Re- GRGR(5) -- on Parker and Coltrane

[Henry M]

Interesting point. Not only are these pieces more musically 
interesting than the standards upon which they are based, but the 
emotions have nothing to do with the originals. Coltranes "My 
Favorite Things" (which happens to have always been one of "My 
Favorite Things") is upsetting: sad and beautiful. Cherokee swings 
hard, unlike the original; makes me think, perhaps, of a 
comparatively angry First American (sounds like a bank, to me).

On 20 Nov 96 at 15:18, MASCARO at humnet.ucla.edu wrote:

> From:          <MASCARO at humnet.ucla.edu>
> To:            pynchon-l at waste.org
> Date:          Wed, 20 Nov 1996 15:18:15 PST
> Subject:       Re- GRGR(5) -- on Parker and Coltrane
> Priority:      normal

> >Nice post, Will.  One comment struck me:
> >
> >  Bird finds a way of turning white
> >exploitation of jazz on its head by expanding possibilities rather
> >than limiting them.  He "steals back" jazz by taking a dopey pop
> >song and making it into sophisticated art on his own terms. 
> 
> Didn't Coltrane do the same thing w/ his classic version of "My
> Favorite Things" (surely one of the dopiest tunes ever written, from
> THE dopiest musical ever created); do you think the political
> subtext was the same for Coltrane in the (was it?) early 60's as it
> had been for Parker?  Does that imply that Bird's theft was caught
> and restolen back? 
> 
> john m
> 
> 

Keep Cool, but care. -- TRP
http://www.nicom.com/~gravity