[Dixielandjazz] Feeling Hip about OKOM was Kenny G

[Robert S. Ringwald]

Steve Barbone wrote:

(snip)
So lets not get carried away about how knowledgeable or cool we are. Truth
of the matter is we don't know a lot more . . . than we do know.
(snip)

Steve, I realize that in saying the above statement, you are not including 
me in on it.

Even so, let me say this, hopefully speaking for others on the list.  Kenny 
G can make all the recordings & all of the money he wants to.

I am very familiar with most types of music and I do not like Fuzak.  It is 
as plain and simple as that.  I don't care how much money he has made or how 
many recordings he has sold.  I do not like it...

--Bob Ringwald



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve Barbone" <barbonestreet at earthlink.net>
To: <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Sunday, August 13, 2006 1:23 PM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Feeling Hip about OKOM was Kenny G


> "Hal Vickery" <hvickery at svs.com> wrote:
>
>> From what you're saying here, I'd say that fans of Kenny G and other 
>> "smooth
>> jazz" players want the air of sophistication that goes with liking jazz 
>> (at
>> least anything post bebop)without any of the challenge of actually 
>> listening
>> to the musical ideas that you have to do if you're going to listen to 
>> "real
>> jazz."
>>
>> You have to admit, OKOM isn't considered very sophisticated anymore (if 
>> it
>> ever was).  That air of sophistication came when people stopped actually
>> dancing to the music.  You really did have to listen to the music then, 
>> and
>> a lot of people stopped buying jazz records.
>>
>> Still, jazz aficionados (at least if it's post 1945 jazz) are considered 
>> to
>> be musical sophisticates.  They belong to this really cool secret club.
>> It's cool to be "hip," but it's also intellectually challenging.
>>
>> So what better to do to make your audience feel hip and sophisticated but 
>> to
>> market the dreck you're selling as this really hip new kind of "smooth
>> jazz."  Then you can close your eyes and knowingly nod as musicians of
>> dubious improvisational talent play scales and noodle on their horns. 
>> And
>> if they hold a note for two minutes or play their scales really fast, you
>> can let out a whoop because you're so moved by it.
>>
>> I've had people who listen to this stuff tell me, "I love jazz, too."
>>
>> "Oh, who do you like."
>>
>> "Kenny G."
>>
>> And they really say it like I'm supposed to be impressed at their
>> sophistication.  That's what it's all about:  to feel hip without having 
>> to
>> actually think about the music.
>
> Interesting theory.
>
> Now I don't want to get into the bad graces of the audience, but it has 
> been
> my experience that even OKOM Festival audiences include MANY who are not
> really hip to the music. They talk quantity instead of quality. Like: "I
> hate All Star sets because they spend too much time between numbers" That 
> is
> being focused on the wrong issue. All star sets usually produce some
> unbelievably excellent jazz. That's where the focus should be. IMO of
> course. And they try and impress the musicians about how much they know,
> when they should think about how much they don't know. Damn, you should 
> have
> been in Condon's where WBD, Cutshall, Condon Russell, et al would play for
> 20 and talk for 20 minutes each 40 minute set. Yet the banter was exciting
> too and those 3 or 4 numbers they played were better than going elsewhere
> and hearing 40 minutes, 8 numbers, of unexciting jazz by a lesser band.
>
> I also think that fans and musicians (me included) both get carried away
> with themselves. We all think it's hip to like OKOM, sometimes to the
> exclusion of many other musical forms. And we look down on the others. If 
> we
> learn anything in this musical world, we might learn that Jazz and/or
> Instrumental Pop, and/or all the other forms of music exist in a big tent.
> There is room for all inside it.
>
> We pride ourselves on our ability to "hear" melody and melodic 
> improvisation
> (Linear) in OKOM while disparaging Charlie Parker because the bop he plays
> has chord improvisation (Vertical). Do we realize that view is wrong? That
> many OKOM improvs are vertical and that Parker's chorus on KoKo, the 
> seminal
> Bop tune, is a stunning example of Linear (Melodic) improvisation. Do most
> fans, or even most musicians for that matter, know the difference between
> melodic (linear) and chordal (vertical) improv? Hint: No, "Melodic Improv"
> is not "embellishing" on the melody.
>
> We heretofore blamed Kenny G for calling his work Jazz (wrong). And then 
> by
> measuring his talent against other jazz musicians which compounds the 
> first
> wrong.
>
> I think we are all guilty of taking ourselves and our opinions too
> seriously. This is jazz music. About which Louis A said: "Jazz is what I
> play for a living." And yet many of us bitch about those of us who bring
> money into the equation. Like that's not cool.
>
> Come on folks, give others a break. Jazz would have never made it out of 
> New
> Orleans except for the fact that a poor N.O. jazz musician found he could
> make $52 a week in Chicago or L.A. as opposed to about $8.50 a week in 
> N.O.
> Why else would musicians migrate? MONETARY OPPORTUNITY was the catalyst, 
> not
> the desire to play or make art for art's sake.
>
> Same for visual shtick. Damn, it was there from the very beginning. Why 
> now
> would any of us live in denial about its value now, and/or think it 
> uncool?
>
> So lets not get carried away about how knowledgeable or cool we are. Truth
> of the matter is we don't know a lot more . . . than we do know.
>
> Cheers,
> Steve Barbone
>
>
>
>
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