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Prior Posts

September 8ths

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9/8/1998 Jazz musicians had radical intentions but they still were fluent in the language of music. [9/8/2025: That is, jazz may sound like it’s completely free form, but the players are well-versed in jazz theory. Sometimes you don’t need, or want, to use it]. Historic day in baseball--McGuire hits 62 home runs. Studio: Mix on Saved By the Sunrise . [2026: How AI spins it ]  9/8/1999 Has anyone thought of, or is anyone doing classical/rap fusion? If not, I'd invent it. [9/8/2025: It probably had been done even in 1999–as Remix–but since rap is “meterless” the music would need to have no bar lines, or the music would be built around beats]. 9/8/2002 The Arts merge at the level of inspiration, but diverge at the level of craft. Painting can inspire music, but they use different tools.  9/8/2016             ACRONYMS , 9x27 inches, acrylic on cardboard, hardware, mounted on panel.  9/8/2024 Every generation has their “griots”: Silents had P...

Figured Basses (AI Version)

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  A cheesy cutout album you found for 50 cents recorded circa 1973. Amazing that a drummer finally was able to play it.  

Shafts

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Chord Tones For the Bird Bones

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 AI-generated.    

Expecting the Call (AI Jazz)

A "Mingused" blues, harmonizing a blues scale with extended chords. Amazing how good the AI spins are, even with the free model. It has a hard time sussing the chords, but then learns them.  

Universal Speech Rhythms

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    The rhythmic grouping of eighth-quarter-eighth (or quarter-eighth-eighth or eighth-eighth-quarter) beginning on a downbeat is one of the most common speech rhythms, probably in any language. Displacing them an eighth note in either direction makes the words unintelligible ("ships arrive" becomes "ships A-rrive", "jumbo jet" becomes "jumBO jet"), but there are other words that could be mapped to that rhythm, e.g. "container". Obviously it doesn't matter in instrumental music, but speech rhythms can become rhythmic building blocks. Some words with the 8-4-8 (or 8-8-4) schema: Ships arrive Walk the streets In my youth Got around Thinking that Better than Still alive

Curio No. 103

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  Slippery Slope , based on Dynaxiom 2878. The vibe is Barrett-era Floyd with the characteristic descending chromatic lines. *** How Suno spins it:    

Creative Evolution

I have always worked combinatorially, i.e., each creative act is somehow connected to others, either spontaneously (when I am aware of them) or later when I associate them with existing works. This works the same for my music as well as art projects. I also have always kept lists of ideas, titles, strategies, and so on, which I go back to very often. Electronic notebooks, such as Evernote have made this easier (perhaps too easy), but I used to keep paper journals and sketchbooks. There are two basic ways to add cohesion to creativity: 1) create the work then serialize; 2) create similar pieces in an existing series. This also works in music where you can compose first, then add to a collection (album) or define the framework for the album and fill it in accordingly. I don’t think there’s anything that I do, either through design methodologies, or through improvisation that doesn’t fit with something I’ve done before. I know there are some artists who like to make something they’ve neve...

Base 12 Symmetries in Music

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 From Islamic Design: A Genius For Geometry      

Broken Wing (AI Versions)

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  5/8 Delta Blues     

5/27/2026

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  Buncheong