Bill wrote:
It makes you think what's the matter with people, are they so conditioned by their sanitized jazz chill-out CDs and the ubiquitous Kind of Blue playing quietly in the background that when they hear raw BeBop played hard and fast it just freaks them out -wierd, if you'll excuse a quaint English expression, it's all just upside down and arse about face'.
and
Garry wrote: ohhhhh...now i get it. all those times i started playing and everybody got up and left, i thought i was playing badly. turns out i was just playing jazz.
You know, if it's not an audience of jazz fans, jazz is often not all that accessible or entertaining to many people. I do not pretend to be a jazz player, but i get invited regularly to sit in with a couple of jazz bands who usually play what i call R&B style jazz when i get up to play with them, which is pretty accessible to most audiences and is (thankfully) something i can play competently. But they more often play hard core traditional jazz material when I'm not up there playing with them.
Both bands use the same drummer who is a young black college student majoring in music. He is an excellent drummer who is more than competent playing several styles of music, He gigs regularly with blues bands, R&B bands, and funk bands and can also play rock, fusion and reggae besides being able to play traditional jazz extremely well. BUT, what he does that is very cool and very special when he plays traditional jazz is that he puts a lively foot tapping groove to it while maintaining a traditional jazz style. i've never really heard anyone else do this. it keeps the audience engaged while the band performs very hard core traditional jazz material and people who might otherwise be inclined to get bored and walk out don't because the groove is so entertaining. It gives the hard core jazz material a "hook" that keeps the non-jazz fans interested in it. But his playing somehow still maintains an identifiable traditional jazz style.
i really don't have a point I'm trying to make, and I'm certainly not qualified to critique a jazz performance. But what this kid does never fails to keep the audience in their seats, buying drinks whether the band is playing Theolonius Monk, Charlie Parker, McCoy Tyner, Sonny Rollins or whatever. And he's a sincerely nice guy. too.
FWIW,
JP
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