[78-L] the end of the Great Singers Era

[Malcolm Rockwell]

Could it be that people began trying too hard to be Great Singers, 
instead of actually being great singers? There is a certain level of 
phoniness to be dealt with here. For example it's possible Judy Garland 
was a person who ended up believing her own press releases. And Billie 
Holiday was not.
Also I feel the public got lost in the (melodic and harmonic) complexity 
that jazz became and that is why it dwindled. Same happened with 
Hawaiian steel guitar playing. Taking a simple, grinnable concept and 
turning it into a no-grin situation.
The inverse happened with the ukulele. It was born simple and stayed 
that way. And it's still popular.
Malcolm

*******

On 4/29/2014 5:24 AM, Joe Scott wrote:
> "I think that from about 1945, there were fewer and fewer tunes that lent themselves to jazz interpretation. I'm not saying that was a good or a bad thing, just a statement of fact."
> I don't think it's really more difficult for a person to make jazz out of "Raindrops Are Falling On My Head" than out of "Ol' Man River," I think the general public lost interest in jazz interpretations of the latest hits because they'd lost interest in jazz.
> Joseph Scott
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