RE: [(TV) 'Most Unknown'/TV Boston Phoenix Article/Scanning TV ph oto]

["Casey, Leo J" <CaseyL@volpe.dot.gov>]

Jeff, 

I agree with you about how his humility contrasts with the authority of his playing; I don't think it's 'false humility' or that it's a total tease, i.e., some kind of schtick to cast his guitar prowess into greater relief (although I'm not sure you think this either).  It certainly hasn't 's hasn't been a schtick the many times I've seen him play live, and if the reviews we've been reading by MM List members are any indication this is still true of his Music For Films appearances. 

His live guitar soloing itself is, however, sometimes a 'tease', but I don't mean that in a is perjorative sense.  He will throw out guitar lines that lead you to think you know where he's going to go (or where almost every other player would tend to go ) but then he goes somewhere else/better.

Someone else said it better: "  . . .  Verlaine's solos have always been prolonged teases, indefinitely postponing resolution, taking daring circular detours and abruptly changing direction, avoiding the note you're waiting for.  The beautiful solos on 'Last Night' seem to rise and fall simultaneously, a tight maze of dead ends miraculously transcended, like Coltrane's unaccompanied sax excursion on the Selflessness live version of 'I Want To Talk About You' with its devastating barrage of false endings. .. ." 

	Your bit on the whole structure of his MM playing being quite sensual is well put. Jeff: "Anyone ever notice that the instruments reenter kind of backwards from the way they came in at the start of the song?"  I didn't notice til you mentioned it, but you're right. 

	Leo 

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Jeff Strell [SMTP:jeff.strell@usa.net]
> Sent:	Thursday, May 25, 2000 5:39 PM
> To:	tv@obbard.com
> Subject:	Re: [(TV) 'Most Unknown'/TV Boston Phoenix Article/Scanning TV photo]
> 
> What's always struck me about Verlaine's humility and reclusiveness is how
> markedly it contrasts with the authority of his playing.  It's almost as if
> the humility is a bit of a tease, and something that he uses as an artistic
> tool.  One of the things I like most about his solo in "Marquee Moon" is the
> way he kind of backs into it.  For the first half-minute or so, his attitude
> seems to be "Oh dear, was I supposed to play a solo here?"  But by the time we
> get to that first screaming dissonance, we realize that a) Tom's in complete
> control, and b) he's probably taking us somewhere we've never been before. 
> The whole developmental pattern of the solo is actually quite sensual, from
> the initial "foreplay", through the band's lockstep pounding up the chromatic
> scale, to the release of those beautiful strummed chords right before the
> reintroduction of the riff.  (Anyone ever notice that the instruments reenter
> kind of backwards from the way they came in at the start of the song?)
> 
> - Jeff
> 
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