{"id":9091,"date":"2018-02-07T16:10:34","date_gmt":"2018-02-08T00:10:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=9091"},"modified":"2018-02-07T16:10:34","modified_gmt":"2018-02-08T00:10:34","slug":"on-cds-lps-henderson-and-horvitz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2018\/02\/on-cds-lps-henderson-and-horvitz\/","title":{"rendered":"On CDs, LPs, Henderson And Horvitz"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"In the 1950s when UCLA football coach Red Sanders (pictured left) said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Winning isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t everything. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the only thing,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he could not have known that his sports philosophy would be adapted to virtually every human endeavor. Being number one is the overriding aim not only in sports, but also in politics and international relations\u00e2\u20ac\u201das we keep hearing from the White House\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand in business and the arts. Hence, there is consternation at this week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s news trumpeted in Billboard<\/em> magazine that sales of CDs are so far down that the Best Buy chain will stop carrying them and Target stores may not be far behind. At the root of the change, of course, is the digital revolution; music downloaded from the Internet seems to be replacing music embedded in spinning discs.<\/p>\n

Reports about the decline in CD sales invariably include statistics showing that jazz recordings sell at more or less the same numbers as those of classical music\u00e2\u20ac\u201dperhaps implying that there is reason to regret that Charlie Parker, Louis Armstrong, Mozart and Stravinsky reach audiences of similar size. Serious listeners will wish jazz and classical CD companies and their distributors the best, regardless of how the music is delivered, but as CDs go the way of LPs it is not hard to feel pangs of regret. Oh, wait a minute\u00e2\u20ac\u201dvinyl is making a modest comeback, however unlikely it is to replace CDs. Or downloads.<\/p>\n

Speaking of vinyl, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll mention a couple of fairly recent LP reissues that have kept the Rifftides<\/em> turntable busy:<\/p>\n

Joe Henderson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s The Elements<\/a><\/em> (1974) is\"\" nicely remastered on the Milestone label. It contains the tenor saxophonist\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s compositions \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Fire,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Air,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Water\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Earth\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and has a distinguished cast that includes pianist Alice Coltrane, bassist Charlie Haden, violinist Michael White, percussionist Kenneth Nash and, on two tracks, drummer Ndugu Leon Chancler, who died last weekend at age 65. One of the most adventurous albums in Henderson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s discography, it finds him and his colleagues indulging mid-1970s jazz tendencies toward eastern spiritualism and mysticism. Among other attractions, Haden has a remarkable solo, accompanied by Nash\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s special acoustic effects, on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Earth.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The track also contains vocal interjections by Henderson and his tenor mingling with White\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s violin. The album is engrossing and not typical of Henderson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s music during this, or any other, period.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Wayne Horvitz, 55: Music In Dance And Concrete<\/a><\/em>”\u00a0(Other Room Music)<\/p>\n

In 2014 Horvitz, the restlessly exploratory composer, went underground for this experience in sound. With him in the caverns and huge cistern of Fort Warden, a former military base near Seattle, were a choreographer, dancers, audio engineers, and musicians playing string, reed and brass instruments. Horvitz explains in his articulate notes that he wrote 55 pieces of music and spent several days recording the musicians\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 improvisations, taking advantage of the natural reverberations of the caverns and cistern. Extensive post-production followed.<\/p>\n

The resulting music is haunting, unpredictable. Horvitz observes, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The various ambiences themselves created such a seductive palette that it was easy to stay inspired.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He added later that there was, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00e2\u20ac\u201c a multitude of ideas happening simultaneously, so there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more to discover every time you listen to it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

This music can seduce you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the 1950s when UCLA football coach Red Sanders (pictured left) said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Winning isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t everything. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the only thing,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he could not have known that his sports philosophy would be adapted to virtually every human endeavor. Being number one is the overriding aim not only in sports, but also in politics and international relations\u00e2\u20ac\u201das we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9094,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9091","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-main","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}