[78-L] fwd: Marsalis makes the world safe for pure jazz^

[Cary Ginell]

My main point in my unleashed diatribe is not in denying the Archie Shepps of the world to blast their atonal sounds to the heavens. Its their followers, with their snooty opinion that this is "advanced" jazz and that Dixieland is archaic and backwards that bothers me the most. Last year, I went to the annual Dixieland/New Orleans jazz festival in San Diego and heard the Natural Gas Jazz Band, a group that was inspired by Lu Watters' Yerba Buena Jazz Band. It was the most exciting, joyous concert I had heard in years. And not a pizza in sight. I'm not a moldy figge by any stretch of the imagination. The first jazz I ever loved was the soul-drenched hard bop of the 1960s: Jimmy Smith, Les McCann, Stanley Turrentine, Eddie Harris, etc. The problem I have with the so-called "free jazz" is that it doesn't have the element common to other forms of jazz: a groove. If a Cecil Taylor fan can find a groove in his music, more power to him, but I've sampled quite a bit of it and just don't care for it. Maybe I'm not "deep." Maybe I can't see the poetry in Coltrane's late-career squawks. But that's fine. I won't deny them their place in jazz. But I will deny them a place on my shelves. Even so, I won't condemn an entire period without cause. That's why I love Eric Dolphy and the work he did on Coltrane's "Africa Brass" sessions on Impulse. There is some of it that is accessible to someone like me. So I keep listening.

Cary Ginell

> From: mbiel at mbiel.com
> To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
> Date: Tue, 22 Dec 2009 17:53:25 -0700
> Subject: Re: [78-L] fwd: Marsalis makes the world safe for pure jazz^
> 
> From: eugene hayhoe <jazzme48912 at yahoo.com>
> > . . . 'repertory' music (that is 'recreative' music ) is to me generally
> > kind of dull (like much of Marsalis' work), as often, I've already heard
> > it before, even when the 'record' is new. 
> 
> Good point, but not everyone want to constantly hear new and different
> and unfamiliar and strange.  Part of the attraction of records is the
> ability to repeat the old and same and familiar and comfortable.  I tend
> to go towards melodic, which is why I don't like the Coltrane we've been
> discussing, and also why I am not a fan of Rap.  Rhythm if fine, but not
> when a constant rhythm and minimum melody is all that is offered.
> 
> Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com   
> 
> _______________________________________________
> 78-L mailing list
> 78-L at klickitat.78online.com
> http://klickitat.78online.com/mailman/listinfo/78-l
 		 	   		  
_________________________________________________________________
Hotmail: Free, trusted and rich email service.
http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/171222984/direct/01/