[Dixielandjazz] Re: Art & Jazz & Audience

[Stephen Barbone]

Yes, very tongue in cheek, but not a shred of self pity. I applaud and admire all, whose
"artistic draw" can also be measured by monetary success. And I admire those who are self
confident enough to measure their personal "success" by their personal parameters, rather
than by someone's else's.

I agree with what you say. Just adding a thought that we as players and audience should
be cautious in trying to figure out exactly what is significant and what is not.
Audience? The audience loves Kenny G and Woody Allen as reed men, and Andrew Wyeth, for
example, as an artist.

Yet the self appointed keepers of "We know what real art is" routinely disparage all
three as charlatans. They claim knowingly that Woody and G are poor examples of "jazz"
players and Wyeth, is a mere illustrator, a poor example of an "artist".

Amazingly, however, those same "art experts" at the various museums who disparage Wyeth,
are continually fooled by art forgeries, spending many millions of dollars on an
"important" work by________ only to find out it was done by an unknown forger. Museums
e.g. The Getty have heaps of forged trash stored in their basements. Of what are they
"expert"? Are the self appointed musical "experts" (read critics) equally flawed?

Who knows why the audience goes to see Woody, or likes to listen to G. The fact that they
do is significant in the here and now. Will they be remembered? Probably yes, by at least
the same number of folks who today remember, Nuncio Scaglione, a significant member of
the Sicilian School of clarinet in New Orleans 100 years ago.  And a valued contributor
to the type of clarinet playing typified by Omer Simeon in mid 20th century and Orange
Kellin and Evan Christopher today.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone


Steven Holzer wrote:

> A little bit of wistful self-pity and, I hope, a lot of tongue in cheek,
> Steve. The ability to command a healthy cover charge is hardly the best
> gauge of significance in art. It may only speak to the price that people
> will pay to satisfy idle curiosity. Audience impact should not be
> measured by what comes in the door so much as by what goes out the door
> with them. I have never heard Woody Allen play, so I can't say much
> about whether he deserves his audience or not.   I dare say that you
> could stack up your own musical accomplishments against his in any
> number of ways and come out on top. Nor would you be the only list
> member who could.
>
> Steve Holzer
>
> Stephen Barbone wrote:
>
> >Put another way, Woody Allen has the largest audience of any OKOM clarinet player
> >today. Especially live and on TV. At VERY high prices to hear him. At least a $50
> >cover at the Carlyle Hotel in NYC, if not a $75 cover charge.
> >
> >Thus, Woody's clarinet art rules and the rest of us OKOM clarinetists are pretty much
> >insignificant, by audience comparison. ;-)