[NewMusic] Integrity...

[Chris Broderick]

There was a good article in the NYT about this very
subject just a couple of days ago:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/07/arts/music/07chin.html

In the jazz workshops/jam sessions, etc. I've been to,
it's often more about learning the codes of jazz
(Matt's comment about arpeggios rings a bell) rather
than about the spontaneous creation of melody and
musical form.  Though it's improvised, it rarely seems
spontaneous.  I think it comes from a sense that jazz
is somehow over & done with, and that nothing new can
be mined from it.  I wholeheartedly disagree with
that, but it has been my impression that that is a
prevailing attitude.

You made the comment earlier that Gino, being the
musician that he is, can make interesting music out of
a cooler filled with cans & ice.  In the same way, I
think someone can take the typical tools of the jazz
musician and make something worthwhile.  But it is a
rarity.  I took my Dad to see Sonny Rollins for his
birthday, and was astonished at how present & powerful
his playing was.  It may not have been the height of
new music, but it sure as hell was good.  That's
something hard to find in our local jazz scene.  Not
to mention someone who is as comfortable with Sonny as
they are with Brotzmann (or vice versa)...

-Chris

--- Phillip Greenlief <pgsaxo at pacbell.net> wrote:

> No one is forcing anyone to play Green Dolphin
> Street. And yet, there
> are all these jazz musicians out there trudging on
> with no imagination
> whatsoever. If someone "chooses" to play jazz in a
> café and illustrate
> the distinct lack of imagination to play Green
> Dolphin Street, that's
> their choice.
> 
> I really think jazz musicians (like many other
> musicians perhaps), have
> thought that this "dumbing down" approach to
> reaching their audiences is
> part of what has killed the idiom. They seem to
> forget that very few
> people sitting in a café today have any cultural
> alliance to the film
> that On Green Dolphin Street came from. They seem to
> forget that the
> melody has almost no cultural relationship to a
> contemporary audience.
> So they trot out these forgotten melodies, play them
> half-heartedly and
> then they wonder why no one cares about what they're
> up to.
> 
> The truth is, you CAN play the shit out that tune
> and make great music
> with it, (like any other composition). The think I
> find so disappointing
> about jazz these days is that is SOUNDS to me like
> the musicians are
> bored playing that stuff. They don't sound excited,
> they don't sound
> like they are emotionally committed to the material,
> they don't sound
> like they've done much thinking about what they're
> doing apart from
> showing up. They are not thinking about how to reach
> their audience with
> an interesting repertoire.
> 
> If I had the opportunity to make a living playing
> jazz in this city, I
> would do it. I would be happy to supplement my
> income by playing more
> with the Lost Trio, or other jazz musicians who
> might be willing to call
> me up (none of the jazz musicians on the scene these
> days seem
> interested in calling me - and that's fine by me).
> But if I did have the
> opportunities I would show up and play that music
> with just as much
> intelligence and passion and creativity as I try to
> bring to any kind of
> music that I play. Jazz (IMHO) around here has
> become a really passive
> endeavor from what I've heard. All of my students at
> OSA are pursuing
> educational goals that involve something other than
> music - and this is
> at a "music" high-school. Doesn't say much for the
> future of the music,
> does it?
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Bay Area New Music Discussion Group
> NewMusic at music.mills.edu
> http://music.mills.edu/mailman/listinfo/newmusic
> 


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