Comments on: We Love Advances

By: Nate

Nate — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 14:52:32 +0000

Thanks Christian. I did not know his age. He doesn’t look very old. I bumped into him on a metro north train this year. I had the pleasure of explaining to a copassenger who he was and telling him I am a big fan of his work.

By: Christian

Christian — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 14:20:36 +0000

Nate,

The members of BoaC and 8bb are much younger than Steve Reich.

By: Nate

Nate — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:45:28 +0000

Robert Black (Bang on a Can Allstar) is not a young performer though he looks it. I can assume the same for the other key performers in the organization. I know Robert was on Phillip Glass’ first tour and recording. Bang on a Can came around afterward due to the Yale peoples’ efforts but members of that group are elder statesmen themselves.

By: Armando Bayolo

Armando Bayolo — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 14:08:01 +0000

“Christian, I didn’t mean more improvised or “more prog”, simply more charted than scored. I get the feeling the result would be completely Reich and quite possibly — strangely enough — even *more* Reich than what’s there now.”

…which is surprising considering how much of Reich’s earlier percussion music like Drumming relies essentially on controlled improvisation, at least as part of the larger texture.

I’m not a big fan of the Double Sextet myself. It just sounds warmed over, like Reich is just going through the motions. 2×5, at least the one clip I’ve heard above, sounds more promising, “toy quality” or not. Still, with Reich, who I consider America’s greatest living composer, I’ll pretty much give him a free pass to try whatever he wants out.

By: Steve Layton

Steve Layton — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 02:16:44 +0000

Christian, I didn’t mean more improvised or “more prog”, simply more charted than scored. I get the feeling the result would be completely Reich and quite possibly — strangely enough — even *more* Reich than what’s there now.

By: Joseph Holbrooke

Joseph Holbrooke — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 20:29:02 +0000

Of course Reich is brilliant and accomplished and my time would be best spent looking for what sounds good and is interesting about this music, but still, hearing drums played like that in public just breaks my heart. You gotta wonder if Reich has ever in his life seriously listened to a single good drummer. Regardless of his intentions he clearly hasn’t done his homework and this fact is clearly audible.

By: lawrencedillon

lawrencedillon — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 20:09:15 +0000

Exactly. Steve Layton is right, there is a bit of a “toy” feel to this sound, and it’s a sound that I would avoid in my music. But Reich invented this particular “toy” from various unrelated scraps he found as a young man – there’s no reason for him to avoid playing with it.

By: Christian Carey

Christian Carey — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 18:43:59 +0000

I think Lawrence is onto something there. Sure, we could envision an improvised piece based on 2×5 by say, Trey Gunn, Bill Bruford, Tony Levin, and Robert Fripp that would be much more prog than BoaC’s rendition. But that’s not what Reich intended.

I’d also point out that this is a rehearsal clip, not a live performance or the studio recording.

By: lawrencedillon

lawrencedillon — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 12:12:25 +0000

These comments all seem perfectly on the mark to me. But Reich isn’t obliged to sound like anything but Reich, and this is how he does it.

By: Chris Becker

Chris Becker — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 00:02:03 +0000

I do agree with Steve (Layton) and I guess to a certain extent with Hal Holbrooke. I don’t think Reich is at all comfortable with not notating a part!