I haven’t had time to reply to your remark properly.
Where should jazz education begin? I don’t know the answer to that question. But do you? Any person who is interested in this particular art will find their way backwards and forwards in time from Pee Wee to Zorn to Dave Douglas and beyond and before.
I’m not sure what you mean by this, but isn’t this attitude pretty common in the development of …?
Some great players are trying to bring music to the public schools, of course at times to pay the bills, but in comparison, in some places on this planet having a trumpet gig bag on your shoulder (bleow the age of 17) is more than odd. I guess creating positive awareness…blah, blah, “%$#^@”
What public space has ever provided an income for a musician?
I don’t think the jazz section of Tower records can be sited as an authority on music. I think MMW are great, but personally don’t think they fit into a label of modern jazz. While I know such labels are irrelevant, jazz of today needs to push the bounds of form and harmony, incorporating the accomplishments of 20th century classical composers. Some examples are Dave Leibman and Steve Coleman. Maybe they are post-modern jazz players? They both have mastered the basic vocabulary, and move it to a new place. I cannot say that Medeski Martin and Wood have done that, hence the statement “modern jazz it ain’t”.
Marsalis primarily plays standards or dixie. The stuff he has written has been (IMO) tedious. Many don’t like his playing, or that of his brothers, but he has certainly done a lot to re-popularize the genre and does much in the area of encouraging young people to take up music. I prefer his classical playing, particularly baroque pieces, and am a fan of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. His father, Ellis, is still playing piano gigs (he was at Jazz Fest this year) and sounds pretty good.
I tend to be more more of a Brandford (Marsalis) fan. He pushes the envelope a bit more then his brother (IMOHO), while Wynton polarizes the jazz scene like Bush in his 3rd term. But I suppose a music to politics metaphor is hardly helpful, and anything that awakens awareness can be useful.
Probably; it’s just that I can only take soprano sax in limited doses. I guess the jury is still out on the drummer brother…Defayo? Defeo? Something like that.
Yeah, I think they are great too. But I also think they would say their music is a mix of jazz, funk, and blue grass. Bela Fleck is an amazing virtuoso and ground breaker on the banjo, and first came to prominence on the blue grass scene.
On my first visit to New Orleans in 1998, I caught Jason’s combo playing at a tiny club on Rampart Street, the Funky Butt. The combo was amazing, the club served great red beans and rice, and Dave Pirner, the singer of rock band Soul Asylum, was also in the audience.
I don’t like many of the modern practitioners of “traditional” jazz, like many of the artists mentioned above. But there have been a lot of artists that have taken aspects of jazz and evolved it along, as jazz, being jazz, should always keep doing. In other words, seems to me that the “purest” modern jazz shouldn’t sound a whole lot like the jazz of 30 or 40 years ago.
I really like the fusion of jazz and hiphop that kind of evolved out of “triphop” (a neologism I still don’t like). Pick a label: drum and bass, acid rap, downtempo. There is a LOT of jazz in that stuff. GURU, Nobukazu Takemura, DJ Krush–they’re solid jazz artists, using the tools and sounds of their contemporary world, not their fathers’. The first time I heard Portishead’s Portishead, I was like, this is what Betty Carter would be doing if she were young today.
I tried to find more info about Amy Denio, but the few links I found were quite old (1991 birthing blues etc.). I’d love to hear what she’s doing these days. Where can I find her music? Also, if you happen to be a fan of the Seattle jazz scene (I know very little about it) I think the Seattle based guitarist John Stowell is amazing. His playing is very modern, creative, and relevant.
Nor I to yours…please excuse not quoting myself in your quotes here (the Dope un-does this automagically…what price clarity).
I’m particularly puzzled by the fact that premodern jazz, as music history/musicology but especially as a set of performance styles, is not widely taught in music schools – and that there is no real rationale for leaving it out; it’s simply ignored, and that fact alone gives it second-class status among the various musics we call jazz.
Whatever. Doesn’t make it right. Again, professional development is something most educators prefer to ignore.
Mind if I poke at an unstated assumption of yours? –> Jazz should support itself financially. Can we just assume, for the sake of argument, that jazz ought not be expected to pay its own way? We don’t expect this of classical music (even in arts-funding starved America) – that’s viewed as bringing beauty and art to the community. It draws private donors, societies, and yes even government grants sometimes. Why advocate a lesser status for jazz?
I don’t know exactly what is being taught in music schools today. But, if these parts of what I would assume to be standard jazz history and performance practice are being left out, of course I’m on your side. While I agree most jazz education begins (and sometimes ends) at bebop, to it’s detriment, my point was that at least this is being taught. Any serious history/musicology/performance student would independently study this subject. I realize this is also an assumption.
I’d love to hear about your professional development ideas. What is it that most educators prefer to ignore? I really mean this, I’d like some ideas.
Don’t mind at all. I didn’t mean to imply that jazz should support itself financially, but that an individual player must. I also never said jazz should be relegated to a lesser status than classical music. Both suffer from similar problems.
I love to hear what people dig about music.