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But in the case of free jazz, the critic meets his match, since the
critic’s job is to locate the heart of the thing, launch an
expedition thereto, and report back on what he did or did not find
down there. Subjectivity is what it is, but the best criticism always
seems to suggest a commonality of experience; when I hear, say, terror
in Thom Yorke’s voice throughout Amnesiac (to use the most
readily available example), I write about it in the hopes that other
people will be able to listen and hear what I heard. Once the jazz
starts getting free, however: well, you can run that commonality-of-experience
flag up the pole if you want, but nobody’s going to salute. |
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