Some times… I read what I type and wonder how the words got on the page. Then I re-type and wonder what was I thinking. Then I type-over and like it enough to tear it into pieces. So I do what I should have done the first time… switch typewriters.
The replacment post… ode to #417
I was given a CD special edition of Miles Davis’s Sketches of Spain – I had the vinyl but the deck is in semi retirement in the attic – and it came with some alternate takes that didn’t make the vinyl cut. While they are ‘rougher’ and less familiar, there are parts when you can hear Miles actually working the horn with is fingers and his unvoiced breaths.This has the effect of breaking the invisible (inaudible?) fourth wall putting a new humanity to Concierto de Aranjuez that’s not there on the official version. I thought it was just esoteric filler when I got the CD but it isn’t and I’m really pleased it didn’t end up in the trash. Maybe sometimes there’s room for more than one version…
Rob:
You are correct there is room for lots of versions. That’s part of what’s wonderfull about jazz no two performances are the same. I have many different “live” recordings of Johnny Hodges “Black Butterfly” and love them all. There is an record that Duke Ellington did with Colman Hawkins and after the session was over… someone kept the tape going while everyone jammed… it is the best part of the album. I buy all the alternative takes… watch the directors cuts… and the restored films… and most of the time (not all)… I would have been happy never to have seen the “Jitter Bug” sequence cut from the Wizard of Oz or the segment taken from “New York, New York”… not because they are bad… but I never watch the orginal in the same way. These are my flaws…and just my own views… nothing more or less.