[Dixielandjazz] Srtudents in Jazz Schools - Was Jazz is Alive & Well - In The Classroom Anyway

[tcashwigg at aol.com]

Mike hit it right on the head, but then again we have hashed this issue 
to death on here before and gotten the IAJE guys all pushed out of 
shape more than once, by making statements that those who can do and 
those who can't teach others how to do what they can't or have never 
done.   Does that mean that ALL Music teachers are bad or idiots ?  
certainly not, but far too many of them have taken the easy road out by 
becoming teachers rather than striking out and actually trying to make 
a living as a Professional Gigging musician.

Why because nobody ever taught them how to go find gigs or create them 
in the marketplace, therefore they went back and retreated into the 
Music education business and started creating situations within it to 
get themselves playing opportunities, like workshops and jazz camps 
etc. private lessons. and such.  Guest lecturing etc. Did any of that 
make most of them Professional Jazz Musicians  NO not at all it made 
them victims of their own creations.

They in turn did not turn out very many Jazz musicians at all,  IMO  
what they did turn out is a whole generation of three of Musical 
Engineers.   who couldn't swing from a ROPE.   Like Larry pointed out 
many of them are actually classical players trying to play Jazz to 
supplement their off days with income form the symphony gigs.

It's now kind of like the inmates are in charge of the Asylum in many 
cases.   But in all fairness folks, the same thing exists in the 
classical world, except they turn out even more Musical engineers that 
the IAJE does.

Now that ought to stir up the pot again. :))

TOM "KEEP IT SIMPLE" WIGGINS  You really don't need to play all those 
notes at the same time all the time, back off and let the melody flow 
and the music breath, and you will find an audience and gigs again that 
are fun to play for people who actually do enjoy your music and not 
your engineering skills which are usually quite boring.






Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Srtudents in Jazz Schools - Was Jazz is Alive 
& Well - In The Classroom Anyway

   Mike <mike at railroadstjazzwest.com>

> Speaking as a student in a "jazz school" I have seen a lot of
> professors that do not know how to play jazz much less teach it.
> The Jamey Abersold's are very helpful; most students on my
> campus are into buying transcriptions books and memorizing those
> solos. It would be better to transcribe themselves that way they
> have the solo plus the practice in ear training. On my campus I
> also think that students don't listen nearly enough to jazz. You
> can't know the language if you don't expose yourself to it. My
> personal goals are to listen daily and to transribe a minimum of
> one solo per week in addition to practice.

Amen to all you say Mike, except maybe the transcription part in the 
last
sentence. Perhaps better to develop and record your own solos on a 
familiar
tune from the Aebersold  collection of play alongs? If you don't "hear"
jazz, you will never be able to play jazz. And IMO (many will shoot me 
for
it) if you cannot improvise, you will never be able to play jazz, 
because
reading the dots is not playing jazz, nor is playing the same old, same 
old,
from memory.

But more to the point you make, as well as that made in the Times 
article:
There are lots of well trained ersatz jazz musicians being "taught" in
schools. To be sure, the are great musicians, but jazz? Maybe, maybe 
not.


Worse yet, it is pointless for us to build a huge training complex for
training jazz musicians and then pat ourselves on the back for having 
done a
good job. Why? Because, THERE ARE NO GIGS FOR THEM.

What therefor should all of us be doing to help guys like Mike?

FIRST:
We should be inviting him (them) to sit in with our bands. How many of 
us
invite the young Jonathan Russell's of the world to join us? How many 
of us
get kids like Jonathan PAYING GIGS? One thing for sure, not enough. If
today's young musicians do not get paid for playing jazz, but do get 
paid
for playing Rock, why should we expect them to continue to play jazz?

SECOND:
What are we doing to create an audience for jazz? How many of us play 
where
the kids are? How many Jazz Societies are hip enough to contact their 
local
schools and offer to hold a concert or two in the auditorium. Charging, 
say
$10 (use the word "DONATION" if local rules are archaic)  for 
unaccompanied
adults, (including their members) and FREE to adults with one or more 
kids

under 18?

How many Jazz Societies and/or Bands are actively courting a young 
audience?
How many bands offer to play in the elementary and secondary schools? 
How
many bands offer to put together a "jazz education" program, even if as
guest lecturers?

When I think back to my kid days as a jazz player, I played jazz as 
long as
I could make a living at it. In the 1950s I could make $5000 a year as a
jazz player. And by taking a few wedding gigs, etc., I could make $7500.
That's like $75,000 today. By the 1960s, virtually every jazz player was
taking non jazz gigs to make a buck. Shoot, you could get Bill Evans, or
Oscar Peterson to play piano at your wedding back then for $150 if they
weren't working a steady club gig. That went for Davern, Bird, Bean, 
Erwin,
Napoleon, anyone you can name who was a big name in jazz. They too had 
to
supplement their declining jazz income.

By the early 1960s, the market for MKOM was dying rapidly, so I gave it 
up,
neither wanting to be a commercial musician nor wanting to live in 
poverty
for art's sake as a jazz musician. Never regretted it, as well as never
regretting coming back to performing in the early 1990's after retiring 
from
my day gig.

Like the Times article said: "The market for the music is in a 
tailspin. So
why is jazz education thriving?"

Well, IMO. first because the educators want to make a living and second
because they hope that the kids will start a jazz scene when they get 
home
from College and there will be a grass roots growth of the jazz market.

Perhaps that's possible because jazz exists here and there in college 
towns
and the odd high school when there is no local jazz club scene. But IMO,
grass roots growth isn't going to happen unless folks like you, and me, 
and
the Jazz Societies, and the bands get out there and DO IT. Or, simply 
said,
start marketing to all the kids as well as teaching some how to play 
music.

Start thinking what is possible instead of bitching about the sorry 
state of
music today, or what some wrongly think is the sorry state of music
education, etc., etc., etc. Then start doing what is possible.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone


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