No no Uke, I think you got me wrong.
First off, I have no interest in the flashy latest trend guys, or who record label’s PR people want me to listen to. What I meant was what’s-happening-now musically. As music progresses and musicians try more and more new things (odd times, increasingly more dissonant harmonies, different timbres, fusions of the musics of different cultures, etc.) more and more interesting things happen. That’s all I’m talking about.
I don’t think that just because the youngsters are experimenting in these ways, that their overall fundamental ability to phrase and tell an interesting story is sacrificed.
And I’m the last person to claim that the old fogies have nothing to offer us young people. Of course there’s tons to learn from the great players of each and every generation. But I’d prefer my musical journey to be well rounded. Instead of taking a linear route (learning all the goods of the 40’s before the 50’s, etc.).
Sorry, I didn’t mean to accuse you a being a sucker for the music biz hucksters. But I think you hear some surprising things if you keep your ears open to “lesser lights” of the past…take Red Allen, for example, the first guy I listed. Contemporary of Louis Armstrong, came out of New Orleans just like Armstrong. Of course, every other New Orleans trumpet player was COMPLETELY ECLIPSED by Armstrong in his heyday, though the 1920s. So maybe one jazz buff out of twenty will recognize Allen’s name.
But go back and listen to some of the sides Allen contributed to in the late '20s and through the ‘30s…dissonant harmonies, different timbres…the guy was into fuckin’ QUARTER-TONES by 1932, fer god’s sake! And he did this hair-raising stuff within the constraint of playing the lead in “primitive” jazz combos! (Which he also did very well. The guy swung like a gate.)