Fwd: Re: Fwd: Re: Re: Blue Note: Flushing jazz down the toilet

From: Erik Gaderlund (erikg@macconnect.com)
Date: Fri May 12 2000 - 11:12:19 MET DST

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    Well I do know the Solesides/Quannum crew all met at UC Davis. Or
    others like Pete Nice formerly of 3rd Bass had a Masters in English
    from Columbia, he used it for other things. But, the above examples
    they didn't obviously didn't end up working in an area that was a
    result of their Major.

    erik g

    >
    >didnt some popular emcees go to school in california....i dont know if
    >berklee.
    >kids from hieroglyphics?
    >
    >On Thu, 11 May 2000, Erik Gaderlund wrote:
    >
    >> >
    >> >
    >> >> Hmm, what about all the guys who dropped out of Berklee once they got
    >> >> a good gig, sorry no names come to my mind.
    >> >
    >> >Jan Hammer, Pat Metheny, Chick Corea--almost anyone famous you can think of
    >> >that went to Berklee dropped out when they got a good gig!! That still
    >> >doesn't stop the school from mentioning them--everybody wins...
    >>
    >> Thanks for the help
    >>
    >> > >But, don't you think
    >> >> that having an artform studied in school, is a definite sign of its
    >> >> maturity? It may not help the 'cause', but, it does show people are
    >> >> listening.
    >> >> erik g
    >> >
    >> >it cuts both ways. the study shows the "respectability" of the
    >>art, but the
    >> >acceptance from the mainstream diminishes the perception of being
    >> >"revolutionary."
    >> >
    >> >personally, i think that there is still much that can be done with jazz if
    >> >people will look at the spirit of jazz as opposed to the *conventions.* a
    >> >resistance toward bending or at least *examining* the "rules" is what leads
    >> >to the death of an art form.
    >>
    >> Just as Bop-, broke Cool-, broke Hot-Jazz, but, I think many of those
    >> who would be incredible musicians have moved on to other things--like
    >> why 'Classical' music seems so dead, but, Goreki, Corigliano, and
    >> others do have something more to say.
    >>
    >> > > as for Blue Note, they do have Charlie Hunter, and recently signed
    >> >> MM&W who put out a 'straight-ahead' album "tonic", no mindless
    >> >> meandering. And, the Europen arm is the one that releases Erik
    >> >> Truffaz, those who are trying to look forward,
    >> >
    >> >don't forget saint-germain--a good direction for them, i think (hopefully
    >> >this can redeem the bad ending of the Us3 experiment).
    >>
    >> Us3 was good in concert they had some great musicans, the album
    >> struck me as rather tepid.
    >>
    >>
    >> > >but, you've got to
    >> >> realize once jazz lost its audience to R&B and Soul, it became the
    >> >> domain of the White Middle class, who now sustain, the Hip-hoper, or
    >> >> at least their children do.
    >> >
    >> >i don't know about that last statement. as a record store employee &
    >> >blackman, i can say that there are plenty of non-white people
    >>that buy jazz
    >> >& hiphop. as far as the big names (in both genres), sure they wouldn't be
    >> >as big without popularity w/white buyers, but in jazz (which is
    >>*less* about
    >> >entertainment than hiphop) i don't think that there's the same type of
    >> >pandering toward a particularly white audience--i.e., people that like
    >> >jazz-flavored pop come in many colors. i guess i'm feeling that the people
    >> >you're talking about matter more because of their class
    >> >(middle/upper-middle) than their race--which i think is more varied than
    >> >you're accounting for.
    >>
    >> I was mostly regurgitating some article I wrote, and, how the
    >> audience does change the music, using an aforementioned example,
    >> 'Classical' was the 'Pop' music of Europe, so once the audience
    >> changed the music did with it--granted that is a bit of a
    >> simplication. An amusing counter example is a white friend of mine
    >> who got really irritated when his black girlfriend always changed the
    >> radio station in his car to a light 'jazz' station from the PBS
    >> _jazz_ station (WBEZ in Chicago) he always listened to.
    >>
    >> erik g
    >>



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