I've only now, somewhat belatedly, seen the original paper by Kinra
and Okasha, and a fully detailed response doesn't seem appropriate at this
point. In any case, it's difficult to decide whether the paper was an
attempt at humour (in which case it was a failure) or was a serious
assessment of the supposed dangers of circular breathing (in which case it
was even worse).
Most commentators so far have remarked on either or both of these
possibilities, so there's no point in covering the same ground again. But
there are a couple of new points, I think:
Circular breathing has actually been very little used in jazz; the
only certain examples that I know of are Harry Carney, Rahsaan Roland
Kirk, Anthony Braxton, Andy Sheppard (all reed players) and Freddie
Hubbard (trumpet); the (reed) multi-instrumentalist Yusef Lateef may be
another but I haven't been able to confirm this. This is far too small a
sample to have any potential for analysis and, in any case, confounding
factors (notably, people's lifestyles) would be a far more powerful
influence.
A more likely factor worth analysing might be the sheer effort needed
to play jazz, especially given the nature of jazz work (extended one-night
stands interspersed with long and tiring travel). For example, John
Chilton, writing (1) of Coleman Hawkins, comeents that his style of
playing needed to call on huge resources of stamina, and some saxophonists
have used very hard reeds, which themselves need an extreme effort to
blow. Charlie Parker used a Rico #5 reed, and Dean Benedetti, himself an
alto-player, could barely even get a sound out of it; furthermore, Parker
demonstrated to Benedetti that his abdominal muscles were very powerful,
by inviting him to punch his midriff. Benedetti's fist just bounced off,
however hard he punched (2).
However, all this would require a rather better-designed study than
Kinra and Okasha appear inclined to mount.
One more point: Dr Kinra mentions, in his response to Dr P Sloof,
that Miles Davis once advised John Coltrane on how to take shorter solos,
as if this was a public health issue. Actually, it was rather more
interesting than that: Coltrane was indeed noted for taking exceedingly
long solos, and Davis complained to him about this at one point as it was
unbalancing their performances. Coltrane explained that he just didn't
know how bring his solos to a close, whereupon Davis said, in his
inimitable way: "You just take the ****ing horn out of your mouth!"
Richard Carter
(1) John Chilton: "The Song of the Hawk", London: Quartet Books
(1990).
(2) Ross Russell: "Bird Lives!" New York: Da Capo Press (1996).
Rapid Response:
Poor joke and worse science
I've only now, somewhat belatedly, seen the original paper by Kinra
and Okasha, and a fully detailed response doesn't seem appropriate at this
point. In any case, it's difficult to decide whether the paper was an
attempt at humour (in which case it was a failure) or was a serious
assessment of the supposed dangers of circular breathing (in which case it
was even worse).
Most commentators so far have remarked on either or both of these
possibilities, so there's no point in covering the same ground again. But
there are a couple of new points, I think:
Circular breathing has actually been very little used in jazz; the
only certain examples that I know of are Harry Carney, Rahsaan Roland
Kirk, Anthony Braxton, Andy Sheppard (all reed players) and Freddie
Hubbard (trumpet); the (reed) multi-instrumentalist Yusef Lateef may be
another but I haven't been able to confirm this. This is far too small a
sample to have any potential for analysis and, in any case, confounding
factors (notably, people's lifestyles) would be a far more powerful
influence.
A more likely factor worth analysing might be the sheer effort needed
to play jazz, especially given the nature of jazz work (extended one-night
stands interspersed with long and tiring travel). For example, John
Chilton, writing (1) of Coleman Hawkins, comeents that his style of
playing needed to call on huge resources of stamina, and some saxophonists
have used very hard reeds, which themselves need an extreme effort to
blow. Charlie Parker used a Rico #5 reed, and Dean Benedetti, himself an
alto-player, could barely even get a sound out of it; furthermore, Parker
demonstrated to Benedetti that his abdominal muscles were very powerful,
by inviting him to punch his midriff. Benedetti's fist just bounced off,
however hard he punched (2).
However, all this would require a rather better-designed study than
Kinra and Okasha appear inclined to mount.
One more point: Dr Kinra mentions, in his response to Dr P Sloof,
that Miles Davis once advised John Coltrane on how to take shorter solos,
as if this was a public health issue. Actually, it was rather more
interesting than that: Coltrane was indeed noted for taking exceedingly
long solos, and Davis complained to him about this at one point as it was
unbalancing their performances. Coltrane explained that he just didn't
know how bring his solos to a close, whereupon Davis said, in his
inimitable way: "You just take the ****ing horn out of your mouth!"
Richard Carter
(1) John Chilton: "The Song of the Hawk", London: Quartet Books
(1990).
(2) Ross Russell: "Bird Lives!" New York: Da Capo Press (1996).
Competing interests: No competing interests