24
Nov 10
Freaky Trigger And The Lollards Of Pop (Series 4, Week 10)
Guests were Cecily Nowell-Smith, Marna Gilligan and Alasdair MacLean; Hazel Robinson on kn0bs; Mark Sinker was presenter. Topic = how much does it matter to do stuff right, and what’s going on when doing stuff wrong stops being wrong?
Technical fluency is not communicative skill. What separates orchestra players from soloists is an articulate idiosyncrasy: the Berlin Philharmonic is made up of session players.
But not all articulate idiosyncrasy is technically complex. Robert Johnson was a musician like Pablo Casals without being a technician like Charlie Parker, but they’re all fine. Yo-Yo Ma is a technician like George Benson and that’s a problem.
Punk was a rebellion of communicative form against meaningless technique but great technique and communicative form are not a contradiction. Still, Bernini was no Michelangelo, and Casals was a bit sloppy.
what to do, what to do…
Not arguing, just “lasering in” on your points, as Bill Clinton would say.
Tschüss!
What a good show! It’s a welcome change from the somewhat frantic pace of some others I could name.
I am particularly pleased that this episode gives me the excuse to post this, from Vic and Bob: