[Dixielandjazz] Re: Dixielandjazz Digest, Vol 33, Issue 48

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> Gee,  Larry, I might have to disagree with that statement.  I think
> teenagers
> have very eclectic tastes in music.  They like all  kinds of crap,  spewed
> out by all kinds of no  talents.........
> Mike  Vax

> The other difference is that today's teenagers will NOT grow up and listen
> to OKOM.  Even many of the kids in the jazz bands in high schools, don't
> listen to ANY kind of jazz.  I know we have talked about this before, so I
won't
> go into the whole thing that I see in schools today, all over our
country.
> Mike Vax

Thought I'd chime in on this. There's probably a very small percentage of
them who because of their individual circumstances, may be exposed to, enjoy
and even learn to play in older styles, but I'd say many of them have never
even heard it outside of small snippets that might pop up on TV, at Disney
World or wherever.

My take is that kids in general have no awareness of anything that happened
outside the 5 minutes (relatively speaking) that they've been aware of
anything and the pop culture has changed so much, there's very little
exposure to much outside of a  narrow sampling of whatever's on MTV etc. or
radio, unless they're fortunate to have parents who make a point of seeking
out such opportunities. And, kids being kids, with few exceptions, they
have -0- interest in anything outside of this window of awareness. They
typically reject out of hand anything that isn't within the perceived "cool"
zone within their peer group. So, given that there's almost -0- exposure to
anything else, and unless they're cut out of a very different piece of cloth
and/or raised by parents who are themselves very interested in a wide
variety of musical genres, the odds are mighty slim that they're going to
have such an interest.

Leonard Bernstein used to have his excellent young people's concerts. If you
polled 1000 current typical high school kids at random, how many do you
figure have even heard of LB? I sometimes do substitute teaching in the
public schools. I've seen exactly one teacher, a band director, who lined up
one of the old Bernstein programs for his students as a "substitute day"
activity. I was riveted, not many of the kids were. "Eww, it's black and
white, the sound's all funny, who is that guy?"  What's ironic is that my
perception of Bernstein is that he was quite "hip", with a thorough
understanding of both jazz and rock.

When's the last time you even heard an instrumental of any sort on top-40
radio? I imagine it was Kenny G. in the late 80's and before him Chuck
Mangione in the mid-70's. Maybe Chicago had one or two after the zenith of
their heyday.  Horn based bands like Chicago, Tower of Power, BS&T  and
briefly Chase, used to rule the airwaves. Now it's largely T&A divas, pretty
boy/girl bands and (egads) Rap. People like Harry Connick, Jr. and more
recently, Michael Buble' have niche markets with older listeners.

However, there does always seem to be a supply of young jazzers. Has anyone
heard of a university having to shut down its jazz program due to a lack of
interested students?