Mari-o, my man

Been a while, too long really. Before anything, have a healthy and creative new year and if you can get to read Lem's novelette, Solaris, that would be good too. If you ever wanted to read a writer whose imagination outruns reality from the git, then Lem is your man.

Otherwise, your compliments are such a kick for me to get the new year off to a running start. My compositional skills are not that great but every once in a blue moon I'll have ideas come into my head. They seem to appear out of nowhere, not based on anything I've recently heard, and are more like instructions given by the tune in order to compose itself.

Solaris is the best example I can give of one of these rare events. When it's done, I listen to it and ask, "Did I do that?" And if it's good, I know it. But the names you bring in - McLaughlin, Billy Cobham, Zappa - go beyond the class of just "good." Deep thanks, my friend.

PS you may find interesting my reply to Torrey, about two schools of thought in improvising. I wonder if it makes sense and you've thought along these lines yourself.

Last edited by aleck rand; 01/01/18 09:23 AM.