Travis AI Part #2 – Virtue in the Sky – Without Travis on the Sesh (he fell out early I guess!) I decided to play the rest of the gang “Predatory Depths” – Travis’ AI creation from last week, all of us are a bit stunned by the AI creations. And we find a 2nd song which stuns us even more. I am not certain about the realization of the prompt, but this is very strange and listenable. I find out later that Travis did compose the lyrics. I don’t quite understand how they were integrated into the music but they definitely sounded like Travis speak, which would have been an even weirder result, if AI had somehow auto created Travis’ unique non-sequiturs. Nonetheless, every sound here fits and in an unusual way that I wouldn’t choose. As an AI creation we all are pretty into the idea of a new toy.
Dan – I play 3 weird shorties, all that would be fun to play and from the 40’s & 50’s.
John Hardee – “Lunatic” A big toned Tenor and an unusual title. I find it noteworthy when older songs highlight the idea of mental illness and emotional instability. I think the references are somehow different than in the current age of therapy, mental wellness and pharmaceuticals. Just another way to reflect attitudes of the day and reveal how people conceptualized them.
Henry Mancini “Susan” – A Touch of Evil– A great Mancini score to a great film. It has an interesting theme that I could see transforming into a rhapsodic Jazz ballad, though it needs a Bridge, perhaps a second theme from the Score could form a sort of medley.
Fred Katz – “Pluck It” – This is basically a sideman recording using the Chico Hamilton group. But again we see an unusually early album title using Zen. It is a sort of trippy, swinging, but slightly Classical feeling ditty. The tone colors work really well and it embodies the song title, very pizzicato. I am still resonating from the Cello sounds I heard a few weeks ago at a Nicole Mitchell show, and appreciating that instrument (particularly blended with Alto Saxophone.)
Bart – Little Richard – “Lucille” (1957) – I play this clip, and a 2nd where LR is a little wilder from a film, for my school kids. He is a reverential figure and something about his primal scream and performance acumen I find important to developing a sense of what Rock & Roll and R&B are. I also highly recommend I Am Everything on Max, superb Documentary.
Nawi – More AI madness! – Sweet Temptations – Nawi goes through the AI process during the Sesh and comes up with a slow Rap about cookies. It starts out profoundly with a “Cookies are Divine” lyric that I am here for, but as more sections are added I think I like the results less and less, and maybe that line is removed? Still seems like hours of fun to be had toying with this, and an suggesting an even deeper question about what it actually means to create music. I’m not sure that the argument is should AI creations be considered as much as it feels like a lot of current music is being created with very similar aims. These 3 AI pieces sound to me like a lot of today’s music. The guys profess how these can’t actually create the Future because they entirely draw from the past. However, AI should go the whole 9, with imaginary band pages and images of the fictitious artists, merch, etc.
Found Sounds 