sequencing (decisions) (dreams)

yesterday horsemouth did a wander into EH (sausages, potatoes, some wraps, a copy of the hereford times). 

whilst he was away the good news was delivered.

horsemouth was listening to spiritual by john coltrane from live at the village vanguard (this time on CD rather than streamed off youtube). horsemouth supposes the anniversary of these tunes being recorded is coming up on the 2nd and (in this case) 3rd of november. 

the record opens with spiritual, a big annunciatory fanfare gives way to a hard swinging rhythm.

then there was softly as a morning sunrise - a jazz standard a nod backwards to the less groundbreaking style.

finally chasin' the trane, the big tune on the record. john coltrane, in a trio setting without mccoy tyner, takes the theme and beats it to death (in a style he learned from john gilmore of the sun ra archestra) or at least until it starts to give up the (holy) ghost.

and so ended the vinyl album. 

but when they came to release it on CD (live at the village vanguard: the master takes) they added more tracks from the sessions previously collected elsewhere. 

next up india for horsemouth was the big tune (at first collected on impressions). india is pretty much the inspiration for eight miles high by the byrds. 

yesterday a zoom call from john in far off porto. he is well. 

today 

horsemouth has some sequencing decisions to make. at the moment he has literally no idea how best to do it - group it round centres he thinks, then listen to the beginnings and endings together, and er...

horsemouth's favourite albums are pretty much sequenced as a continuous flow - hawkwind roadhawks, love forever changes, spirit the 12 dreams of dr. sardonicus, blue oyster cult secret treaties. 

ok he just read an article on it - start strong, cherry-pick your singles(?), think like a record (A sides, B sides), put longer tracks towards the end, manage the silences between tracks, dream sequence, put your longer tracks at the end of a side. some tracks are short (about the 1 minute mark) and so function as intros and skits, the longer tracks as deep cuts. 

horsemouth has 31 (mostly short) songs. some of them two-parters. and 3 stories. 

he guesses the real model is folkways ethnographic document - thematically linked (or juxtaposed) to pretend that he is not doing all the above (while doing it). 

wish him luck!