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Bill Dixon: In Medias Res


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I'd like to note the long-awaited (at least by me) Bill Dixon article is now up at AAJ.

There will be forthcoming an image gallery of his paintings, lithographs, etc., up at AAJ next week as well as a series of excerpts from his manuscript "Vade Mecum".

Enjoy, and looking forward to your thoughts.

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Couple more things--there's a dissertation floating around that has apparently done extended, intense dissection of the Jazz Composers' Guild. I wonder if you've read it? Last time I checked, the cat who wrote the paper was on the way to getting the JCG chapter published... don't know if it was in the ether when you were researching for the interview.

Also: very cool to hear about Bob Ralston. He's one of those spectral voices I always thought may have played a notable role in 60's/70's free music.

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I'd like to note the long-awaited (at least by me) Bill Dixon article is now up at AAJ.

There will be forthcoming an image gallery of his paintings, lithographs, etc., up at AAJ next week as well as a series of excerpts from his manuscript "Vade Mecum".

Enjoy, and looking forward to your thoughts.

thanks a lot for putting this up here clifford! i'm looking forward to printing this out tomorrow and reading. Bill Dixon is the man!

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"My work was all representational up until maybe 1960—I had a complete utter disdain for abstraction until then. I think at the same time I stopped reading novels I also abandoned representation. I remember one day when I was working at the UN and I was reading a novel, AJ Cronin or something, and I'd just finished it and said 'I don't need a singular figure telling me how a group of characters behave.' That was the last novel that I read."

That is brilliant and hilarious!

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That's Bill for you.

ep1: The JCG article will be published next year in Jazz Perspectives (journal). It's by Ben Piekut. I haven't read it, but Andrew Raffo Dewar (Dixon scholar/student) has. Part of Dewar's thesis on Bill Dixon will be in J.P. as well.

No book yet. Thanks for your thoughts.

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I'd like to note the long-awaited (at least by me) Bill Dixon article is now up at AAJ.

There will be forthcoming an image gallery of his paintings, lithographs, etc., up at AAJ next week as well as a series of excerpts from his manuscript "Vade Mecum".

Enjoy, and looking forward to your thoughts.

Thanks, Clifford -- the most revealing Bill Dixon interview I've yet seen, and I appreciate your responses to his music.

A lot of the Bill Dixon recordings and live performances of his own compositions somehow seem like one single long trumpet solo, interrupted perhaps by years and distances, with changing accompaniments. The music is pure abstraction, but lyrical abstraction. Quite a painter, too.

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"Imagine the Sound" ?

Very informative article/interview. The take on Conquistador is interesting. Played it on the radio Friday night, or With (Exit), not the title track, as well as one of the pieces from Dixon's appearance on record with the Exploding Star Orchestra in response to this, and telling listeners of the article's publication. Have to catch up some of the other more recent recording mentioned in the interview.

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Guest Bill Barton

Thank you for this remarkable article, Clifford. Quality music journalism is alive and well. Lloyd Peterson's book (of which I've so far only read excerpts) is the only other thing that I've seen recently on this level.

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