Paleface Pynchon?

[Seb Thirlway]

><< f I could write as fast as I can play, I might thank my lucky
> stars and realise (after the event) that I'd come up with
> something a hundredth as good as GR.  Which is a jazz solo -
one
> of those ones by Coltrane that somehow manages to have form as
> well as content. >>
>
>I understand the point you're trying to make, but for this jazz
musician, it
>is doing a disservice to Pynchon to compare it to a Coltrane
solo, which for
>me doesn't have an iota of the knowing references, continuity,
and structure
>that GR does; I mean that mroe as a testament to GR's
accomplishment than
>Coltrane's lack thereof.  Actually I really don't think there's
anything in
>jazz that has this, except for maybe Keith Jarrett's solo
concerts or Anthony
>Braxton's quartet concerts from the 1980's.  At the same time, I
would
>acknowledge that PARTS of GR are definitely like that.

Agreed.   Put it down to enthusiasm and drunkenness.  Now you
mention him Keith Jarrett would have been a better comparison.
but you get what I mean.


but....Very little continuity, knowing references, or structure
in Coltrane?
Not meaning to start a thread, but I slightly disagree (falling
back on market research vocabulary to avoid confrontation...)
I'm thinking about anything off Crescent/Giant Steps that kind of
era, rather than the late late
what the hell's going on 40-minute blows: OK very few references
(and much the better for it - I can't stand that "hey he just
quoted Ron Carter's 1969 solo on Milestones in the middle of a
solo on Pent-up House - what a guy" tendency) but there's
definitely continuity and progression if not exactly structure.
Not that GR has a neat cut-and-dried structure itself - maybe
seventeen hundred different structures which which you have to
root out.

Just that if/when  you don't understand what the hell's going on
in GR you can still lie back and enjoy the ride - there's a
similarity there I think.




seb