Jazz for aficionados

The Frogman:

Donny McCaslin:
Both clips were good. The C-Jam Blues clip had a lot of energy and enthusiasm. The tune they chose to play didn't hurt matters at all. He did play longer than he should have. Sometimes, players continue to solo, after the solo is over. Youthful exuberance??

Casting for Gravity:
This guy does play Jazz. Would have been better without the electronic stuff. But it was Jazz. It would be silly to compare these young guys with the all time greats, I just expect them to play Jazz. This young man does. They will find their groove, and get even better with time and experience. I just hope he has the patience to stick to it. And, ditch the electronics.

Cheers

The Frogman:

Ted Nash:
I am sure he is a fine technically competent musician. But this music just did not do it for me. Watching it is interesting, but to listen on CD, I don't see that.

He talks too much. The band members seemed uninterested when they were not playing. What happened to listening to each other. Music not fluid at all. just unconnected segments.

Gary Smulyan:
Liked his stuff. I had to go to youtube. Might not be the one you sent. But I like his style. "Bella Napoli" was very interesting. I could listen to that on CD/LP.

Rich Perry / Tim Hagans:
Again, great players, just not my cup of tea.

Fred Hersch:
Non-Jazz. Too many reviews from "The New Yorker" and "Vanity Fair" and sources like that. All saying in effect, he marches to a different drummer. Which is true. But not always a compliment.

I will concede that you are a better judge of talent than I am. So if you disagree, I agree you are correct. I just stated my opinion.

Jazz, the very word conjures up images of Smoke filled night clubs, small clubs, women, drinking, noise, laughter, dancing, working girls, guys playing for the pleasure of it, blowing over the din, not a sheet of music in sight.

These guys are light years from that. Maybe they are beyond it. Maybe better. Maybe too deep for me. Maybe it's what people like these days. Maybe they are technically perfect.

Maybe thats's why I have 3000 CDs and 6 Cd players. I can live in the past forever. Because as the man said, "Art Is not linear"!

My book just covered "Abstract Music". I have a question. Learsfool made a statement that fits right into what the book says. It's kind of long, will take some time to condense it. Send it later.

Cheers

****I don’t like to hear someone put down dixieland. Those people who say there’s no music but bop are just stupid; it shows how much they don’t know.**** - Miles

****I say, play your own way. Don’t play what the public wants. You play what you want and let the public pick up on what you’re doing? even if it does take them fifteen, twenty years. **** - Monk

****Always look ahead, but never look back. **** - Miles

****I don’t know where jazz is going. Maybe it’s going to hell. You can’t make anything go anywhere. It just happens. **** - Monk

Miles defending Dixieland?? That's incredible! Nothing wrong with Dixieland, it just sounds incredulous.

I was just wondering if this was Miles, Pre or Post, dressing like a buffoon(wynton Marsalis) and looking like Sinbad the Sailor(our OP). :) We won't get into the 'Bitches Brew' Era.

Did Monk indicate how a players was suppose to eat and play rent for those 15-20 years? Spoken like a man with a secure income. (from that european countess, or whatever she was)

Looking back probably caused Miles too much pain and regret.

The last quote from Monk is true, I guess. That's why I have CDs of the stuff I like.

Cheers

Rok, on the off chance that you are actually being serious (which I still cannot really believe) - Haven't you ever heard of someone being called "ahead of his time?" Pick any art form you wish, and a very large percentage of the truly greats in that form were not "popular" during their time. Their art survived anyway because it was great art. Music history is full of such composers - to name just one, the symphonies of Gustav Mahler are now very often played, but during his lifetime, almost not at all. Some of them he never heard himself, except at his piano when writing them. There are many writers (James Joyce, to name one in English) and visual artists one can say the same of - folks who barely scraped by in relative obscurity during their lifetimes, but are now considered one of the all time greats. No one goes into the arts to make money - this would be an idiotic goal. In fact, huge numbers of very talented students majoring in the arts even at the very best schools end up dropping out (if not dropping out of school, at least abandoning it as a career goal), because they decided they didn't want to work as hard as is necessary, since it was not going to bring them the income level they wanted, even if they attained the very highest level in their art.

I look forward to your question on abstract art.