[Dixielandjazz] Eric Hobsbawm

[Rob McCallum]

Hi Robert and everyone,

Note: this response is NOT my personal opinion, only a quote from this
month's Jazz Institute of Chicago's newsletter, and gives a polar opposite
take in comparison with the very nice quote posted by Mr. Greenwood.

Responding to an NEA finding that jazz musicians are underpaid and lacking
benefits, bassist Joe Levinson responds:

"The NEA's statement that 'respondents' considered talent the most important
quality needed for pursuing a career in jazz is mind-boggling.  My God! The
reason people go into jazz as a career is because they have no focus to
their lives, have low self-esteem, are basically lazy, and have no
marketable skills."

Ouch!  Again, not my opinion (though I'll admit to being lazy and
unfocussed!)  Direct any hate mail to Mr. Levinson :-)

All the best,
Rob McCallum


----- Original Message -----
From: Robert Greenwood <robertgreenwood_54uk at yahoo.co.uk>
To: <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Friday, February 07, 2003 9:11 AM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Eric Hobsbawm


> Last night I dug out one of my favourite quotes
> concerning jazz. It's by the Marxist historian Eric
> Hobsbawm, who, as most of you will know, wrote jazz
> criticism and reviews under the name Francis Newton
> (borrowed, probably, from the trumpeter Frankie
> Newton). It's from his review of Count Basie's book,
> "Good Morning Blues". "For the professional musician
> of Basie's day.'playing music has never been work'. It
> was more even than a way of having a good time. It
> was, as sport is for the athlete, a continuous means
> of asserting oneself as a human being, as an agent in
> the world and not the subject of others' actions, as a
> discipline of the soul, a daily testing, an expression
> of the value and sense of life, a way to perfection."
> Robert Greenwood UK
>
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