[Dixielandjazz] Jazz is Alive and Well - In the Classroom Anyway

[DWSI at aol.com]

RE: Steve's last post on Jazz in the classroom:
Reminds me that when I went to school 60 years ago, there were NO  JAZZ
CLASSES. ZERO-NADA. In fact, among the band classes, etc., jazz was  still
viewed as 'illegitimate noise" and jazz musicians were seen as the scum  of
the musical world.
 
It wasn't that long ago either, Steve. In the 40's, when I was taking piano  
lessons at the age of 12, there was a movie about a mother and son who lived 
in  Carnegie Hall, (yes, they actually had rental apartments there at one 
time), and  the moments of musical greatness they experienced; e.g., watching the 
premiere  performance of Tschaikovsky"s  5th symphony, conducted by the 
composer,  (although the historical dates may have been a bit off). The high point of 
 the film was when the son, no respecter or tradition, wanted to "jazz up" 
his  classical piano music. He shocked his mother by playing the Chopin Waltz in 
 C# minor, (a piece I was learning at the time), in a different, almost  
synchopated, rhythm. The notes were the same, only the rhythm was slightly  
different. I was intriqued that anyone could play Chopin with a 4-beat.  Much later, 
and more to Steve's point, I heard some notable at  Julliard being quoted to 
the effect that "they," (the Julliard teachers on  Mt. Olympus),.did not teach 
Jazz, because--as soon as you started to  teach it in the classroom, it 
became codified, rigid, and was no longer fluid  music of the moment, (or something 
like that). Well, they may have been right.  We have neutralized many of the 
old rules and, as a result, nothing shocks much  anymore. But in the process, 
Jazz has become less well defined, which suggests  that it may have been 
mainly defined by what it didn't do. Anyway, today, it  seems that many people 
think even Elvsi Presley played "Jazz.". But  then one might ask: Do we really 
need a hard definition of Jazz anyway?

Dan (backup piano)  Spink