Spot on, as they say. This man oozes talent - and his latest incarnation is incredible. I've been an OutKast fan since I saw them in Asheville, NC back in 2001. The comparison to Alice Coltrane is very apt - she was a visionary; it's great to see this style and genre of music continued. Thanks for this post - I'll be downloading some Andre!
I think the music may or may not ever be better, simply because André Benjamin is a newbie to this whole approach and way of making music. It's not like none of his previous experience applies, but still — we're hearing somebody basically four years into their practice. When I think about myself and my peers doing this kind of thing, even my peers just out of their undergrad have been playing seriously since they were in elementary school and have more experience than Benjamin. It's just that he has the platform to present his work even as a neophyte and, say, an 11-year-old does not. And just as an 11-year-old might be accompanied by a more experienced teacher, that teacher is not going to "save" the performance — it's only going to be as good as the 11-year-old can muster. I don't know if we're ever going to hear Benjamin after 20 years of fluting and 70 years of life experience, but I'm rooting for him. I'm not sure I'd be this forgiving with anybody else, but I think Benjamin is the right guy to put his 4-year-old-flute-self out there for people to see and hear that change is possible. Do I wish that people like Doug Ewart, J. D. Parran, and Nicole Mitchell were getting this kind of press for their fluting in free improv? Hell, yeah. But I'll welcome Benjamin to the fold with open arms.
For me a key part of his journey is the collaborators: Carlos Nino and that entire band are digging into a new idea of slowly evolving sounds/textures. They’re serving as guides both within the music, from measure to measure, and also in terms of general aesthetics. Andre on this path is sharing something of what it means to create in the moment from “beginner mind” — one of the things that affected me most deeply about the performance was how it was guided by slow intuition. There was no jazz athleticism at all….
I have no investment in “the old André” - I was never an Outkast fan. I just wish the music was better. (I had Carlos Niño on the most recent episode of the BA podcast; he’s a very interesting dude.)
Wow, thanks will check that. Love love love the way Carlos Nino thinks about sound and sculpting it. Ditto for Nate, the whole band. I'd agree partway about the music on the Andre record but hearing the band live surprised me: They got inside the skeletal ideas from the record and stretched and expanded them.
Spot on, as they say. This man oozes talent - and his latest incarnation is incredible. I've been an OutKast fan since I saw them in Asheville, NC back in 2001. The comparison to Alice Coltrane is very apt - she was a visionary; it's great to see this style and genre of music continued. Thanks for this post - I'll be downloading some Andre!
I think the music may or may not ever be better, simply because André Benjamin is a newbie to this whole approach and way of making music. It's not like none of his previous experience applies, but still — we're hearing somebody basically four years into their practice. When I think about myself and my peers doing this kind of thing, even my peers just out of their undergrad have been playing seriously since they were in elementary school and have more experience than Benjamin. It's just that he has the platform to present his work even as a neophyte and, say, an 11-year-old does not. And just as an 11-year-old might be accompanied by a more experienced teacher, that teacher is not going to "save" the performance — it's only going to be as good as the 11-year-old can muster. I don't know if we're ever going to hear Benjamin after 20 years of fluting and 70 years of life experience, but I'm rooting for him. I'm not sure I'd be this forgiving with anybody else, but I think Benjamin is the right guy to put his 4-year-old-flute-self out there for people to see and hear that change is possible. Do I wish that people like Doug Ewart, J. D. Parran, and Nicole Mitchell were getting this kind of press for their fluting in free improv? Hell, yeah. But I'll welcome Benjamin to the fold with open arms.
For me a key part of his journey is the collaborators: Carlos Nino and that entire band are digging into a new idea of slowly evolving sounds/textures. They’re serving as guides both within the music, from measure to measure, and also in terms of general aesthetics. Andre on this path is sharing something of what it means to create in the moment from “beginner mind” — one of the things that affected me most deeply about the performance was how it was guided by slow intuition. There was no jazz athleticism at all….
I have no investment in “the old André” - I was never an Outkast fan. I just wish the music was better. (I had Carlos Niño on the most recent episode of the BA podcast; he’s a very interesting dude.)
Wow, thanks will check that. Love love love the way Carlos Nino thinks about sound and sculpting it. Ditto for Nate, the whole band. I'd agree partway about the music on the Andre record but hearing the band live surprised me: They got inside the skeletal ideas from the record and stretched and expanded them.