[Dixielandjazz]Professional jazz musicians

PJ Ladd pj.ladd at btopenworld.com
Sun Jan 11 12:11:47 PST 2004


Hi,
There has been some discussion about professional and amateur musicians.
With some prompting from Glen Page, I would further muddy the waters by
bringing to your attention a famous series of cricket matches played
annually in England , where else, the Gentlemen versus the Players. This
match, played at the Oval, the Mecca of English cricket, was a fixture from
the 1800`s until after WW2.
The Players were the paid professionals who made their living from cricket,
the Gentlemen were to some extent dilletantes.
The Players, although the cream of the countries cricketers were still
expected to carry the kit around, clean mud from boots etc., The Gentlemen
expected the servants, and other lower classes to do that sort of thing.
A strange phenomenon that the people who were the best at their craft should
be slightly looked down on by the amateur as though there was something
rather reprehensible about playing sport for money.
I do not follow sport as I consider the `sportsmen` we see capering about on
TV ,giving high fives and cuddling each other a lot of overpaid poofters who
should be on the stage, so I would not consider myself in any way an
authority  on sport yet strangely I find myself on the side of the amateur

Do you still want to be a Player?

I am sure that this has been no help whatever and has not moved the
discussion on one iota. I can only say, Glen made me do it.

Cheers

Pat





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