[Harp-L] Re: feasible goals

[Jonathan Ross <jross38@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Smokey-Joe said:
"*** That's what I said. The bar has gone up so that phenominal is  
now the norm and THAT's what's now expected ALL THE TIME. Look at  
Bee- Bop, Re-Bop, and Hard-Bop. Gillespie, Parker, and Davis killed  
jazz the same way. When EVERY trumpet or sax player could do what  
they did, jazz fell by the way side. Things change. I played  
instruments. I saw it happen. Hell, I was THERE."

Actually, I would vehemently disagree that Jazz is dead in any way.   
I would say that pure technical prowess in Jazz (as in "classical")  
is now the expected norm rather than something exceptional, but that  
in no way has killed the music.  Indeed, in these as in pop (the  
subject of discussion) the overall effect has become of much greater  
import than the individual effort.  Which perhaps explains the surge  
in popularity of big bands, both traditional and non-traditional.   
What changed Jazz was that as popular music moved away from the big- 
band song format, Jazz moved away from it as well, but in a different  
direction.  So pop became aligned with rock (for a while) and Jazz  
became an art-music.  This is natural, and in some ways you can see  
the same thing happen in the Blues during the 1960s (as black pop  
moved away from the traditional structures and towards funk) and  
perhaps in rock today, as hip-hop dominates (with country on the  
other side) and rock moves towards garage and smaller, more stylized  
forms.  Tango did a similar transformation from popular music to art- 
music about the same time as Jazz, interestingly.

But, Jazz is most certainly not dead.  I've said it before, if you  
haven't checked out the sheer number of new releases in DownBeat  
lately, do--it shows anything but a dead culture.

"It would be nice if you could make it to a fest sometime. I would  
absolutely LOVE to hear you play as you seem to have this whole thing  
figured out. I would imagine that your renditions of these diverse  
directions of musics would be surprising."

I used to go to both SPAH and Buckeye every year.  My job pretty much  
precludes me going most of the time.  In any event, I am a much  
better writer than musician.  Indeed, my main strength was always  
composition, not performance.  However, I have very little "figured  
out", just a strong training in deconstructive criticism.




 ()()    JR "Bulldogge" Ross
()  ()   & Snuffy, too:)
`----'