Concepts and intellectual devices or chops can't mask or conceal an underlying lack of emotive power.
I come from a musical family. Mom was a piano teacher for a large portion of her life, and Dad is a saxophone hobbyist who grew up in England during the heyday of Tubby Hayes and Ronnie Scott. I started taking piano lessons from my Mom, but it's too easy to slack off with your parent, so she passed me on to a friend of hers, where I got more motivated to play music by playing pop hits and TV themes. I did some classical training, but I was always more into the really thematic stuff.
The music is at its best when people are truly digging in.
Theoretical concepts of music and extended techniques are more like seasoning to me; they're not the meal. I like outside music that still has a sense of forward motion and an emotive quality to it.
