I was having coffee with a professor to discuss working together on my thesis which now I think unlikely, we didn’t have enough in common. At one point we discussed a bit about his book about hip hop history and he said something like certain turntablists are as creative as Ornette Coleman. I was disinclined to agree but he was determined to prove it and played me Youtube footage of a guy improvising with two turntables very creatively and expertly. It was a funny position to end up in. I was thinking the turn tablist is playing with pre-existing music which makes his effort less on par with what impresses me about a great musician. He is playing with technology even though he has some swift hand movements and sharp accuracy but sort of like a card trick to me. And the professor was seeing it as though Ornette too was just playing with technology, the sax was a result of technology, so was the drum kit and the violin. I could see how his position made more sense to him than mine and how probably his is a current and popular line of thought. I couldn’t figure out how to address what was missing from this positioning but something didn’t click. And I asked if he played an instrument and he replied no. I made up a reason to say I have to get going.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"