From Tom Millar Sent Wed, Jul 7th 1999, 16:30
From Tom Millar Sent Wed, Jul 7th 1999, 16:30
> It does annoy me that when I hear "jazzy" in a description of IDM, I can > almost invariably be right in my guess that the jazz referred to is either > lite jazz or fusion. I guess lite jazz does have a history of accompanying > certain kinds of dance musics--house, soul, etc., but that doesn't mean > it should remain THE definition of IDM jazz. Even Amon Tobin cut up old > jazz, instead of interesting new stuff. No one seems willing to try > something different. A lot of times the jazz connection goes way back, to the days when jazz was the only instrumental alternative to classical. Plus the chord structure in techno & IDM generally follows jazz frameworks even if the musicians themselves don't know it. But you could say the same about rock. The major chord went out of style so long ago... My friends and I have been working on doing free jazz-type work with all electronic instruments, but it's hard to do because electronic instruments and accompanying FX have completely different universes of expression from one another. With a jazz ensemble, all the players have very similar expressive directions available to them based on the similar options their instruments give them. With drum machines, delay units, analog and digital synthesizers, you get vastly disparate ranges of expression and control. So you can get some cool techno-sounding drone or pulsing stuff but it's hard to go somewhere else without things falling apart. One of the things that's fun about doing it w/ electronic instruments is letting the instruments do the work, though. A trombone produces exactly what you put into it, while a Juno or a TR-series or a delay unit can produce fucked up stuff with minimal input from you (esp. in the proper combinations). Tom