During the writing of this Modal-Fusion Music/Composition, I listened to lots of Davis’s “Stuff.” I love this song. It's considered a key transitional song from Davis's previous Modal, which owes a great deal to his collaboration with Bill Evans (and Evans's collaboration with George Russell), to the full-blown Fusion style of his controversial Bitches Brew.
Still, I might add that sometimes I turn to another favorite recording, one by Davis's "Stuff" members Herbie Hancock, Tony Williams, and Ron Carter. As members of Davis's rhythm section they are all fantastic musicians in their own right, and they all gradually went their various ways following Davis's particular turn to Fusion. The title track of one of their post-Davis reunions is titled “Third Plane,” and I note with surprise and delight that it was produced by the bassist's Ron Carter's studio, Retrac Productions.
The uncanny thrill of this hidden "Carter" track evokes a sense of connection to works that precedes even efforts to formulate a Fusion of Music with one's Career. Sometimes It's Just Music. In this, I am reminded of Geoff Sirc's essay, "Composition's Eye," which takes an interest in student music that leaves aside the question of career altogether. For Sirc, what matters is simply the scintillating circuitry of lists.
Sirc says, "I want writing that offers revelations about the ordinary. I want lists: lists of what you did one afternoon; lists of what you saw in the street; lists of people from high school; lists of favorite bands, albums, songs; lists of things you bought; lists of traits that define you; lists of what you ate; lists of what you saw on television or at the movies; lists of reasons why the drummer in your band should be fired."
Without retracting the whole of Modal-Fusion Music/Composition (or rather, finding new productive wholes within Modal-Fusion Music/Composition by way of such retraction), let me say simply that the hidden track of Sirc's "ordinary revelations," for me leads to other hidden tracks. All these tracks no doubt play a role in my the formation of the Sound(Career)Track from the start. Retractions are but a million tiny middles, or what Vitanza and Arroyo call "w/holes." These re-beginnings are what drives Louis Armstrong's response to "What Is Jazz?", even before Jarrett rings changes on it--it's what Jarrett dials and that I have endeavored throughout to re-dial once more.
Again, Armstrong's response to "What is Jazz" is an ordinary revelation: “If you gotta ask, you’ll never know." It's Armstrong's ethos that renders this revelation extra-ordinary. How did Armstrong acquire this ethos? In part, I would suggest, by allowing a million tiny who's to pass through his play and by creatively subtracting their sounds to arrive at his own. Deleuze calls this subtraction "stuttering," which is a sense of language with many small holes (1993, 23; ensample: http://www.utdallas.edu/pretext/PT3.1/ensample/index.htm).
For me, my ownmost retraction is a gesture towards this creative subtraction that is nevertheless whole. It is a desire for the extra-ordinary revelations within ordinary encounters. I want students to find careers that can do this, of course, and I want them to enjoy the many musics and sounds that will make up their search--I want to hear these tracks, too.