Miles/Partch

Reading a superb book about American music, "Highway 61 Revisited," by Gene Santoro. In a chapter on Miles Davis, Miles mentions that Gil Evans gave him a Harry Partch album in 1948, which got me to thinking how different music might have turned out if someone like Miles had decided to explore non 12 tunings...cause he obviously was aware of them a while back. Nice quote from the chapter: "Partch has been described as a totally unrepressed individual and a nasty bastard." (True, Jon?) And, on John Cage, Partch said " All Cage needs is a gong, a carrot juicer, and a toothbrush." One more Partch comment: "The extent to which an individual can resist being blindly lead by tradition is a good measure of his vitality." Good stuff...HHH
microstick.net

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Neil Haverstick" <microstick@m...> wrote:
> Nice quote from the chapter: "Partch has been described as a totally
> unrepressed individual and a nasty bastard." (True, Jon?)

Well, on selected days, aren't we all? :) Seriously, there were times
when Partch wasn't just a difficult guy, he was his own worst enemy.
And it also was the case that he could be really grumpy and then
minutes later be a peach. Lots of reasons to explain all this, I suppose.

Neil, if you haven't read Bob Gilmore's biography of Partch, I think
you'd find it enlightening.

As for the Miles/Gil Evans thing, I've got some pics in the archives
here, that only turned up on a couple contact sheets, of Gil Evans,
Shelly Manne, and Partch hanging out in Partch's digs in Sausalito in
the late 50's. Totally cool, I'll let you know when I post some of
them on the Partch site (there might be a couple reproductions in
Enclosure III from Philip Blackburn).

OK, back to synchronous beating...

Cheers,
Jon