I just read about 1/3 of this conversation with some jumping around and had a few thoughts. I realize this is stale by a year but I'm new here.
Scaruffi is intimidating, and I do sometimes find myself rating something higher than I might have because of him. However, as someone who is fairly young and is trying to expand his musical horizons, Scaruffi has been a huge resource for me. (though for the record I actually discovered a lot of "his" albums through Afterhours first). Regardless of how much I LIKE any of his top albums, each has CHALLENGED me to think about music in a new and exciting way. Very few albums do that anymore and it's refreshing which in turn leads me towards liking them.... No wonder people end up having similar lists: ingenuity and originality are exciting and emotional. Trout Mask Replica (classic example obvs) on first listen blew my mind. I loved the idea of it (I hadn't read the review just listened because it was someone's favourite) but i honestly couldn't get through it all. It was too much. That's when "listening to get it" works. When you connect with an album, but it can't be digested in one go.
I take issue however with the fact that for the most part there is a severe lack of JOY in the Scaruffi's list. It seems that Scaruffi dismisses most everything that has any sort of postive emotion, as if positivity is quaint. No, the Beatles aren't ringing in a "moral apocalypse" (one of my fav Scaruffisms), but they're fun! My favourites ever? No. But their music is enjoyable and as a result I refuse to dismiss it. Is Irrlicht my favourite album? No. Did i even spell it right? Not sure. But writing an album about the life of the universe IS pretty freaking sweet (subjective), and pretty creative, and in grapples with human existence in a grand perspective and is thus pretty human (sorry AJDaGreat).
Your main point is not about Scaruffi but worship; copy-cat synchronization of opinion. Do I believe Afterhours' list is genuinely his favourite? Definitely. And he'll be the first to say that Scaruffi influenced him. In fact when I discovered Faust and A Love Supreme through his list, Afterhours recommended Scaruffi. However I don't think that his list is lacking personal opinion (some other peoples lists might; I've only read a few "scarufflists"). Some people are drawn to the same music naturally. In highschool my closest friends and I basically shared a few set bands as our favorites. In fact, we became friends partly because of shared musical interest. We influenced each other a lot and if you had asked us what our favourite albums were, with some variation of order, they would have been pretty close. I think that's a legit phenomenon and totally understandable with unique and obscure music as well. I think it's hard for people in an internet age with such fragmentation of genre and massive availability and unlimited output to remember how communal an experience music is. Pre-internet it must have been pretty hard to get a group of TMR fanatics together to love an album and talk about why you love it. It's great that we can now!
one last little blurb. you said (wayyyy up there somewhere) that "technical brilliance" is easier to measure. True, but as any power metal band proves (and believe me I loove a good shred) being the fastest at scales and polyrhythms doesn't necessarily contribute to an emotional experience (though it has in some cases)
I'm glad these talks are happening. People need to talk about what music is and how we listen to it. It's too bad it gets nasty sometimes.
I want to thank you TONS for the work you're doing. It blows my mind. In searching for a list of jazz albums to expand my jazz collection, I stumbled upon your Masterpieces list. I realize you've since re-addressed albums and tweaked the order, but regardless, they're all deserving of masterpieces. Shortly after seeing you list I acquired "A Love Supreme" and "Faust" Both destroyed my brain (positively) and are now in my favourite albums just because of their sheer depth.
Anyway. Basically this is a thank-you for all the hard work and love you put into your musical journey and for sharing it with all of us and making me aware of a great wealth of music I can delve into (Black Saint and TMR are ALWAYS on my radar now) and I look forward to future challenges.
I just read about 1/3 of this conversation with some jumping around and had a few thoughts. I realize this is stale by a year but I'm new here.
Scaruffi is intimidating, and I do sometimes find myself rating something higher than I might have because of him. However, as someone who is fairly young and is trying to expand his musical horizons, Scaruffi has been a huge resource for me. (though for the record I actually discovered a lot of "his" albums through Afterhours first). Regardless of how much I LIKE any of his top albums, each has CHALLENGED me to think about music in a new and exciting way. Very few albums do that anymore and it's refreshing which in turn leads me towards liking them.... No wonder people end up having similar lists: ingenuity and originality are exciting and emotional. Trout Mask Replica (classic example obvs) on first listen blew my mind. I loved the idea of it (I hadn't read the review just listened because it was someone's favourite) but i honestly couldn't get through it all. It was too much. That's when "listening to get it" works. When you connect with an album, but it can't be digested in one go.
I take issue however with the fact that for the most part there is a severe lack of JOY in the Scaruffi's list. It seems that Scaruffi dismisses most everything that has any sort of postive emotion, as if positivity is quaint. No, the Beatles aren't ringing in a "moral apocalypse" (one of my fav Scaruffisms), but they're fun! My favourites ever? No. But their music is enjoyable and as a result I refuse to dismiss it. Is Irrlicht my favourite album? No. Did i even spell it right? Not sure. But writing an album about the life of the universe IS pretty freaking sweet (subjective), and pretty creative, and in grapples with human existence in a grand perspective and is thus pretty human (sorry AJDaGreat).
Your main point is not about Scaruffi but worship; copy-cat synchronization of opinion. Do I believe Afterhours' list is genuinely his favourite? Definitely. And he'll be the first to say that Scaruffi influenced him. In fact when I discovered Faust and A Love Supreme through his list, Afterhours recommended Scaruffi. However I don't think that his list is lacking personal opinion (some other peoples lists might; I've only read a few "scarufflists"). Some people are drawn to the same music naturally. In highschool my closest friends and I basically shared a few set bands as our favorites. In fact, we became friends partly because of shared musical interest. We influenced each other a lot and if you had asked us what our favourite albums were, with some variation of order, they would have been pretty close. I think that's a legit phenomenon and totally understandable with unique and obscure music as well. I think it's hard for people in an internet age with such fragmentation of genre and massive availability and unlimited output to remember how communal an experience music is. Pre-internet it must have been pretty hard to get a group of TMR fanatics together to love an album and talk about why you love it. It's great that we can now!
one last little blurb. you said (wayyyy up there somewhere) that "technical brilliance" is easier to measure. True, but as any power metal band proves (and believe me I loove a good shred) being the fastest at scales and polyrhythms doesn't necessarily contribute to an emotional experience (though it has in some cases)
I'm glad these talks are happening. People need to talk about what music is and how we listen to it. It's too bad it gets nasty sometimes.
(im sorry my post isn't super focused)
I want to thank you TONS for the work you're doing. It blows my mind. In searching for a list of jazz albums to expand my jazz collection, I stumbled upon your Masterpieces list. I realize you've since re-addressed albums and tweaked the order, but regardless, they're all deserving of masterpieces. Shortly after seeing you list I acquired "A Love Supreme" and "Faust" Both destroyed my brain (positively) and are now in my favourite albums just because of their sheer depth.
Anyway. Basically this is a thank-you for all the hard work and love you put into your musical journey and for sharing it with all of us and making me aware of a great wealth of music I can delve into (Black Saint and TMR are ALWAYS on my radar now) and I look forward to future challenges.