[Dixielandjazz] What constitutes a competent musician?

[Scott Anthony]

A lot of this discussion seems awfully silly to me. I think most of us can 
tell instinctively just by listening to a few notes whether someone is 
incompetent on their instrument, no matter what the style.

Telling people that there is a difference in ideas between Pee Wee Russell 
and Benny Goodman is really stating the obvious, is it not?

I think the same instinctive awareness of competence can be found in other 
arts. Consider painters: Both Thomas Kincaid (ugh) and Andrew Wyeth are 
realistic painters. Just guess which one I consider a competent artist and 
which one complete hack.

Scott Anthony


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve Barbone" <barbonestreet at earthlink.net>
To: "DJML" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Tuesday, December 19, 2006 1:15 PM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] What constitutes a competent musician?


> <jobriant at sunrisetelecom.com> wrote (polite snip)
>
>
>>However, the question here is whether someone plays their instrument at
>>a beginning level or an advanced level, with regard to tone,
>>articulation, technique, etc.  Is the player a competent musician on his
>>chosen instrument, or not?  Can he produce a tone that sounds like (in
>>this case) a clarinet is supposed to sound?  Can he articulate and
>>release notes so that they begin and end as they should?  Does he have
>>his scales and arpeggios "under his fingers" to the extent necessary to
>>play the licks he wants to play? And if he can, did he perform up to
>>this level for his paying customers?
>
>>All of this is far less a question of opinion than of fact.
>
>
> That brings up a whole new can of worms.
>
> How does one define "competent" in jazz? We probably all know many very
> competent instrumentalists who can't play a lick of jazz.
>
> What is a jazz clarinet supposed to sound like? Pee Wee Russell had very
> different ideas about that as compared to Benny Goodman. Tony Scott 
> differs
> from Buddy DeFranco, Ed Hall from Johnny Dodds, etc.
>
> Where should the notes in jazz begin and end? Willie Humphries or Barney
> Bigard were very different than Kenny Davern in that regard. Monk was very
> different from Oscar Peterson, etc.
>
> Are scales and arpeggios of primary concern over harmonic balance?
>
> Perhaps an important ingredient was overlooked? Did the music SWING?
>
> I agree about the paying customers. If a musician satisfies most of them, 
> he
> will prosper. By the same token, no musician will ever satisfy all of 
> them.
> The trick is figuring out which ones count, will pay to see you, and
> therefore enable you to play whatever you want in venues of your choosing.
> They are all important. like grease for an axle, that keeps the genre 
> alive
> and moving.
>
> Cheers,
> Steve Barbone
>
>
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