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Ambient/Post-Rock/Textural bass playing thread

Apropos of all the recent chatter here about AACM artists...apparently today is George Lewis' birthday. A friend posted this excerpt from a Lewis interview in Bomb Magazine:

“I was 19 years old when I met the people in the AACM. It was just dumb luck that I almost literally stumbled upon Muhal, Pete Cosey, people like that. I was walking on 87th and Bennett and I saw a band rehearsing in this children’s center. I poked my head in, and that was how I met them. They had their Monday night band, and then after the initial period of “Who is this guy?” they let me play.

It seemed that the AACM was a place where if you didn’t have a clue, you were encouraged to develop one. If you had an idea, no matter how half-baked it was, they would try to realize it, and they would demand that you create your own concepts, your own compositions. They had their Saturday classes, and people were being encouraged to compose. They never discussed improvisation; the only classes were in composition. So to bring this whole thing full circle, this whole business of my approaching things compositionally came from the AACM, because it was assumed that you were there because you wanted to be a composer, and by being a composer you were manifesting a kind of alternative model of what African American creativity would be about.

People like Fred Anderson, Lester Lashley, and Roscoe were constantly questioning you about what you were trying to do. I remember riding in a van with Anthony Braxton, and he turns to me and says, George, what is your music like? So I gave him what I thought was a pretty cool answer, and he said, You know, George, that kind of sounds like bullsh!t to me. (laughter) I mean, he was right, you know?

People took it personally as to whether you advanced as a musician. I had a whole community of benevolent aunts and uncles who were trying to help me do stuff. That seems almost utopian, but I have to say that’s my recollection of it. They wanted to institutionalize that attitude toward nurturing artists. Rather than keeping it on the individual basis of mentorship, you have a whole group of people who feel that it’s necessary to take each other on. It’s a model I haven’t really found in any other world of music I’ve been involved in."

George Lewis
Interviewed by Jeff Parker
BOMB Magazine
Wow.
Talk about AACM getting things right!!!
Not just one mentor.....but an entire family.
 
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Wow.
Talk about AACM getting things right!!!
Not just one mentor.....but an entire family.
This time that we all have these days is a great time to think deeply about how we as artists want to move forward, and I would suggest we do it within our own communities, and that we do it together. The AACM is the perfect community model for us all for the future.
 
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7F0C1FE1-2485-40C1-8890-143D41AE6AE7.jpeg
that story is also told in this book. it’s pretty amazing. when lewis gets on the scene it becomes a little different because he becomes a participant, not a researcher.

jeff parker is a guitarist (the guy in tortoise) and was a late member of the aacm.

in terms of @emjazz’s point about community, it shows me that the community that fostered the aacm was extremely deep. in many ways it was developed as a response to the heavily institutional racism of the time.
 
View attachment 3905339 that story is also told in this book. it’s pretty amazing. when lewis gets on the scene it becomes a little different because he becomes a participant, not a researcher.

jeff parker is a guitarist (the guy in tortoise) and was a late member of the aacm.

in terms of @emjazz’s point about community, it shows me that the community that fostered the aacm was extremely deep. in many ways it was developed as a response to the heavily institutional racism of the time.
100%
 
View attachment 3905339 that story is also told in this book. it’s pretty amazing. when lewis gets on the scene it becomes a little different because he becomes a participant, not a researcher.

jeff parker is a guitarist (the guy in tortoise) and was a late member of the aacm.

in terms of @emjazz’s point about community, it shows me that the community that fostered the aacm was extremely deep. in many ways it was developed as a response to the heavily institutional racism of the time.
If I got the written chart on the bottom of the book cover at a gig I would jump off a cliff.

So many bad memories of sight reading the $%^%&*^# worst hand written charts for students in arrangement class while the tape was rolling with combo band.
1st line: 5 bars
2nd line: 3 bars, 3\4 to 4\4 to 5\4
3rd line: impossible to ready tutti in 6\8 split in 2 bars.
4th line: me not playing......and getting ishhh by the @$$hat that wrote the piece of crap.
Where’s the coda??.....Vamp what???!!!
Repeat 9 times pattern of 3 bars.........wait what?????

Arrangement teacher after session:
Yells to the students:
« OK, I will not accept anything that is not in 4\4 for the next month. »
 
Loopop video is here


Has its fair share of quirks, mostly on the software side (potentially fixable), but I am really into the sound of this synth

Well, I know what I'm watching, tonight. Mine allegedly ships on the 26th. I will certainly give a full report. Waldorf has been talking a while about some massive things coming in the 3.0 firmware update.
 
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ps: have you seen the interviews with rolf w. about the this? pretty interesting.

Saw one, but it’s been awhile. This thing looks really cool to me. Half tempted to sell my eurorack rig for this. Since I got the EssenceFM I only use that with the Octatrack lately
 
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ps: have you seen the interviews with rolf w. about the this? pretty interesting.
Yeah, I did. Very interesting. I am so excited to have this coming.

One thing I've noticed with the Wavestate and soon, the Iridium, is how much has changed since I bought my first round of good synths (the Subsequent 37 and the Virus TI2), in terms of in-depth video stuff available. By the time I got my WS, I had watched so many tutorials, I was able to dive right in and already understood a good portion of how the synth worked and how to approach SD, and I'm already feeling really familiar with the workflow for this one, too, not even having it in front of me, yet.
 
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Yeah, I did. Very interesting. I am so excited to have this coming.

One thing I've noticed with the Wavestate and soon, the Iridium, is how much has changed since I bought my first round of good synths (the Subsequent 37 and the Virus TI2), in terms of in-depth video stuff available. By the time I got my WS, I had watched so many tutorials, I was able to dive right in and already understood a good portion of how the synth worked and how to approach SD, and I'm already feeling really familiar with the workflow for this one, too, not even having it in front of me, yet.

it’s interesting. as i recall he discusses the 3.0 firmware a bit.
 
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It’s odd that these days a lot of early adopters of certain gear serve as beta testers for companies and they pay the companies for the privilege.
I still think the Iridium is rad :)
I don't think that's the case with Waldorf, as the current firmware is complete and stands on its own merits, even though there's room for improvement. But don't get me started on the Aeros Loop Studio, in terms of beta test. I've owned the thing for 7 months now and it's still essentially one big beta test.
 
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It’s odd that these days a lot of early adopters of certain gear serve as beta testers for companies and they pay the companies for the privilege.
I still think the Iridium is rad :)

i think we lost something here.

i was talking about an interview with rolf, the developer of the quantum/iridium, who was talking about some of what they were thinking about for the 3.0 firmware.
 
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