Artists thinking

Chris...not sure I oughta speak for what other artists do. Personally, I think artists just do what they do, and hopefully it's great stuff. I know Django was illiterate, the Beatles knew very little about music theory, Hendrix learned his chops on the chitlin circuit, Bird was a legendary junkie, and Hank Williams died in the back of his Caddy on the way to a gig (at 29). Each artist approaches his/her art from their own life's path...if they are thinking about being something profound, who knows? Don't think it would help much...best...Hstick

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be4 he was Bird the genius junky he practiced 14 hours a day using Slonimsky's Thesaurus, among other things.

On Feb 2, 2011, at 12:16 PM, Neil Haverstick <microstick@...> wrote:

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> Chris...not sure I oughta speak for what other artists do. Personally, I think artists just do what they do, and hopefully it's great stuff. I know Django was illiterate, the Beatles knew very little about music theory, Hendrix learned his chops on the chitlin circuit, Bird was a legendary junkie, and Hank Williams died in the back of his Caddy on the way to a gig (at 29). Each artist approaches his/her art from their own life's path...if they are thinking about being something profound, who knows? Don't think it would help much...best...Hstick
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On Wed, Feb 2, 2011 at 2:02 PM, Dante Rosati <danterosati@...> wrote:
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> be4 he was Bird the genius junky he practiced 14 hours a day using Slonimsky's Thesaurus, among other things.

Yeah. That. There's also a legendary story about the night he played a
gig and Stravinsky was in the audience, although maybe it's a myth.

-Mike

From what I know, Bird definitely knew a lot of theory, including some brand-spankin' new, but it's also relevant that he created some of the theory that's well-known today.
He supposedly said that you have to do all that organized practice stuff, learn every scale and pattern imaginable backwards and forwards, and then forget it all and just get up and blow. Or something like that. I'd say he was right on that count.
But it's hard to deny that the drugs had some influence too. Maybe only a negative one, but he was a different person because of them.

Another who followed a similar curve, but AFAIK had very little theory, was Duane Allman. He supposedly could not be found without his guitar in his hands for years, but he didn't study Stravinsky, as far as anyone knows. He also underlived Bird by a good 10 years!

-Chuckk

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, Dante Rosati <danterosati@...> wrote:
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> be4 he was Bird the genius junky he practiced 14 hours a day using Slonimsky's Thesaurus, among other things.
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> On Feb 2, 2011, at 12:16 PM, Neil Haverstick <microstick@...> wrote:
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> > Chris...not sure I oughta speak for what other artists do. Personally, I think artists just do what they do, and hopefully it's great stuff. I know Django was illiterate, the Beatles knew very little about music theory, Hendrix learned his chops on the chitlin circuit, Bird was a legendary junkie, and Hank Williams died in the back of his Caddy on the way to a gig (at 29). Each artist approaches his/her art from their own life's path...if they are thinking about being something profound, who knows? Don't think it would help much...best...Hstick
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