[Dixielandjazz] The Musical Journey

[Steve barbone]

All Music seems to have similar evolution problems. Below article snipped
for brevity but shows the parallels between Classical & Jazz. Perhaps we
need a jazz version of Mr. Golijov? Those who will please the audience?

Cheers,
Steve

Standing the Whole World on Its Ear
NEW YORK TIMEDS by JEREMY EICHLER - January 22, 2006

Atlanta ‹ Late one night a few weeks ago, Jesús Montoya, a Seville-born
flamenco singer dressed in a velour track suit, stood resolutely on the
stage of a darkened concert hall and, without warning, unleashed a riot of
sound. His voice was raw and exhilarating as he swooped up and down
Eastern-inflected scales, spinning endless improvisations. The words he sang
spoke of 1930's Spain, but the sound felt like a primal wail from a more
distant past, an ancient coloratura of longing. . .

Mr. Golijov . . . is one of the few composers today whose works are
profoundly shifting the geography of the classical music world, dumping the
old Eurocentric map with its familiar capitals and trading routes in the
dustbin of history. In Mr. Golijov's universe, the pristine temple of art
music has opened branch offices in places like Argentina, Brazil, Jerusalem
and an imagined Eastern Europe. And they have been built with porous walls.

For Mr. Golijov, slipping sizzling flamenco improvisation into the middle of
an opera is as natural as slipping a tenor aria in might have been for
Verdi. Of course, classical composers have often turned to folk and popular
styles for inspiration, but that has usually meant scrubbing the music clean
of its grit. Mr. Golijov, 45, brings it directly into his compositions
without transcription, without translation, without sapping its vitality
through modernist abstraction. And flamenco is only the beginning. Klezmer,
tango, fado, Sephardic song: Mr. Golijov speaks of sliding among genres the
way other composers modulate to different keys, yet his works move
brilliantly beyond collage to grab the ears with palpable force. They may
also reflect the coming of age of a broader global sensibility within the
secluded world of classical composition, and they suggest that the freshest
voices may be hailing from the most distant shores.

And audiences are responding, less to this mash-up of genres in itself than
to the profound honesty and sheer conviction at the music's core. Mr.
Golijov's works jump off the stage with exuberant rhythm and passionate
song; they swing seamlessly from the earthy to the sublime and tap rich
veins of aching lyricism. Over the course of a few short years, and while
still strikingly young, he has emerged as a major energizing force in a
classical world desperately in need of a new vision.