What Is Music (was intentions--perception--disappointed--gig spam)

["Gary Lehmann" <relayonemanband@cts.com>]

Hey there Music People--
It was Louis Armstrong who called what Charlie Parker was doing "Chinese
music" and he wasn't trying to be complimentary.  Taste is acquired and 
it's
all about what you like.
I think this thread is the grandchild of my reaction to a Knitting Factory
gig.  In the ensuing weeks I have come to accept what I was exposed to was
their idea of art, even tho it wasn't mine.  All God's chillun get to 
define
what they think is art, and if other people think it's good, they get to
appreciate it together.  I gotta think that (like with the harmonic series
or the periodic table of elements) it all starts with "one", and then it
gets split into two, and variations result from the dichotomy--hey, like
boys and girls and others!
On a more loop oriented note, I had the pleasure of doing my first paying
gig here in LA last night, and I incorporated loop music into my program.
It was a retirement party for a guy who was moving to Hawaii to grow coffee
after working at Lockheed Federal Credit Union, so I created 8 bars of
"Aloha Oe" at one point--also just some noodle music--this was between
sequences.  Actually, I started the evening with a improvised loop, and I
think it's a good way to go for a sequenced solo act.  From what I can 
tell,
there is a mistrust of the solo performer who augments his performance with
technology, so my generating a cloud of "big music" to start, especially a
piece which was unidentifiable (if fairly normal/consonant), created
interest and ignorability (is this a word?  How about ambience)
simultaneously, and showed that the music was at least partly dependent on
my live performance.
Gary