25 ideas

 Here is something I developed several year ago.  

Think of 5 ideas about something.  Do it while walking or driving, when you don't have a way of writing them down.  Write them down when you get home, or to destination.  Put them in their most logical order so that they comprise an argument. Then refine their phrasing, and expand a bit. The same idea can be expressed in 10 words or in 40.  

Each idea should be able to be explained with five steps, so you now have 25 ideas. In paragraphs of 125 words, you have a paper of 3125 words, which you can read at a conference, or develop into 7000 for an article. 

So thinking about Miles Davis. I would have one idea about his relation to the beboppers. He is younger than them, is influenced not by Dizzy, but by other players, the same way Dizzy was influenced by Roy Eldridge rather than Louis Armstrong. I could talk a bit about Miles and Monk.   

My second idea would be about Gil Evans and Bill Evans, how Miles influences and works with the whiter style of cool jazz, rather than being a hard bop guy. How the dichotomy between hard bop and cool dominated the 1950s. 

I could do a thing about his two classic quintets, one with Red Garland, Coltrane, Philly Joe, Paul Chambers, and the other with Tony Williams, Herbie, Shorter, and Ron Carter. A general reflection on how he found the perfect musicians to work with at any point in his career.  

Then a thing about his innovation on dealing with the audience. The famous "turning his back on the public" trope. It's an explicit rejection of the Satchmo style of charisma.  It's introspective and "cool." Coolness come as antithesis to jazz as "hot." (While the earlier dichotomy was between "sweet" and "hot" music.)

My 5th idea would be about later Miles and incorporation of R&B and rock styles. How he is at the root of "fusion." How fusion was rejected by the young lions group--and how to explain conflicts between Miles and Wynton. 

You should bring able to do that off the top of your head about anything you know well, like I just did with the Miles example. About how many topics could you develop 5 ideas of a certain quality or interest, while taking an hour walk? I could do it with Monk, Cervantes, or Borges. Probably a few more things, too. Frank O'Hara, for sure. 

****

1. Hay un “giro literario” en la música que afecta no solo a Lorca, sino a otros poetas como Miguel Hernández. El fenómeno se produce no únicamente en el flamenco, sino también en la llamada “canción de autor.” 

 

2. El Lorca que entra en el Nuevo Flamenco es un Lorca vanguardista e intelectual—aunque el elemento popular y folklórico nunca está lejos, en las canciones grabadas con La Argentinita, constantemente tocadas, cantadas y grabadas de nuevos en géneros musicales diversos. 

 

3. Con la introducción de una gran cantidad de textos literarios, el flamenco mismo se transforma: se vuelve menos purista, mezclándose con otros géneros. Se introducen nuevos instrumentos. La poesía es uno de los motores de este cambio.  

 

4. El efecto es doble: la literatura da respaldo el flamenco como música de “patrimonio” cultural. La poesía canónica se vuelve doblemente canónica, valiéndose de la importancia canónica de una música arraigada ya en el prestigio literario, desde el romanticismo en adelante. 

 

5. Lorca es la figura clave de este giro literario, por ser un poeta de vanguardia, pero con raíces populares y con un interés explícito en el flamenco.