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goxewu - August 10, 2009 at 01:39 pm
Report AbuseFirst, all your picks are, in the total history of American jazz, fairly recent. No Kid Ory, no George Lewis, no Red Nichols, not even any Benny Goodman. Second, "greatness" without the greatest of them all: Louis Armstrong? Third, no vocals. Do the names Billie Holliday, Ella Fitzgerald, Carmen McRae, Billy Eckstein, Mel Torme or Matt Dennis mean nothing to professor Bauerlein. (Hint to jazz reformers: Young people often like singing in their music.) Finally, LOUD. It's generally bad, I'll admit, but music today is LOUD. Rock, country, reggae, salsa--it's all LOUD. Jazz is usually not all that LOUD.
brunoleicht - August 10, 2009 at 06:01 pm
Report AbuseSome of this is not too bad in my humble opinion, but not what a jazz cionesiur such as yours truly will choose. Not too bad nevertheless. For more jazz insights and stories of my jazz summits with greats like MooMoo von Taintstain and Stijn Houwer visit my jazzblog which is highly recommended by Marc Myers of JazzWax Bruno Leicht
bhirsch - August 10, 2009 at 06:31 pm
Report AbuseI find it ironic that you are lamenting the current status of jazz in popular culture, yet end with a list of dead musicians (only two of the artists on your list are still alive). If jazz wants to keep it's audience, it needs to be fresh and evolve, not just relive the "glory days." Why not list musicians who are still alive and touring? This might get a reader to actually go out and see a show. A list (off the top of my head) of 10 jazz musicians who are still alive and touring: Peter Brotzmann John Zorn Ken Vandermark Joshua Redman Mary Halvorson Han Bennink Dave Douglas Mattew Shipp Joe Lovano Marc Ribot
markbauerlein - August 10, 2009 at 09:45 pm
Report AbuseThis was just a group of ten, gents. Nothing exhaustive intended. Please add more to the canon, but make them specific pieces, not names of musicians and singers. bhirsch--which of Lovano's works would you cite? What, bruno, by Stijn? Which Goodman, gozewu--"Stardust," a version of "Goodbye"?
brunoleicht - August 11, 2009 at 01:33 am
Report AbuseStijn's "Candles, Sugar, and Wishes" is a good place to start. He is deep influenced by the German OomPah tuba tradition and also Korean zither music. Hypnotic. Also the very great and under-rated Lawrence Welk is never mentioned and yet he was a genius in my humble opinion. Bruno Leicht
ksledge - August 11, 2009 at 06:43 am
Report Abuseyes, young people think that jazz = classiscal now. (No, they don't think they are are the same thing, but they put them in the same category of high-culture music.) Radio stations tell them to think that way. The same public radio stations that play classical also play jazz. The popular music stations don't play jazz.
mucwp602 - August 11, 2009 at 06:49 am
Report AbuseWhen Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker toured California in the 1940s, audiences booed. The music was too sophisticated for them. You couldn't dance to it, they yelled. Be careful when romanticizing any genre as "popular." To you now, bebop may feel as if it were once popular. But it really wasn't. I notice that you make this same hyperbolic gesture when you discuss literature.
doctormillerlg - August 11, 2009 at 08:40 am
Report AbuseAs a lifelong fan of jazz, and one who has seen most of the the greats on this limited list, I am not surprised by the fact that jazz is a niche form of music. It always has been. Jazz is not about mass popularity, but its influence infuses virtually every other music format.
dank48 - August 11, 2009 at 09:19 am
Report AbuseThey aren't reading Bildungsromane either. They couldn't care less about abstract expressionism.
dthornton9 - August 11, 2009 at 09:34 am
Report AbuseDon't know about other public K-12 school districts - but here in Iowa City, Iowa we have a fabulous jazz band/choir program! The highlights each year include an all day regional competition with 50? 75? groups. My son's Jr.High school has both 7th and 8th grade bands, which each meet twice a week, before school, with probably 30 members each. They do fabulous improv work. Then there is a combined HS/JR high "Jazz Showcase" nightclub style show each year, with an outstanding outside clinician brought in for 2 days worth of work. This is paid for by parent donations. The Showcase has 2 shows - both sold out. The band directors love their craft and put in many, many extra hours and the students are fabulous musicians! We are building that next generation of both jazz players and consumers. Others should take note. We took our 16 year old to her first live Jazz show for her 5th birthday. She fell asleep 1/2 way through...but it was a start!
tvmillington - August 11, 2009 at 10:24 am
Report AbuseI agree with Mr. Bauerlein and the comments posted by other readers. As a 39 year-old, I have always loved jazz and make every effort to attend live concerts. Last year, I fulfilled a dream of mine by attending the Newport Jazz Festival (a great place to see some of the rising young stars in jazz--such as the incredible Esperanza Spaulding). However, it is becoming increasingly difficuly to attend concerts given the exorbitant price of the tickets ($75 for one day at the Newport Jazz Festival). I hope jazz can appeal to the younger generation, but I am at a loss at how it can do so.
goxewu - August 11, 2009 at 10:27 am
Report AbuseNote: "Stijn Houwer," "MooMoo von Taintstain," et al., are the creations of creations of "Bruno Leicht," who may, in turn, be the creation of someone else. His two posts are satire--adolescent satire, but satire nevertheless. But let's not get angry and label "Bruno" a troll ("gadfly" is what we all are) who shouldn't be here. "Bruno" just needs to get a couple of new gag writers, that's all.
goxewu - August 11, 2009 at 10:29 am
Report AbuseFurther note: "Bruno" and imaginary friends seem to post a lot on jazz blogs and, incidentally, seem to get their comments "Removed by Administrator" a lot, too.
steverhowell - August 11, 2009 at 10:47 am
Report AbuseWell, perhaps things aren't as bad as they appear. It seems that all the statistics on declining attendance cited in the article were for attendance at live performances, and they were compared to 1982 numbers. One alternative explanation for the decline in all small-venue live performances is the rise of internet music. If one can now obtain even smaller-market non-mainstream performances such as jazz, classical, etc. at will from an internet vender, one has less need to make the effort to attend performances in jazz clubs, etc. I noticed that the comparison genres did not include large-venue mainstream concert attendance. I don't know, but I might expect that those numbers have decreased as well. Even if not, a large-venue concert (rock, pop, etc.) offers mass social-bonding experiences that arguably are not provided by smaller jazz, classical, or blues concerts, so the comparison would not be apples to apples. A similar argument could be made about the 'aging' of the Jazz market. Older people (like me) don't use internet music stores as much; hence they still feel as though they need to attend a concert in order to enjoy the niche music they prefer, while younger people would skip the concert and download the jazz songs. I'd like to see the statistics on Jazz downloads from internet music stores, and if they are declining.
efmcclain - August 11, 2009 at 11:28 am
Report AbuseMost likely, the numbers have decreased because jazz artists aren't touring - at least not to the major metropolitan (southern) area in which I live! Here, the number of jazz artists visiting are low and nil- yet I hear about them visiting the midwest, west and east all the time. Steverhowell's comments are on point - I don't use internet music stores as much and would attend concerts - if only there were more from which to choose! I should also mention that there is only ONE radio station featuring jazz in the city - and it is by virtue of a university! This is contrasted by the fact that when I moved here 30+ years ago, the area was booming with jazz concerts, clubs, and radio stations! Now, I must listen to internet or XM radio to hear jazz outside my home. Not only are jazz enthusiasts getting older - it's getting harder to find jazz to see and to listen to.
texasmusic - August 11, 2009 at 11:46 am
Report AbuseThis article really IS shortsighted. Not only does it seeminly not take into account the greats that got jazz started, like Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, Jelly Roll Morton, Duke Ellington, etc. And of course, those who continue to carry the torch - the Brecker brothers and the Marsalis brothers to name a few. But something else the article (and thus, its writer) does badly is assume that because a person doesn't attend live jazz, one is not a jazz fan. Like the poster above who lamented the $75 admission to Newport, money is often an issue. Smokey venues is another serious issue for both fans and musicians alike. Thus, I must content myself to constantly acquire new music for my home-listening pleasure. This is how I will support the jazz music industry and her musicians, both dead and alive.
winstonbarclay - August 11, 2009 at 12:31 pm
Report AbuseGive the guy a break. He said he was specifically talking about 1945-65, and it's an OK list from that period. But I wonder about the basic thesis of the piece -- that the listening audience for jazz is shrinking. What clearly IS shrinking and graying, if the stats are correct, is the audience for live performance. I suspect that many jazz listeners rarely attend live performances -- and it is certainly the case that no one can attend a live performance by any of the artists on the list. But we CAN still listen to them.
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