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<body class='hmmessage'><div dir='ltr'><font style="font-size: 16pt;" size="4">hejsan y'all,</font><font style="font-size: 16pt;" size="4"><br></font><font style="font-size: 16pt;" size="4"><br></font><font style="font-size: 16pt;" size="4">Our Bobmerk said </font><font style="font-size: 16pt;" size="4"><br></font><div><font style="font-size: 16pt;" size="4">"No one loves GG's keyboard albums more than I. But
his flight from the concert stage and refuge in the electronic magic laboratory
of the studio robbed his ultimate contribution of spontaneity. His obsessive
pursuit of perfection (however achieved) robbed him of the courage to make a
mistake in a concert hall filled with (music-loving) strangers. I said in an
f_minor post once that the pursuit of perfection taints the music with an
audible sterility."<br><br><font style="" face="Calibri,sans-serif">I have been diddling about with the enormity of what Bobmerk's comment implicates and I am "d'accord" with what he is saying ; for a long, long time I have been weighing in on such considerations and let me please just quote something I saw somewhere: <br><br><b>"Perfection has a darker side."<br></b><br>I think we all know or can at least intimate what that means.<br><br> <br>For the rest of us there's this (or something similar):<br></font></font><font style="font-size: 16pt;" size="4"><br><b>Пора, мой друг, пора </b></font><font style="font-size: 16pt;" size="4"> </font><article class="b-singlepost-body"><font style="font-size: 16pt;" size="4"> <br>'Tis time, my dear, 'tis time. The heart demands repose.</font><font style="font-size: 16pt;" size="4"><br></font><font style="font-size: 16pt;" size="4">Day after day flits by, and with each hour there goes</font><font style="font-size: 16pt;" size="4"><br></font><font style="font-size: 16pt;" size="4">A little bit of life, but meanwhile you and I</font><font style="font-size: 16pt;" size="4"><br></font><font style="font-size: 16pt;" size="4">Together plan to dwell ... yet lo! 'tis then we die.</font><font style="font-size: 16pt;" size="4"><br></font><font style="font-size: 16pt;" size="4"><br></font><font style="font-size: 16pt;" size="4">There is no bliss on earth, there's peace and freedom though</font><font style="font-size: 16pt;" size="4">,<br></font><font style="font-size: 16pt;" size="4">An enviable lot I long have yearned to know.</font><font style="font-size: 16pt;" size="4"><br></font><font style="font-size: 16pt;" size="4">Long have I, weary slave, been contemplating flight</font><font style="font-size: 16pt;" size="4"><br></font><font style="font-size: 16pt;" size="4">To a remote abode of work and pure delight.</font><font style="font-size: 16pt;" size="4"><br></font><font style="font-size: 16pt;" size="4"><br></font><font style="font-size: 16pt;" size="4"><i>(Pushkin — Nabokov)<br><br><font style="" face="Arial,sans-serif">As for the 10 fingers 2 thumbs performance in "Gattica" it's a case in point of taking "perfection" to mean "best" i.e. 'nec plus ultra' performance.<br><br>This (link below) is of the GG oeuvre - warts and all - which I will defend to my dying day, till my last breath:</font></i></font><br></article></div><br><font style="font-size: 16pt;" size="4" face="Calibri"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAjsXl2P4T0">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAjsXl2P4T0</a></font><br><br><font style="font-size: 16pt;" size="4">When has anyone ever stated what GG states here? <br><br><br>Mary</font><font style="font-size: 16pt;" size="4"><br></font><font style="font-size: 16pt;" size="4"><br></font><br><br>From: bobmerk@earthlink.net<br><div>To: f_minor@glenngould.org<br>Date: Sat, 13 Sep 2014 01:16:28 -0400<br>Subject: [f_minor] John McLaughlin, Miles Davis, Glenn Gould's extra hands and fingers<br><br>
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<div><font face="Courier New">Yeah, when Miles Davis picks a skinny young white
boy from England (thanks Henry Corra!) to play guitar in his band (on Bitches
Brew and other albums), this is a strong hint that the boy is a talented
guitarist.</font></div>
<div><font face="Courier New"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Courier New">Jazz in our lifetimes has had a sad tendency to
become Smithsonionized, lifeless, looking backwards rather than (as
its first revoluionary instincts were) exploring the future of musical
forms and styles. Probably one of the things that matched Davis and McLaughlin
were that they were both explorers and experimenters -- they understood that
jazz needed to explore and keep inventing, or it would sputter and wheeze
and die -- in tuxedos and funereal attire.</font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Courier New">Mahavishnu John's spiritual quest sprang
technically from his need to master the rest of the world's stringed
instruments. Like (Harrison mainly) the Beatles, Indian stringed
instruments and musical forms clearly needed to be injected into serious
Western music -- the way African elements had created jazz 60+ years
earlier.</font> <font face="Courier New"> I'm convinced McLaughlin never
cared if his experiments (fusion, symphonic pieces like "Apocalypse" with
Tilson-Thomas and Jean Luc-Ponty) did not please music consumers (like Pat, who
is wildly passionate and forward-thinking about music). I think
McLaughlin just needs to keep exploring, experimenting. The Labeque duo
piano compositions were a beautiful new direction, this time influenced
by the south of France and the Mediterranean. I know I'll be eager to
hear where he aims his experiments next.</font></div>
<div><font face="Courier New"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Courier New">As for GG's studio ability to grow extra hands or
GATACA fingers ...</font></div>
<div><font face="Courier New"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Courier New">No one loves GG's keyboard albums more than I. But
his flight from the concert stage and refuge in the electronic magic laboratory
of the studio robbed his ultimate contribution of spontaneity. His obsessive
pursuit of perfection (however achieved) robbed him of the courage to make a
mistake in a concert hall filled with (music-loving) strangers. I said in an
f_minor post once that the pursuit of perfection taints the music with an
audible sterility.</font></div>
<div><font face="Courier New"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Courier New">Oh ... okay ... well, Pat can blame his own
Switzerland on this, but yeah, the Mahavishnu music did go great with lysergic
acid dyethylamide. The history of jazz, blues, rock and norty substances is
ancient and so ubiquitous that you could write a master's dissertation on what
20th century popular music would have been like without chemical
substances. (There exists a remarkable tape of young John McClaughlin jamming
all night with Jimi Hendrix.)</font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Courier New">Sorry I've been a bit slow to respond to this
thread, i'm getting cataracts removed and my typing and computer skills have
been a bit compromised. But very soon<br></font></div>
<div><font face="Courier New"> I can see clearly now,
t</font><font face="Courier New">he rain is gone</font></div>
<div><font face="Courier New"> I can see all obstacles in my
way</font></div>
<div><font face="Courier New"> Gone are the dark clouds that
have made me blind</font></div>
<div><font face="Courier New"> It's gonna be a bright
sunshiney day!</font></div>
<div><font face="Courier New"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Courier New"> -- Johnny
Nash</font></div>
<div><font face="Courier New"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Courier New">Bob</font></div>
<div><font face="Courier New">Massachusetts USA</font></div>
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