New Music, Jazz History, and Science Fiction

I've been doing more research into jazz and new music, avant-garde classical music. I've also been reading science fiction and such.

The science fiction novel is easy enough to explain. It's a science fiction novel set in the future where a scientist is trying to find out what happened to a town in Germany called Eifelheim. Then it goes back into Medieval German times where a priest named Dietrich is working as the communication between humans and these insect-like aliens called Kreken. The novel explores this idea: Can we convert aliens? There's other ideas and tons of rocket science abstraction (dense reading!) in it but this is the primary subject of the book. Its called Eifelheim and its written by Michael Flynn. The book was nominated for a Hugo award back in 2007. Although the book came out in 2006 this is already ancient by today's memelord society.

I also picked up two new books on jazz. Both seem superb after only reading a bit. They're two books written by Nat Hentoff. Jazz Life and Jazz Is. Both explore jazz in a variety of ways with interviews, history, and in depth analysis of the music, the musicians, the audience, and the time periods (some of which include when jazz wasn't popular). Hentoff is a Jewish writer (that wrote for pretty much every major publication) that was well known for his politics. He comes to know the music personally because he met and knew most of the "greats" as a kid in New York. I find his insight on the people to be enlightening. He explains that although the people who play jazz are flawed, the music itself isn't. I'm looking forward to reading both books and I hope to learn a lot more about the history (black history) and people that made such great music.

Then there's the readings on and about the new music scene. I've become a listener of the avant-garde, so called "new music", or as I like to say avant-garde classical music. It started during the Chicago trip when I saw Messiaen's Quartet For the End of Time performed and then it just expanded from there like a mothership dropping its young onto an unsuspecting planet.

I've become particularly fond of Xenakis, Ligeti, Guillermo Gregorio (Argentinian clarinetist and improviser), Stravinsky, Stockhausen, and others. Xenakis wrote a great book about mathematics and music but once I got past the initial introduction the book goes a little over my head. Interesting to check out and read about still.

The thing I like about this sort of music is that it sounds like it could've been completely improvised but it was all written down and thought about. They didn't just throw together random stuff and some people say it sounds random and not music at all (a general opinion on the avant-garde) but I've come to learn that music can be made out of anything and everything, a lesson this music has taught me more so than ever. These composers were revolutionary because they didn't follow the standard norms of composition and influenced music of the twentieth century in a profound way. 

Guillermo Gregorio's music is great. His playing is as my dad put it,"dated". He has a sound that was popular back in the mid to late 1960's jazz, free jazz to be specific. He has the sound of Eric Dolphy, if Dolphy was from Argentina and became an intellectual artist inspired by architecture and European art and philosophy. I don't want to generalize him but his playing reminds me of Dolphy a lot. And I dig that very much.

On the other end of the spectrum (the one where European/American art music and rap don't mix!) I read the entire LA Weekly edition that just came out and in the back they had a list of fifteen of LA's best rappers. I'm not a fan of rap but I figured I would check out some of these guys and see if they had done LA proud with their work. DJ Quik has a nice funky style and Tyler the Creator has become a rap darling. Apparently the guy who doesn't give a fuck about anything actually cares.

All of this stuff will enrich my musical and literary palette. I'm trying to improve the blog, do more editing and limiting my posts and sentences, something before I never would have done because I thought too much editing was a bad thing almost akin to censorship. My goal is to eventually be showcased somewhere on a website and for something to come out of all of this. After all, nobody should write for free. But a free thinker must express his ideas to others lest it all sit inside one's head. As Grace Slick (from Jefferson Airplane) sang in White Rabbit, "Feed your head."

Picture is the composer Ligeti

Lucio Arrives to the Nexus (on the ptr)

Overwatch's hard partying dj healer Lucio has arrived to the Nexus (in Heroes of the Storm) on the ptr. If you've ever played Overwatch then you know that Lucio provides passive healing and speed boosts and specializes in wall riding like those crazy Russian dudes that do wall stunts on the top of giant towers on YouTube. He has a few new tricks in Heroes of the Storm. Let's break it down!

His passive is wall ride. When he runs up or against a wall he wall rides it, increasing his movement speed and gaining him access to go through other units. This can be troublesome if he gets cornered and because he can wall ride he cannot ride a mount. That's a big downside because mounts are a great way of escape in Heroes. But hey it sure does look cool!

His Q ability is soundwave. Lucio knocks back enemies in a small cone in front of him and does a small amount of damage to them. You won't be able to knock people off ledges like in Overwatch and kill them. In Heroes this move is simply a way of escape and disengage.

His W ability is crossfade. With W, Lúcio swaps between his two tracks. The green one, increases his and his allies’ movement speed, while the yellow one heals allied heroes by a (very) small amount constantly. This does not cost mana.

This is what is going to make Lucio one of the best new supports in Heroes of the Storm. Honestly, we already have a great passive healer with Brightwing. However, Brightwing can't increase allies' movement speed, run around fast, and dps at the same time. This is what sets them apart and might make Lucio more popular if he makes it to competitive play.

His E is amp it up. For a brief duration, the effects of Crossfade are greatly increased: the movement speed aura gives a higher boost, while the healing aura becomes much more effective. This is basically his main ability from Overwatch. He already passively heals and speedboosts if you have them turned on but this will increase its effects greatly. Perfect to power heal a low health ally or run away super fast from a fight you're about to lose.

And now for his R or Ultimate abilities. First is his sound barrier. This is straight outta Overwatch. Lucio gives nearby allies a huge shield that decays over time. It's not as good as sound barrier from Overwatch but the shield is still pretty strong and massive.

The second ultimate is a new trick that sounds interesting-reverse amp. Lucio causes the effects of amp it up to reverse and work on enemies. When using the track to speed up allies, it will also slow enemies by 45%. When using the track to heal allies, it will also deal a large chunk of damage to enemies every second.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with this kit. He's more of an offensive Lucio in Heroes than in Overwatch but the fact that he has low health and small range means battles might often go in your enemies' favor. I'm not sure if he'll make it to competitive play but where I think he will shine is when you already have a tank, healer, specialist, and dps (damage per second-assassin character), and you're looking for a last character to fill an extra slot. He will work great as that extra slot.

Look at this team, we're gonna do great!

In need of a music device

     Lately, I've been listening to a lot of different types of music. Music other than jazz but still listening to jazz too. I've been listening to a lot of 90s rap and hip hop, video game music, and Japanese pop music. Somehow it all really fits together really well. If you ever watch Twitch.tv streams you'll notice they tend to play this kind of music quite frequently. I'm a Twitch streamer myself but I haven't streamed for about a week because I've been sick. I'll be getting back to it soon though, check out my twitter at https://twitter.com/fig_land for when I'm live and feel free to check out the channel at http://www.twitch.tv/megaman1597, let me know what you think of the old broadcasts on there. Anyways, I found out recently that I like Biggie. To me Biggie was the coolest rapper of all time. His voice, his rhythms, his style, and his overall image and persona are just too cool. I feel like he had a lot of cold beats too. Everything was good. I've been thinking that saying since I don't have a smartphone with all my music on it that I need to get an Ipod or something and listen to music when I'm going to work, walking around to and from places, or just relaxing at home when I'm reading or something. So I'm thinking about buying an Ipod, probably a small storage space one because I don't want to spend too much cash. It would make life a lot more fun if I was listening to great tunes. My Itunes library has so much music! Even though I've heard all of it, I don't listen to it often, and it would be good to re-listen to some of those great jazz and metal albums. Bring on the Coltrane, Dolphy, and Ornette Coleman! 

Straight Outta Compton

     Let me first say that this movie was amazing. I really, really liked it. As a movie about a music group it takes the viewer on a great trip through the life of NWA's lens. I would put this movie on the same level of greatness as say the first Avengers film and Mad Max Fury Road. I would say its the best movie of 2015 other than Mad Max.
     Here's the basics: "Straight Outta Compton is a 2015 American biographical drama film directed by F. Gary Gray about the rise and fall of the Compton, California hip hop group N.W.A. The film borrows its title from the name of their 1988 debut studio album. Straight Outta Compton stars O'Shea Jackson, Jr. as Ice Cube, Corey Hawkins as Dr. Dre, Jason Mitchell as Eazy-E, and Paul Giamatti as N.W.A's manager Jerry Heller. Among the film's producers are Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, and Eazy-E‍ '​s widow, Tomica Woods-Wright. The film was released on August 14, 2015, received positive reviews from critics, and has grossed over $140 million. An album inspired by the film, Compton, was released by Dr. Dre on August 7, 2015, and debuted at No. 2 on the US Billboard 200 charts." (Wiki)
     The story in the movie is supposedly the story of the how NWA came together, their rise and fall, how they break up and form solo projects, and how they come back together in the end to reform right around the time that Eazy dies from aids. It doesn't sound very exciting but the movie just keeps you in a state of wanting to know whats going to happen next. At first they are just regular black guys (albeit poor thugish black guys) living in Compton California. Eazy was a real thug gang banger drug dealer type of guy, Ice Cube is a high school student that writes great lines, and Dr. Dre is a guy who loves music that got kicked out of his moms house for not finding a job. The only guy who was portrayed as even slightly a thug was Eazy E, although there were moments where they all stood up to racist pigs (cops), and even one incident where Dre gets sent to prison just for standing up to a white cop. The way the LAPD was portrayed in this film was very realistic. I've been treated the same way even in Wisconsin, I think they're even worse out here in LA, especially back then in the late 80's. There was a fucked up part of the movie where a black cop and his white partner roll up to the group outside of the place they were recording. The black cops says,"You niggas belong somewhere?". Then, when the manager is getting the group back inside the black cop says,"That's right, go back to your master", which was all kinds of fucked up. It just goes to show you that even black cops can be pigs too. Let me remark upon some of my favorite moments of the movie, there were a couple great ones.
     My favorite part of the movie was when they were recording their very first song. They had some group of guys from New York come in to do the song. It had dope lyrics but they sent these guys in as the talent because this was before they had tried rapping for themselves. Eventually the New York guys read the lyrics and they're all like,"This shit is wack, what's a 6 4?", and then they start dissing our guys from Compton, calling them jerry-curl ass niggas. Eventually they figure they're money is wasted unless they find someone to do the song. Dre suggests that Eazy does the song because the song was about him. Eazy is reluctant at first but decides to give it a shot. Let me just say that he sounded so cringe worthy on those very first attempts at rapping. He was so offbeat and he sounded weak. Dre and the guys laughed at him, it was pretty funny. But eventually Eazy tells the other guys to get out of the other room and he gets on beat, and sings the first line with bravado. Dre responds with "great, now we only have 59 more lines to go", which makes me believe that Eazy E did all his raps one line at a time in the studio, which is very funny!
     Some of my other favorite moments where just some random scenes where they were in the studio and Dre was playing a keyboard on the track, and it sounded hella dope. It was cool that he's the only real musical one in the group. There was a scene in the beginning of the movie where we see Dre doing sick turn table scratching inside of a friends house. Also, we see him working as a DJ at a club, but the club owner kept telling him that he didn't want him to put on any of that rap shit. And that he preferred those slower songs, like dance music like rnb and soul stuff. Not only was Dre more musical in the studio than the other guys but he also rapped too. I liked him the best although Ice Cube wrote most of NWA's shit, and the other guys just performed the songs onstage.
     One last funny moment that was interesting was when this one guy knocks on the hotel room door of NWA while they're having this wild crazy party where people are having sex and stuff like that. He comes to the door, Ice Cube answers, the guy says,"I heard my girl Felicia is in one of these rooms, do you know where she is?". Ice Cube yells at him no and slams the door hard as fuck on him, but the guy holds the door open and shows him a gun. So Ice Cube runs back inside, looks for Felicia, and she's inside the bathroom sucking off Eazy! Eazy hears the news about the guy, grabs a shotty, and the group all grabs their own guns as well, and they head into the hallway walking towards the guy with all their guns to the ready. The guy just runs away scared. They all laugh and head back inside. Ice Cube slams the door on Felicia, sayinig "Bye Felicia, leaving her in the hallway wearing only a bikini. Pretty hilarious. I've heard some song about a Felicia and I guess this is the girl that inspired the song.
     Now, was this movie entirely realistic? No, I do believe that they took some liberties with the characters, and sanitized them in some ways. I believe they were all a bit worse people than they appeared to be in the film. A friend told me that Dre used to beat up women. And my dad told me that Ice Cube was much more the criminal than the regular high school kid who wrote rap lines. And also Shug Knight was also a ruthless motherfucker. I think in real life he might have even been charged for murder or attempted murder, not sure about that one but my brother told me something like that. So yeah these guys ain't saints. They were real mother fuckin' og's son! Haha, but seriously in the movie they appeared to be a lot better people than they actually were.
     Also, I feel like this movie has been accepted by the masses because rap has become accepted by the masses. By the masses I'm mainly referring to white people, because they control Top 40 Radio, Pop Music, and what's left of the music industry regarding record sales and stuff like that. In some ways Dre, Ice Cube, and Snoop have all sold out. They made it and that's it, they've become the establishment. They ain't real mother fuckin' og's anymore. To me they're kind of a bunch of sell outs, but that doesn't mean that they aren't brilliant masterminds, great businessmen, and good rappers. I mean Dre has some headphones that sell for $300, ain't that a bunch of bullshit? But for me they aren't what real rap represents anymore. Now rap represents corporatism, fast cars, money, bitches, smoking weed, having life made, etc. Back then when rap was real they were actually talking about what was happening in the ghetto, people getting shot, and what it was like being an actual gangsta. This is the main reason why I'm not a rap guy. In some ways I'm against rap because most rappers represent something that they're not. This is just my opinion. I choose instead to listen to Jazz because its not a part of all the corporate bullshit, record companies, and now streaming services companies. To me Dre, Snoop, and Ice Cube have become like white people-successful, rich, and living in houses as far away from black people as possible. Just a thought.
     With all that being said, I really enjoyed the movie. Its definitely one of the best music movies I've ever seen and I'm not even really a rap fan. However, I did know about NWA and Eazy E especially before I saw this. I knew a lot of the songs too. It was awesome hearing the songs on the big screen at a movie theater with all the people around me. I think that was the best part of the movie really. Just the music in general. If I had to give this movie a rating I would give it a 9 out of 10, fucking amazing! It gets the Bad Ass Stamp of Approval.