[Dixielandjazz] "Let's keep Jazz as folk music."

[Steve barbone]

Here is a short snip from a long article in today's NY Times. Ben Ratliff
and Pat Metheny are discussing an album featuring a young Sonny Rollins and
his mentor Coleman Hawkins. One of Metheny's 10 favorite albums in jazz.
Bley is the pianist on the album.

---- begin snip

RATLIFF: There is a plain spokenness, a kind of folkish natural feeling, to
Bley's lines and his harmony, I added. Is the idea of "inevitability"
related to that?

METHENY: "Well, for me," he answered, "let's keep jazz as folk music. Let's
not make jazz classical music. Let's keep it as street music, as people's
everyday-life music. Let's see jazz musicians continue to use the materials,
the tools, the spirit of the actual time that they're living in, as what
they build their lives as musicians around. It's a cliché, but it's such a
valuable one: something that is the most personal becomes the most
universal."

---- end snip

YEAH MAN. If anyone wants a copy of the entire article, VERY LONG AND NOT
OKOM, write me off list.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone