[Dixielandjazz] Too many musicians, not enough gigs (copying)

[LARRY'S Signs and Large Format Printing]

>From Steve Barbone:
SNIP: Music Educators? IMO many, if not most, are simply trying to protect
their
turf and so they too reject any ideas that might imperil their power. For
example, too many of them get a young sax player in hand and insist that
he/she transcribe/play every Bird Solo published as a method of learning
jazz saxophone, improvisation, or jazz in general. Utterly stupid.

Wow how true.  I don't think that there is anything wrong with some copying
but only to learn the style.  Any teacher that would encourage a student to
think that he was playing jazz by doing "jazz lick" cut and paste is just
wrong.  We all emulate and copy to a certain extent - even Mozart did it.
Graphic artists, painters start by copying what the teacher does.  Art
teachers or at least the ones I know encourage a student to do his own thing
after he has learned the basics of form and materials.  It should be so in
music too.
--------------------------------------------------------
SNIP:Someone asked why there are no stylists today. Simple answer is that
the
kids have been TAUGHT to copy and, please excuse my language, that is simply
Bullshit from the teaching musicians. If you teach copying, you get
semi-clones once removed from the original and the music is degraded.
-------------------------
Its my question and your answer is so true.  Some guys seem to be cutting
and pasting licks.  As I said before this isn't entirely bad IMO to emulate
but should be only a beginning step to true jazz.

When I was in college the booker and some of his bands wanted the rock solos
of the day (late 50's early 60's) played as played on the recordings.  I
chose to not copy the solos exactly but quote from them enough that It had
the sound of the solo and still have a rock jazz flavor.

Learning the solos was fairly easy but when I got on my own and could do
what I wanted I chose to create my own lines.  I think this was all
beneficial because I learned the styles.  This has been good because the
older musicians  couldn't play in those styles (as well as younger ones).  I
work today because I can rip into blues, C&W and rock styles while others
turn their noses up at it or sound phony when they try it.  I think it
helped me to be a more versatile musician.

I think the difference was that I would go out and perform the tunes almost
immediately and didn't learn them in the vacuum of a teacher/student
relationship.  I never had any illusions that this was jazz but commercial
music with the aim of making money.  Today I have a lot more freedom.

All of us play jazz on different levels and planes and have different styles
and I can't really put down someone who is at a different level but I don't
care for solos that are extremely canned or sound copied.  I'm also kind of
tired of the cutesy quotes that seem to crop up regularly.
Larry - St. Louis
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