roles for this extremely gifted  actor. 

These are just a few things that soothe my soul and give me temporary solace, or at the very least offer consolation in the form of distraction in a world gone mad. I would be curious what yours are.