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Geboortedatum: 1968
Geslacht: male
Nationaliteit: USA

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Come si ascolta il jazz: conversazioni con Wayne… door Ben Ratliff

Ottimo libro di interviste (a proposito: perché non tradurre il titolo originale "the jazz ear - conversations over music"? quello scelto lo fa sembrare un manuale...). L'approccio non è particolarmente innovativo (far scegliere al musicista qualcosa da ascoltare e commentare) ma leggere le parole dei musicisti sulla musica altrui è sempre utile e qui il tutto è davvero ben fatto da Ratliff, a partire dalla scelta dei personaggi fino alle curiosità che emergono, passando per le tante note squisitamente musicali (che, va detto, non sono molto accessibili a chi sappia nulla o poco di teoria e pratica musicale).… (meer)

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d.v. | 2 andere besprekingen | May 16, 2023 |

Every Song Ever: Twenty Ways to Listen in an Age of… door Ben Ratliff

Fascinating read! This book reads like a bodyscan meditation, focused on the ears.

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AntonioPaola | 1 andere bespreking | Jan 27, 2018 |

Every Song Ever door Ben Ratliff

What an exasperating annoying book! Don't get me wrong. Ratliff knows pretty much everything there is to know about music. And apparently he spends all day and night listening to it because there is nothing--and I mean that literally-that he seems to have not listened to. A typical paragraph might mention Beethoven, death metal, and gangster rap. And it is that kind of know-it-all attitude, a smugness, that shines through almost every paragraph of this collection of essays about various aspects of music, such as virtuosity or loudness. In each case, Ratliff rambles through a mind-boggling series of examples of what he is talking about and tries to make some sort of a point. What type of point is difficult to say in some cases, because his style of writing is so overdone, so full of obscure words and even vaguer ideas (maybe not to him) that it makes you want to throw the book up against the wall. Nevertheless, you will probably persist, because amidst all the BS, there is the opportunity to discover some gems, such as Faure's Piano Quintets, or Mark E. Smith and the Fall, or the incredible guitarist Paco de Lucia. You will probably choose, however, not to listen to the interminable Dopesmoker by Sleep. Perhaps we should be grateful to Ratliff for doing it for us?

This book's biggest failing is to live up to its title. There is an incredible cornucopia of great stuff on streaming services, YouTube, and other places. Ratliff doesn't provide any reasonable help to an intelligent listener in knowing where to start or how to prioritize. Instead, he does a lifetime, frequently incomprehensible brain dump. Someone should have taken an editor's pen--or maybe an ax to this one.… (meer)

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datrappert | 1 andere bespreking | Oct 3, 2016 |

The Jazz Ear: Conversations over Music door Ben Ratliff

Not as enthralling as Ratliff's previous book about John Coltrane, but all the same, some decent conversations about jazz and music in general with eminent jazz musicians like Diane Reeves, Maria Schneider, Branford Marsalis, Joshua Redman, Sonny Rollins & Wayne Shorter. There are listening lists following each segment plus a discography of notable music written and/ or performed by Ratliff's interlocutors. Nevertheless, a CD or DVD would have been a welcome complement to this compilation.

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Paulagraph | 2 andere besprekingen | May 25, 2014 |

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