[Dixielandjazz] Re: Elevator music - Jazz?

Fri Aug 11 08:21:04 PDT 2006

Bob you hit on two points that I found interesting.   Right now we are doing 
a strolling gig in a strip mall and people will come up and ask what is that 
thing I'm playing.  I guess this is OK because soprano saxes aren't that 
much in the public view.  Sorry Kenny G.  But the second thing about people 
not listening is so true.  Actually my mother had to have a radio going all 
the time and she didn't listen to it so we aren't talking about just young 
kids here.  Listening to anything is an acquired skill.

I have a problem with music in that I really listen to it.  I am drawn to it 
and I want it at a sufficient volume that I can hear everything going on or 
I don't want to listen at all. That includes distraction like conversation. 
I get irritated at music that I can't listen to or is stopped and started 
for some reason like some dim wit DJ yakking or over the telephone and your 
party picks up.  It's like an unresolved chord.

Sorry to say but it's the attention span of most people.  We are a nation 
with ADHD.  Political parties are made or broken on thirty second sound 
bites.  If it can't be explained in thirty seconds no one cares.  Beethoven, 
Mozart and OKOM demand actual listening.  You can't do it in thirty seconds.

Since this took longer than thirty seconds to read --- is there anyone out 
there?
Larry
St. Louis
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bob Loomis" <miltloomis at yahoo.com>
To: <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Friday, August 11, 2006 8:42 AM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Re: Elevator music - Jazz?

> Japanese essayist wrote:
>
>   "On the other hand, especially with the advent
> of music videos, the American ears are getting
> lazier and lazier. Not so long ago in Western
> history, most people knew how to play a musical
> instrument or two. Now the vast majority couldn't
> tell the difference between a saxophone and a
> trumpet. The American
> culture is so visually dominant that given a
> piece of music without anything visual associated
> with it, most people's eyes wander around
> nervously, just like the way a nervous speaker
> doesn't know what to do with his hands."
>
>   IMHO this is true in areas other than jazz. I
> had a friend over recently and explained that we
> would be listening to an installment of Prairie
> Home Companion, one I really wanted to listen to.
> He just couldn't keep still, kept talking
> through everything and I finally gave up and
> listened to the rebroadcast the next morning.
>   I've also noticed that younger folks have no
> concept of just listening to the radio, they have
> to have something more going on and they do not
> listen closely. I suspect this and the fact that
> very few people (as a percentage of population)
> carefully read newspapers anymore account
> partially for the current political trend in our
> nation. If anyone were listening closely and
> comparing what's said with what's reality, all
> the rascals would have been thrown out long ago
> ... then again, maybe not ...
>
> Bob Loomis
> Concord CA
>
>
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