[silence] Evangelisti misconception?

[heimbecker, sara]

Dear Silencers,

We have to keep in mind that Cage in the 1930s is not the same Cage in the
1960s nor in the 1980s.

Michael Zwerin¹s interview with Cage published in the Village Voice in 1966
gives us a good indication of what Cage thought of jazz at that time.  The
focus of the interview, however, is not improvisation, but rather rhythmic
structures and simultaneity.  (I think Zac is correct about Cage¹s mistrust
of improv.)

Cage suggested in the interview that Ives was much more important than jazz.
The important thing about Ives was the complexity of the music and that
³everything is happening at the same time.²  He said that he could enjoy
jazz if there was ³a great deal of it [happening] at one time,² and gave the
example of twelve different records playing simultaneously.

Zwerin played ³A Love Supreme² for Cage during the interview and Cage says
³Well, that music doesn¹t interest me at all.  Why should it?²

This interview is reprinted in Kostelanetz, John Cage, 1970.

Sara

Sara Heimbecker, instructor
University of Northern Colorado
sara.heimbecker@unco.edu


On 10/7/08 5:15 AM, "Lê Quan Ninh" <lq_ninh@yahoo.fr> wrote:

> Le 7 oct. 08 à 07:33, Zac Bond a écrit :
> 
>> I don't know if it's the cause of Cage's dislike of jazz, but I recall
>> he rejected the idea of improvisation because the performers are
>> necessarily reacting to each other and making use of their own tastes
>> and preferences, whereas his music was attempting to remove those
>> aspects and improvisation as used in jazz didn't meet that goal.
> 
> But it seems that this statement was not so solid, see the interview here :
> http://www.eleguarecords.com/cage.htm
> 
>  
> Ninh
> 
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