[Dixielandjazz] Hearing the Good Stuff

[Steve Barbone]

"Edgerton, Paul A" <paul.edgerton at eds.com>
 
> Steve Barbone wrote:
> 
> STEVE - Consider this. If G is in the jazz section, and sells 75 million
> albums since 1993 or so, and by your theory, those people think it's
> Jazz, then they must also think it is indeed, the "good" stuff since
> they keep buying it.
> 
> PAUL -My mistake.  75 million CDs sold is undeniable proof that Kenny G's
> music is the very finest jazz available.  And by the same reasoning,
> McDonald's hamburgers are the best food on the planet.

No, Pual, your mistake is that you do not connect the dots between what I
wrote and what you wrongly infer. Note that I did say it was "proof", only
that "these people (the audience) think it is indeed the good stuff since
they keep buying it." I did not judge, categorize it or offer it as proof.
> 
> STEVE Self Indulgence? Is that what we call pleasing the audience? Seems
> to me it is the other way around. Playing stuff that doesn't please the
> audience is self-indulgence. (or what I would call "musical
> masturbation")
> 
> Actually, that is the second point I was trying to make.  We humble (!)
> players of OKOM actually *do* aim to please our audience.

Glad we agree. 
 
> PAUL Compare a typical OKOM performance with a typical "modern jazz" concert.
> As an example, this weekend the Brubeck Institute at the University of
> the Pacific presented its annual "Jazz Colony" concerts -- both student
> and faculty ensembles.  We may assume that people attending those
> concerts come with some knowledge of what they are about to hear.  The
> tickets aren't cheap.  And yet, quite a few voted with their feet and
> left during the first set.  I think those performers were being
> self-indulgent and were certainly not "playing to the audience," what
> ever that means.

Well OK. Why did they leave, how many left, etc. What reason did they give?
Hard to draw a conclusion from what you describe without witnessing it and
finding out what happened.


> STEVE I don't think G or his clones are responsible for the lack of OKOM
> record sales. I think we haven't, except for a few bands, learned how to
> play OKOM that appeals to today's mass audience.
> 
> PAUL I've never heard anybody blame fuzak for weak OKOM sales. How may OKOM
> buyers also buy Kenny G CDs?  I'm sure there are some, but probably not
> many.

I agree that probably most OKOM buyers do not buy much G. But I am tickled
pink to find G records mixed in with Jazz. That means more folks are looking
in the jazz bins than would do so if he wasn't there. Maybe one will by
Louis Armstrong CD and get hip to OKOM.

Didn't you blame fusak? You posted the following.

>PAUL"And for the record, it's bad enough when people who don't call themselves
jazz musicians get tossed into the same section at Borders, but what
*really* bugs me is the incredible amount of self-indulgent anti-jazz (which
annihilates real jazz on contact) being foisted on the public by people who
should know better. It's no big mystery why so many people don't like jazz:
they hardly ever hear >the *good* stuff!"

Please forgive my reading your "the incredible amount of self-indulgent
anti-jazz (which annihilates real jazz on contact") portion of that in the
context of the rest of the paragraph above as YOUR blaming fuzak for weak
jazz (OKOM) sales. I inferred that you meant folks are listening to so much
anti-jazz G music that they don't ever hear the good stuff (OKOM I assumed))

> STEVE Then again, maybe most of us really don't want to and that's OK too
> :-) VBG
> 
> PAUL For sure, times have changed.  In the past, Louis Armstrong, Ella
> Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra and Count Basie all sold well.  These days
> it's Christina Aguilera, Ashlee (or Jessica) Simpson, LaToya or even
> (shudder) Paris Hilton.  I've got to admit I have no way to compete in
> that market!

Tell that to Tony Bennett. Or perhaps to the OKOM artists who are closer to
being on par with Ella, Louis or Basie than you and I are.
 
> I wish the better OKOM artists could reach a wider audience.  I think
> more people might appreciate OKOM if they are exposed to it.  But it is
> difficult getting our message up above the noise of the mass market
> without terribly distorting it.

I wish for the same thing, and actively try and do something about it. Don't
know what you mean by "message" and "without distorting it". Perhaps you
would enlighten me off list rather than bore the good folks on the list?

Cheers,
Steve