Good to see you posting here again Giorgio.
And a worthy topic of discussion.
You speak of a "void", a "decadence", a lack of "novelty", a lack of "exciting new ways", and of a lack of new "explorations of beauty", but I see these in abundance ... or perhaps even an over-abundance of them. Of course there is, along with this abundance, also a whole lot more second-rate imitators, push button computer musicians, and just a great load of mediocre work. But there is certainly a lot of innovation and very fine quality music out there, and I mean music that has the "magical flame". I like that image by the way. In the end my estimation of fine music is if it has that magic ... that 'je ne sais quoi' of something different, something brilliant that moves you.
But I'm wary of expecting something new and wonderful out of an earlier style I have enjoyed. If, for example, you want to find the modern inheritors of Rich and Roach I think you will have trouble if you are truly looking for some new and remarkable development from it. The 'new' jumps with generations. The new artists have not been brought up on what you might consider 'the best'. Instead they take over musics and technologies they grew up with, and they bend these to their own artistic ends. The music changes on a fundamental level, and you have to adapt your mind-set (as a listener) to these different paradigms that arise. You have to listen to it without prejudice. You have to absorb it. You have to be at home with it to grasp it. Then its excellence shines through.
In his talks, Robert Fripp was fond of saying that "expectation is the prison of attention".
Yes, I haven't named names. I've been theoretical. But there are names that move me, and others, just as much now as the greats of the previous generation.
APK
