Dr. Reed Gratz on LCC

The main body of the LCC and its practical application, including all 4 published versions of Book 1 with their inserts: the 1959 tan cover; the 1959 light green cover Japanese edition; the 1970‘s white cover, which adds an illustrated River Trip to the 1959 edition, and the currently available Fourth Edition, 2001.

The authorization code is the first word on Page 198 of the Fourth Edition of the LCCTO.

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An open letter from Alice Russell. June 21, 2011, Brookline, Massachusetts. 1. DO NOT make insulting, mean spirited remarks about anyone or their work; there are a plethora of sites where you can rant unfettered. If you attack someone personally, your comments will be removed. You can post it, but I'm not paying for it. Go elsewhere, and let those artists who are actually interested in discussion and learning have the floor. 2. There will be NO posting of or links to copyrighted material without permission of the copyright owner. That's the law. And if you respect the work of people who make meaningful contributions, you should have no problem following this policy. 3. I appreciate many of the postings from so many of you. Please don't feel you have to spend your time "defending" the LCC to those who come here with the express purpose of disproving it. George worked for decades to disprove it himself; if you know his music, there's no question that it has gravity. And a final word: George was famous for his refusal to lower his standards in all areas of his life, no matter the cost. He twice refused concerts of his music at Lincoln Center Jazz because of their early position on what was authentically jazz. So save any speculation about the level of him as an artist and a man. The quotes on our websites were not written by George; they were written by critics/writers/scholars/fans over many years. Sincerely, Alice
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NateComp
Posts: 31
Joined: Fri Sep 04, 2009 2:32 am

Dr. Reed Gratz on LCC

Post by NateComp »

Anatole
Posts: 28
Joined: Mon Nov 26, 2012 12:47 pm
Location: France

Re: Dr. Reed Gratz on LCC

Post by Anatole »

hey Nate,

nice video, cool link, thanks for posting it, it is a indeed very understandable intro to the LCC.

very interesting/important the point he makes about the times and angry music.

he (Dr. Reed Gratz) says horizontal music is what resolves, well I wish V2 material would be exposed to explain it further, though it seems resolution may be a particular kind of horizontal move (to the sharp side), (could be also vertical though etc. stuffs that are quite well explained in V1).

well in seems that in a larger sense, horizontal means when the music changes its key centres, it's a very relative thing that it has quite much to do with harmonic rhythm (ie. lydian tonics change rate).
I hope to see what comes up about all this, if it comes up indeed,
there is that post where ANR says Vol2 is still in preparation that is quite optimistic.


recently I went across these videos with Don Freund about what he calls the Spectrum of Fifths,
it's rather interesting to watch.
https://youtu.be/ks7VanTL83g?list=PLFBB3102A83E94D59
Tom R
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu May 18, 2017 11:13 pm

Re: Dr. Reed Gratz on LCC

Post by Tom R »

Hi Nate and Anatole

I too very much enjoyed the video - so much additional meaning can be conveyed from the social and philosophical context.

I understood Dr Gratz to be saying that the horizontal gravity was 'progressional' (i.e. functional) harmony - the pull of bass notes, clothed diatonically with appropriate extensions, towards a conclusion (i.e. teleological harmony).

Actually, I think George did himself a disservice in the way he characterised certain bop and proto-bop players as "vertical" and players like Lester Young as "horizontal". This conflated articulating chords melodically and functionally with vertical playing. Chord-scale unity, the premise of the vertical standpoint, is different to 'playing the changes' as we commonly understand them in Jazz. You can hear this in Dr Gratz's demonstrations of the sorts of vertically-minded chords, where all extensions are open and available. George had good reason to articulate the distinction in this way, but it's an intellectual feint.

Best,
Tom
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