Time

Cursed by a collector's mentality... been thinking about age, and time, and music as an art that has to be experienced in real time... meaning there's limited time to get through it all, as my wife continually reminds me as I accumulate more and more... if I laid out my collection end to end, I couldn't get through a fraction of it before I croak... okay, then prioritization is a factor... and an unceasing cause of anxiety and dread, as I confront the major discographies of prolific artists like Sun Ra, Cecil Taylor, Duke Ellington, Anthony Braxton, the Grateful Dead, not to mention the hundreds of other artists who have contributed, and continue to add to, the heritage of great music that demands to be listened to... deciding what to play next is partly a result of my putting in piles (mental or literal) what I want to get through, versus whim or chance... sometimes I am paralyzed by choice.. sometimes favorites don't win... how to get through it all... but one of the benefits and joys of a large collection is the selection process... and having the ability to choose from such a wide range... and in this age of streaming availability, choice becomes less of a privilege and more of a given, but also something all too often taken for granted... and I do hate the perception that Spotify has it all... those who depend on streaming services to determine their listening choices are missing out... it's good to be exposed to new things, of course, but I like the autonomy of seeking it out myself, or through the agency of trusted humans (siblings, friends, bandmates, critics...) rather than algorithms... even so, how to absorb it all and get through it all... I'm thinking particularly of my ongoing (albeit lapsed in the last few months) project to re-listen through all the UYA archives and sort out what's worth returning to... it's hours and hours of music... not to mention the hours of music of New Ting, on the web and off... and the hours of Cecil Taylor I have downloaded from Dime and not listened to yet, as well as the hours I already have heard, at least twice, that I want to get back to... I am nearing the end of my Craig Taborn discography journey, and now I'll be able to go back and focus on those works of his that really speak to me... those works would include Avenging Angel and all his work with Roscoe Mitchell... and Farmers By Nature and all the recordings under his own name... and his wonderful work with Mat Maneri, Tim Berne, David Torn, and Hugh Ragin... Damn, there's so much great music out there!