>A DJ doesn't make the turntables (well, maybe *some* do), and steals more
>than just the instrument that another musician plays. He/She takes the
>actual
>notes, the actual riffs, and recycles them. Is that art? I don't think so.
>Is it
>a craft? Most definitely. Does it take talent? You bet. I can't do it,
>but I can
>play a mean set of drums. Can one appreciate it? When it is well done,
>yes, but it is entirely separate from the live experience.
>
>The mere playing of records takes no talent whatsoever. Good scratching,
>matching, and sampling takes practice and discipline, and can be appreciated.
>Can anyone learn to scratch? I can say from experience that *not* everyone
>can learn to play an instrument. When a DJ is good, are we celebrating the
>talent, or the *technique*? There are those musicians that are purely
>technique....like Billy Cobham or Al Dimeola. It takes a true musician, like
>Peter Erskine or Pat Metheny to make *music*.
>
>
>Michael Faulkner
>
I've been on the list since this summer and this is already getting to be an
old thread. Instead of the myopic DJ vs Musician thing, let's talk about the
dividing line between craft and art. Everything from playing a C major scale
to writing a symphony requires craft - just as making a gut bucket and
making a violin both require craft. But when does craft become art? Why is
Leo Fender only a craftsman while Antonio Stradivari was an artist? (IMHO)
I think that anything that requires a craft can, in it's most pure and
realized form, become art. But there's more to it than that. To create art
one must do something with ones craft that takes it somewhere no one else
has gone, while at the same time, building on the cumulative creativity of
all that have come before. By this critereon most craftsman (whether their
technique is applyed to instruments, machines, raw materials, their own
bodies or whatever) are destined to remain just that, craftsman (though the
quality of their work may span from very good to very bad). It is only the
rarely gifted individuals (Mozart, Einstien, Michelangelo, Charlie Parker,
Houdini) who are true artists - and there are precious few of them living
and working today. DJ's and (instrument playing) Musicians have completely
different crafts just as surely as a sculptor uses a different craft from a
painter. The bottom line is the end result. Is it merely craft? (which the
bulk of it is IMHO). Or is it craft that has attained the lofty hieghts of art?
You tell me.
peace
Ian M
Mo'Funk
(apologies if this has little to do with acid jazz but I felt inspired...a
crucial ingredient to achieving art I mught add.)