(TV) You Win: Here's Your Prize/Sax: More than you'd ever want to know

["Mark G. Ryan" <mgryan@cruzio.com>]

"Casey, Leo J" <CaseyL@VOLPE.DOT.GOV> wrote:
> For his sax playing see:
> 
> 1993 Interview:  [snip]
> I took up sax in about '63, and an older friend of mine had some Coltrane 
> and Ornette Coleman records, and that's the music I > liked. [snip]

I think this is one of the interviews I read that led me to believe 
that Verlaine's exposure to the sax might have influenced his eventual
style and compositions.

IMHO, Coltrain and Colemen are far more to leave a lasting impression on 
Verlaine's mucic than having played scales or "Fur Elise" on the piano. ;-) 

> 1984 Interview: Verlaine's guitar style, which ranges from the most 
> intensely melodic lines to angular jazz-like structures, stems from the 
> years he spent playing alto sax, learning the importance of timing and 
> breathing. "Eddie Van Halen and all that boys' band music is just whacking 
> off; look at my fingers! They never stop moving."

This is an interviewer talking, but nonetheless.  (Wonder where the
interviewer heard those intensely melodic lines?.  Wonder if it was 
because Verlaine told him his line about being a melody maker?  Sorry,
Leo--couldn't resist.)

> 1981 Interview:  BR: Why did you choose guitar? 
> TV: I started playing piano when I was six. I played sax for three 
> years too. I don't know. A person might have some desire to express 
> themselves in that musical language. There may be a thousand people who 
> may want to do that and there may be a thousand people who heard something 
> on the radio and wanted to do the same thing and there may be a thousand 
> people who picked up a guitar because their girlfriend liked the guitar 
> player. 
> The style is accidental and incidental to yourself. I don't even know what 
> it is. And if someone tried to tell me what it was, I might just walk out 
> of the room. 

Interesting that Verlaine brought up the question of style, and then 
pretty much refused to answer it.  This is the point where the therapist
says, "Tell me more about why _you_ chose the guitar?"

> 2001 Interview:  "I write a lot of more instrumental music than I do vocal 
> music," Verlaine says. "It's because I come out of a background of playing 
> piano and then playing sax for a number of years. I kind of got into rock 
> backwards. A lot of guys go into rock and then get sick of it and then go 
> into something else. I came the other way, so I've always just had a lot 
> more stuff lying around."
> 

At last--clarity!   If you took bits and peices of student piano
compositions and of student sax improvs (a la Ornette Coleman or the
trumpet of John Coltrane), and you transferred them to rock and roll 
guitar, you might just have something like Television.

But I really, really doubt you would have anything very melodic.
(I know, I said I'd stop talking about that.)

> He was in a high school band in Delaware (with Ficca I think), but lucky 
> for Verlaine no recordings have ever surfaced.

Yeah--unlike Tori Amos (I'll bet she wishes _Y_Tori_Can't_Read_ had
never surfaced).

Tori Amos is an interesting case of how a pop or jazz player differs from 
a classical one,  especially on the piano.  Like jazz pianist Erroll Garner 
and many other jazz greats, she doesn't sight-read music (at least, not
very well).  Everybody's heard how she was the youngest person every 
admitted to the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, and how she was 
later expelled.  The reason can be summarized as: she wanted to be a piano 
player rather than a "player piano" (i.e, something that can sight-read any 
music, 100% accurately, at any tempo, and can do it for hours on end).  

In classical training, creativity is something that is supposed to happen in 
the future, after you can play like Van Cliburn.  Of course, most people never 
get there, which I have a sneaking suspician is just what the education 
establishment intends.

> 
> You might already aware of this--Keith Allison has a fantastic site (that 
> includes a word search) at: http://www.marquee.demon.co.uk   which might 
> answer some of your other questions and which is a treasure-trove of 
? information about Television/Verlaine

Yes, it's a great site.  Thanks!

Mark
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