O-10, I don't understand what your constant beef against higher education is? Considering that only recently there was a heated disagreement about this very subject, and one that snowballed and ultimately led to Rok "leaving" the thread, I can only assume that you either have an extremely short memory or are simply interested in being provocative and stirring the pot. I suppose it would be simpler (not easier) to just roll my eyeballs and say "there he goes again with his anti-Juilliard cliche", but as I have said before, I think that a thread like this has a responsibility to be factual and not mislead. Your premise is in error; or, at the very least, very incomplete and shows a lack of understanding of the place and role of an institution like Juilliard in the music world as a whole. We are all entitled to our opinions, but some explanations are in order. For anyone interested here are some facts:
First of all, Juilliard is not considered a top jazz school like Berklee, North Texas, U of M and others. While Juilliard has a fine jazz program, it is a very young program and the school continues to be primarily a Classical music school. Many top and well known jazz players attended Juilliard, but they didn't necessarily attend the school to "learn to play jazz". They attended to learn things like advanced counterpoint, composition, orchestration and pedagogy in order to be better-rounded and more complete musicians. Of course, attending Juilliard does not guarantee that the student will become a great and individualistic jazz player; and, of course there are many great players that never attended Juilliard or any other music school. To say that attending Juilliard will guarantee being a good jazz player with good "jazz soul" is no more absurd than to say that learning "in the street" without a more formal education will guarantee that the player will be a good jazz player. There are far more really rotten jazz players that never attended a music school than there are rotten jazz players that did. The main problem with your premise is the implication that NOT attending a school will be more likely to guarantee having "soul"; an absurd implication.
So, you have heard examples of your premise "101" times. How about some examples of players that you have heard that have attended Juilliard that you don't consider to be good jazz players? Who are you referring to? Otherwise, how do you know? And when you provide a couple of examples I would be glad to provide some examples of "street" jazz musicians who are simply not very good; and I will detail my reasons for feeling that way.
Thanks for the Leon Thomas clip. Greta stuff; been a fan for a long time. What did you think of "The Peacocks"?
