[NewMusic] The Saga Continues. . .

[Phillip Greenlief]

-----Original Message-----
On Behalf Of weasel walter
Re: [NewMusic] The Saga Continues. . .

Henry:
> Is the article pointing out a symptom of a 
> larger trend where black music fans and young musicians are moving
away

> from jazz?

Weasel:
this very well could be. 

PG:
Well, mainstream jazz has been institutionalized to the point where
pretty much everything sounds the same - and the vibe has lost a lot of
its luster as a result. Who wouldn't lose their patience with jazz? 

We also no longer have a real jazz club in the bay area (no, I DON'T
count Yoshi's - that's a Las Vegas entertainment room as far as I'm
concerned - they no longer have music on Mondays - they're going to
start booking a DJ on Monday nights...).

I've probably said this before, but Keystone was the last great "jazz
club" the bay area had to offer. It closed years ago. I haven't had a
good jazz club experience since. Sure, I saw Sun Ra and Blood Ulmer at
Mabuhay Gardens and the old Stone on Broadway. I'm not thinking of those
experiences as jazz club experiences. I'm talking about hearing Dexter
Gordon or Joanne Brackeen tearing the paint off the walls for six nights
straight in a room smaller than 21 Grand. That's where and how jazz made
the grade. It isn't happening anymore. You can't hear any of the great
artists in small clubs unless you go to NY or other towns on the east
coast or (sometimes) Los Angeles (wait a minute, maybe Catalina's is
closed now...I forget - if so, you can scratch LA off the list too).

Meanwhile jazz limps along and its listeners remain some of the most
uptight and rigid folks I know. I'm on another "jazz" discussion list
that represents a lot of the DJs and jazz critics in America - I never
comment on that list - it's so fucking conservative I just can't deal
with it. There's only so long you can wait for your friends to pull
their heads out of their asses...eventually you move on.