a touchable saint

Rashied Ali on playing Coltrane's late music

I salute cats that play that music, ’Trane’s tunes, especially the ones he did with me. Because they should be played so that people can hear it — it’s not so sacred that only John Coltrane can play that shit. You’re supposed to play those tunes like you would play any Bird tune, any Dizzy Gillespie tune. And I do that — I play Eric Dolphy’s tunes, I play things that people think you shouldn’t play.

For some reason, nobody even dares mess with any of that music. All those tunes should be played and cats should play them, and get up off thinking that it’s totally religious and that it’s only about ’Trane. It’s about the music.

[via Zoilus]

Demystification is good.

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Zoilus points to a discussion of David Thomas's (Père Ubu) view of rock as a folk music. Very interesting and provocative. Before you cry reactionary, consider that what's he's saying is pretty radical, taking music out of globalisation, out of capitalism, out of commodification in a lot of ways, in favour of a more human-level, socially-anchored patchwork. Also, check out the comments for a brief dissection of his discursive methods. Not that I totally agree (cultural boundaries and origins are more porous and confused than Thomas claims here), but he makes a strong argument.