back so soon/New Age music exposed

Gee, did you miss me...I've been listening to a lot of Indian and Arabic
music lately, and it finally hit me what it is that smells funny about
new agey doodling (microtonal or othertuned)...a lot of it sounds, to
me, like folks with little real technique grabbing a mode of some sort,
and then proceeding to jam a bit, all the while, perhaps, fancying
themselves to be playing a "raga" or a "taqsim", when in reality they
have put in little or none of the very hard and rigorous discipline
which is required (not requested) to be a great or virtuoso player.
Folks, these Oriental masters are baaaad on their axes, and there's one
good reason: they are the real deal, and put in a lot of hours,
technically and emotionally and spiritually, to reach the heights of
true mastery. A mode, whether or not it's 12 eq or a "just" tuning, is
only a basic framework on which can be built a little hovel or a great
structure...to take a theme and develop a masterful improvisation is not
so easy...unfortunately, to see the popularity of the dreaded new age
syndrome, most people don't know the difference...Hstick



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