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RE: The morgenseiten of Katharsisdrill 24 - Swinging bodies
I never get tired of thinking about the magic of art, the three categories and the muscle memory aspect are useful ways to approach it.
I'm so glad you are spreading that Taj/Trucks/Douglas clip! It's been on my mind too for the past week too. I had a Taj Mahal album cranked up in the car and I was pointing out to my wife how he left nothing to chance in his vocals. I always really dug him, but over this past week my appreciation of his vocals has really grown.
The dobro player is Jerry Douglas, a master musician, I think a 4 time winner of the Musician of the Year in Nashville. He's known for bluegrass and bluegass/jazz fusion, but it is fun to see him doing the blues. This clip is from the same backstage rehearsal.
What I was thinking of was something more than muscle memory. It is a kind of presence that is connected to being the one you are... hard to express. It is being in the world in a special way that just catch time and space. In classical music you have it too. Apart from technical perfection you simply have to put this thing on top, else you will not be a star. Some, like Pablo Casals, weren't even the greatest technician, but he is revered among classical musicians.
I love these clips you find. Here is another example where there is something left to chance - I found it because I had a PVC shakuhachi as a Christmas present some years ago, and started to be interested in flutes.
What a great clip, Otha Turner is absolutely the real deal, in touch with himself.
I think we might be thinking along the same lines, but expressing it differently. I would call musical chops the mechanics of language. A language that you learn as a child is second nature to you, you don't need to think too much in order to convey feelings and emotions. But it's different with an acquired language, expression is more limited and more difficult.
So when I mention muscle memory, it is in terms of musical chops. It's that natural state you can easily fall back into. If you have that "language ability" and you are connected to your inner essence, then you can speak the language of the soul -- real music, regardless of genre.
For me the inner essence is the soul, and music is the language of the soul, the language of the universe, the creator, God, the Spirit, or a "A Love Supreme" (however one describes it) -- and truly great artists not only speak it, they are able to channel the inspiration of higher spirit and it flows through them.
That's how I've come to think of it.
PS I was impressed with the guitarist playing slide on that clip. I should have known about Luther Dickinson, but I didn't.
Yes, we might be nearing the same thing from different angles. My Nordic temperament does not give me easy access to the spiritual plane, or rather surrendering to it, that has to be a rocky road for us Northlings it seems.
But we hear the same when we hear these strangely flowing flute sounds I am sure :)
And yes, I thought Dickinson accompanied Turner beautifully.