Montag, 10. August 2020

Bzw. ۲ ۴ ۳ [»Zelem« for Piano Quintet (1994) by R. A. ol-Omoum]




["writings 10", Suria Kassimi (2017)]



Die Null müßte mit aller Strenge aus der Algebra verbannt werden. [Simone Weil]




["cut", Suria Kassimi (2020)]



Die Null ist die konsequente Darstellung des einzig in sich Geschlossenen, des einzig Vollkommenen, das wir uns nicht vorstellen können, mit deren Verbannung die Kunst der Algebra, das Aushalten des Widerspruchs, in sich zusammenbräche. [Liana Helas]




["cut", Suria Kassimi (2020)]




Jede Epoche hat diese Träumen zugewandte Seite, die Kinderseite. [Walter Benjamin »Das Passagen-Werk« (1927 – 1940)]

Doch wenn Ochsen und Rosse und Löwen Hände hätten oder malen könnten mit ihren Händen und Werke bilden wie die Menschen, so würden die Rosse roßähnliche, die Ochsen ochsenähnliche Göttergestalten malen und solche Körper bilden, wie jede Art gerade selbst ihre Form hätte. [Xenophanes]


















Es hat keine Epoche gegeben, die sich nicht im exzentrischen Sinne "modern" fühlte und unmittelbar vor einem Abgrund zu stehen glaubte. [Walter Benjamin »Das Passagen-Werk« (1927 – 1940)]




["writings 4", Suria Kassimi (2017)]



Unsere Epoche zerstört die innere Hierarchie, wie sollte sie da die soziale Hierarchie weiterbestehen lassen, die nur ein grobes Abbild davon ist? [Simone Weil]

Die Konstruktion des Lebens liegt im Augenblick weit mehr in der Gewalt von Fakten als von Überzeugungen. Und zwar von solchen Fakten, wie sie zur Grundlage von Überzeugungen fast nie noch und nirgend geworden sind. Unter diesen Umständen kann wahre literarische Aktivität nicht beanspruchen, in literarischem Rahmen sich abzuspielen – vielmehr ist das der übliche Ausdruck ihrer Unfruchtbarkeit. Die bedeutende literarische Wirksamkeit kann nur in strengem Wechsel von Tun und Schreiben zustande kommen; sie muß die unscheinbaren Formen, die ihrem Einfluß in tätigen Gemeinschaften besser entsprechen als die anspruchsvolle universale Geste des Buches in Flugblättern, Broschüren, Zeitschriftartikeln und Plakaten ausbilden. Nur diese prompte Sprache zeigt sich dem Augenblick wirkend gewachsen. Meinungen sind für den Riesenapparat des gesellschaftlichen Lebens, was Öl für Maschinen; man stellt sich nicht vor eine Turbine und übergießt sie mit Maschinenöl. Man spritzt ein wenig davon in verborgene Nieten und Fugen, die man kennen muß. [Walter Benjamin »Einbahnstraße« (1928)]



Montag, 20. Juli 2020

Bzw. ۲ ۴ ۲ [»Happiness's Granite« for Soprano Saxophone (1996) by R. A. ol-Omoum]




["Yellow Blue", Suria Kassimi (2018)]




A colored man floats down out of the sky blowing a saxophone, and below him, in the space between two buildings, a girl talks earnestly to a man in a straw hat. He touches her lip to remove a bit of something there. Suddenly she is quiet. He tilts her chin up. They stand there. Her grip on her purse slackens and her neck makes a nice curve. The man puts his hand on the stone wall above her head. By the way his jaw moves and the turn of his head I know he has a golden tongue. The sun sneaks into the alley behind them. It makes a pretty picture on its way down. [Toni Morrison »Jazz« (1992)]



Martin's Blues

He came apart in the open,
the slow motion cameras
falling quickly
neither alive nor kicking;
stone blind dead
on the balcony
that old melody
etched his black lips
in a pruned echo:
We shall overcome
some day---

Yes we did!
Yes we did!
[Michael S. Harper (1971)]


Jazz speaks for life. The Blues tell the story of life’s difficulties, and if you think for a moment, you will realize that they take the hardest realities of life and put them into music, only to come out with some new hope or sense of triumph. This is triumphant music. [Martin Luther King, Jr. »On the Importance of Jazz« (1964)]





["Licht und Raum", Suria Kassimi (2020)]






Dreams

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

[Langston Hughes (1922)]












You were born into a society which spelled out with brutal clarity, and in as many ways as possible, that you were a worthless human being. You were not expected to aspire to excellence: you were expected to make peace with mediocrity. [James Baldwin »The Fire Next Time« (1963)]





["Blue", Suria Kassimi (2017)]




Utopia


            brothers


            brothers
everywhere―
              and
        not a one
               for sale.

[Johari Amini (1969)]




It is rare indeed that people give. Most people guard and keep; they suppose that it is they themselves and what they identify with themselves that they are guarding and keeping, whereas what they are actually guarding and keeping is their system of reality and what they assume themselves to be. One can give nothing whatever without giving oneself -- that is to say, risking oneself. If one cannot risk oneself, then one is simply incapable of giving. [James Baldwin »The Fire Next Time« (1963)]


Freitag, 10. Juli 2020

Bzw. ۲ ۴ ۱ [»You Don't Know Why« for Alto Saxophone, Flute and Piano (1995), R. A. ol-Omoum. - Dedicated to Roscoe Mitchell & the AACM]




["Black Saint #23", Lorena Kirk-Giannoulis]




 It was only for kicks cracks and flacks
          plicks and placks and plickers
Lackplacker Lackplicker
loundwadtti Daago
Nickers flickers lackpicker
                     Kicks flicks plack and ack lackflacmac
ack ack macflacklack
 Concladoso Oselacon Seaco
Decoula Seaco Coonclaso
oolinoundnighhentti
            ooo―――tti nigoundhheintti
ouncladose lacontti
  ooo―――oun―――tay
[Roscoe Mitchell]




["Black Saint #19", Lorena Kirk-Giannoulis]




May the past, present, and future be ever before us as one. [Muhal Richard Abrams]

I think the best thing you can teach a person is how to learn. And once they discover their own individual approach to that - which is inside all of us - then all of a sudden, they've opened up a door of endless resources. [Roscoe Mitchell]





















What I'm after is a composed music that will sound like improvised music when improvisors play it. You shouldn't be able to tell what parts are being improvised and what parts were written out beforehand; it should sound like the same music. [Roscoe Mitchell]




["Black Saint #20", Lorena Kirk-Giannoulis]


If you listen to nature, all the sounds are done in a confident way. I'm trying to do that. [Roscoe Mitchell]


The word music is a convenient way to talk about what I'm interested in, but actually, in some ways, it's a limitation. [Anthony Braxton]





["Black Saint #22", Lorena Kirk-Giannoulis]



A piece of improvisation is done, and after it's done, there's nothing to be said about it because it affects your life whether you like it or not. [Leo Smith]



Words
Arbitrage
Novella
Protagonist
Impute
Parsimonious
Gainsay
Locus
Congeries
Ambience
Exponential
Verbose
Nemesis
Ipsofacto
Tabula rasa
Vicissitude
Ebullience
Enervate
Canto
Synergism
Bemuse


[Roscoe Mitchell]



The phenomenon of sound, whether natural or when produced by the formal process of structuring music, where creative individuals improvise and/or write music in order to organize sound from a particular point of view, has always fascinated me. As a musician and observer, I am constantly stimulated and educated by the variety of activities that take place in the incredible world of sound. [Muhal Richard Abrams]