[Dixielandjazz] Re: Elevator music - Jazz?

Fri Aug 11 11:27:03 PDT 2006

It's easy Rae Ann - They don't know anything of the world and what's more 
don't care.  I think that everyone is affected by it.  Just take the TV 
clicker for example.  When a commercial comes on I reach for the clicker. 
Before the cards and letters start coming in - we all do it.  Surfing has 
become a national pastime.  Everyone criticizes the teachers and schools but 
you force millions of kids to actually listen to someone without a clicker. 
I'm surprised that anyone is learning to read or ever does anything.  It's a 
case of national clicker withdrawal.

Having said that I came from a Scottish Rite Youth Wind Ensemble reading 
session last night and there was about 35 very intense kids playing music 
who hang on every word of the conductor.  This is why music teachers have 
known for years that their students do better in school.  They develop 
listening skills.
Larry Walton
St. Louis
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <rahberry at comcast.net>
To: "Larry Walton Entertainment - St. Louis" <larrys.bands at charter.net>; 
"Bob Loomis" <miltloomis at yahoo.com>; <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Friday, August 11, 2006 10:36 AM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Re: Elevator music - Jazz?

> I'm out here, Larry, and I hear you.  I agree with every point you made.
> I read two newspapers every morning and miss having an afternoon paper.  I 
> always listen to NPR in the car.  I really listen when I go hear jazz, 
> which is usually several times a week.
> A few years ago I watched the movie "Aladdin" with a friend's small 
> children and was appalled by the speed of the action.  Just when one was 
> trying to focus on the details of the artists' ideas the scene would 
> change.  I wondered at the time what all that speed was doing to 
> childrens' ability to focus and attend.
>
> I'm a news junkie and I get frustrated by the speed and lack of depth of 
> cable news.  I don't understand how people who don't read newspapers and 
> books know anything at all about the world.
>
> Thanks for the opportunity to get this off my chest...
>
> -- Rae Ann
>
>
> -------------- Original message ----------------------
> From: "Larry Walton Entertainment - St. Louis" <larrys.bands at charter.net>
>> 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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