Extended Play: Sounding Off from John Cage to Dr. Funkenstein

John Corbett

Published by Duke University Press 1994

Extended Play

Sounding Off from John Cage to Dr. Funkenstein

John Corbett

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822379430

Overview
Contents

About this book

In Extended Play, one of the country's most innovative music writers conducts a wide-ranging tour through the outer limits of contemporary music. Over the course of more than twenty-five portraits, interviews, and essays, John Corbett engages artists from lands as distant as Sweden, Siberia, and Saturn. With a special emphasis on African American and European improvisers, the book explores the famous and the little known, from John Cage and George Clinton to Anthony Braxton and Sun Ra. Employing approaches as diverse as the music he celebrates, Corbett illuminates the sound and theory of funk and rap, blues and jazz, contemporary classical, free improvisation, rock, and reggae.
Using cultural critique and textual theory, Corbett addresses a broad spectrum of issues, such as the status of recorded music in postmodern culture, the politics of self-censorship, experimentation, and alternativism in the music industry, and the use of metaphors of space and madness in the work of African American musicians. He follows these more theoretically oriented essays with a series of extensive profiles and in-depth interviews that offer contrasting and complementary perspectives on some of the world’s most creative musicians and their work. Included here are more than twenty original photographs as well as a meticulously annotated discography. The result is one of the most thoughtful, and most entertaining, investigations of contemporary music available today.

Author / Editor information

John Corbett is a a regular contributor to such magazines as Down Beat, Option, The Wire, and New Art Examiner, and his scholarly work has appeared in October, Stanford Humanities Review, and Semiotext(e). He teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and hosts two weekly radio programs.

Reviews

"Fascinating and at times brilliant, Extended Play addresses a number of issues that circle around ‘music’ in ways that are new and stimulating, and explores them with wit, intelligence, and sophistication. Corbett is an important thinker, as well as a good journalist—a rare combination."—John Szwed, John Musser Professor of African and Afro-American studies, American studies, Music, and Anthropology, Yale University

"One of the most important aspects of Corbett’s trawl along the musical fringe is that it denies the genre definitions that usually constrain music books—this is not a book about jazz or rock or art music but about all of them. It is precisely this which enables him to address the broad questions about the effect of technology, globalization, etc. on our sense of what it is to make and listen to music. An outstanding work—lucidly written, well organized, engaged, and intelligent. It is certainly one of the most stimulating books on music I've read in the last couple of years."—Simon Frith, author of Sound Effects and Music for Pleasure

"Yes, contemporary musical creativity is alive and well and well-celebrated in this valuable book. Great music that often has audiences of three people is here discussed along with great music that has audiences of thousands."—Michael Snow, film, sound, and visual artist, and editor of a collection of essays, Music/Sound

“Extended Play is a poststructural tour de force.”

-- Steve Sweeney-Turner Musical Times

“Corbett has honed in on some of the most intriguing music happening today and his discussion is never less than lively, intelligent, and politically concerned.”

-- Ben Watson The Wire

“[A] frequently revealing, frequently frustrating book, and it's different from the usual collections of jazz journalism for two reasons. The first reason is Corbett's wide range of interests. . . . The other special quality of Extended Play is its pure, clear focus on creativity.”

-- John Litweiler Chicago Tribune

“Extended Play offers rare, caring glimpses of gifted musicians few music fans know, but should.”

-- Publishers Weekly

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Introduction: Earmeals and Expubedience Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
PART ONE DANCING IN YOUR HEAD Theoretical Jam
Brothers from Another Planet: The Space Madness of Lee "Scratch" Perry, Sun Ra, and George Clinton Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	7
Spate of Flux: On the Unofficial Return of the Fluxus Impetus Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	25
Free, Single, and Disengaged: Listening Pleasure and the Popular Music Object Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	32
Siren Song to Banshee Wail: On the Status of the Background Vocalist Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	56
Bleep This, Motherf* !#er: The Semiotics of Profanity in Popular Music Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	68
Ex Uno Plura: Milford Graves, Evan Parker, and the Schizoanalysis of Musical Performance Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	74
Postmodernism-Go, Figure: Smell, Sound, and Subliminal Suggestion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	88
PART TWO AN EAR TO THE GROUND Profiles in Sound
Hal Russell: The Fires That Burn in Hal Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	109
Ikue Mori/Catherine Jauniaux: When the Twain Meet Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	115
Ed Wilkerson, Jr.: One Bold Soul Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	120
Lee Perry: Tabula Rasta-The Upsetter Starts from Scratch Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	126
Franz Koglmann: Meister of Melancholy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	135
Pinetop Perkins: Boogie + Woogie Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	139
Barry Guy/London Jazz Composers Orchestra: LJCO 2 U Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	141
George Clinton: Every Dog Has His Day Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	144
Fred Anderson/Von Freeman: On the Radical Lounge Tip Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	155
Sainkho Namtchylak: Madame Butterfly Knows Only Enough Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	160
Sun Ra: Eulogy and Light Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	163
PART THREE MUSIC LIKE DIRT Interviews and Outerviews
John Cage: The Conversation Game Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	181
Steve Beresford: M.O.R. and More Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	192
Evan Parker: Saxophone Botany Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	201
Anthony Braxton: From Planet to Planet Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	209
Alton Abraham: Brother's Keeper Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	218
Derek Bailey: Free Retirement Plan Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	228
Peter Brotzmann: Machine Gun Etiquette Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	247
Han Bennink: Swing Softly and Play with a Big Stick Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	260
The Ex: Live Free ... Or Try Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	270
George Clinton: The Hair of the Dog Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	277
Nicolas Collins: Trombipulation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	293
Jon Rose: The Violable Tradition Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	298
Sun Ra: Gravity and Levity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	308
Extending Play: A Guide to Further Listening Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	319
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	331

Language: English
Publisher: Duke University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 360
Illustrations
- Other: 25 b&w photographs

eBook

Published: May 24, 1994
ISBN: 9780822379430