Fido the Yak

Here's what's new in Fido's world.

Reading. Finished Lewontin's The Triple Helix. A blizzard of thoughts and a couple of ideas. Need to take a snowshovel to my notes. Been peeking at Gould's Ontology and Phylogeny, but trying to keep my head clear to deal with Lewontin directly.

Just purchased three books: Ethics without Ontology by Hilary Putnam, Rationality in Action by John Searle, and The Firmament of Time by Lauren Eisely.

Listening. Wayne Shorter Quartet, Beyond the Sound Barrier. Featuring Danilo Perez, John Patitucci and Brian Blade. Very nice. Reminiscent of Shorter's High Life. Masterful dynamics, phraseology, filling up space, voiding it. It sounds much larger than a quartet, and smaller too.

Went on another Herbie Nichols binge. "Infectious" doesn't quite say it. Addictive, consuming, driving. I had a Bird tune stuck in my head, couldn't remember the name of it, but it was rhythm changes. Now I'm about to feast on Bird. Ouroboric? That's not quite it either.

Vijay Iyer has a cut of "Habeas Corpus" on his website. Yeah, "Body and Soul."

The latest issue of Jazz Improv has arrived. Strictly for Jazz dorks. Wallace Roney has some things to say about ideas and self expression, about sounding unique and sounding like you are continuing somebody else's project. He tells an anectote about learning the diminished scale from Miles (who got it from Bud Powell). He explains that different cats call it by different names; the concept is similar, but not identical. It becomes evident later in the interview that Roney approaches the diminished scale as it fits into one of three primary melodic centers (the others being major and minor). I think I can hear that in his playing, and the quartal stuff made sense--more sense than any explanation of harmolodics I've ever read. It's weird to think about all this knowledge being created and handed down, imagining what it was like when these ideas were relatively unheard of.

Blog. Brandon opens a discussion of Weblogs and the Conversible World. Any ideas? Well, it's a topic that interests me, and Brandon's take on it is refreshing as always, but I can't say anything useful or pleasant off the top of my head. File under ruminations.

John Emerson returns to The Reality of Time.

Labels: Herbie Nichols, Vijay Iyer, Wallace Roney, Wayne Shorter

posted by Fido the Yak at 6:17 AM.