A Marginalia and a Happy New Year

Happy New Year! This is Marginalia #41.

I read this decades ago after Derek Bailey inspired a new way for me to approach instrumental playing. His recordings could be hard to find back then, but worth it when found. I loaned my copy to someone back then and never got it back. Finally got another one.

In this book, Bailey looks at different genres and how they have incorporated improvisation. I think most valuably, at the end of the book, you get perspectives from Bailey, the recently departed Tony Oxley, and others about their development of feely improvised music, or as Bailey calls it, non-idiomatic music.

Parts of this were eventually made into a BBC documentary and you can find clips online. Highly recommended! Bailey had a great narrative voice.

Adam Levy is a fantastic guitarist and teacher. 

Much of this book is based on his Guitar Tips series on YouTube with additional observations and ideas from Ethan Sherman. What’s nice about the book is that in covers the lifespan of a musician. There are exercises, sure, but the authors lay out processes and ways for the musician to start from where they are and get better. It reads like companion to Zen Guitar, by Philip Toshio Sudo. Maybe one that lives more frequently in technical domains.

Levy’s books are the real deal. The material is frequently challenging (this one is challenging in a different way), but in musical ways.

I assume Saul Bass is considered one of the major designers of the 20th Century. I do not know that world, but I do know his contributions to film as a designer and director. I loved Phase IV (especially the original ending) and this short film that’s available on YouTube. Probably will seem outdated to younger audiences, but if you are of a certain age it will remind you of classroom film reels and early interstitial cartoons and shorts on shows like Sesame Street.

Keiji Haino’s Tenshi No Gijinka (Seraphic Impostor) is not what I thought it would be. He’s known for noisy guitar improvisation, but this record is a studio project with lots of temple-style reverb, chants, screams, bowls, bells, and other similar sounds that give the album an atmosphere of unseen and unknown rituals. Unexpected and strange beauty!

One of my favorite things about YouTube is getting to see someone like Bailey perform live. This one is like getting a front row seat.