[Dixielandjazz] Big Business & Art

[Larry Walton Entertainment - St. Louis]

Funny thing about innovators, whether they be in the arts or the business
world. They are for the most part, members of that younger generation we so
love to disparage. Sour grapes indeed.
_______________________________________

Truth is that they are free of a lot of things that we (older performers) 
are not such as many of them don't need to make a living.  Young people live 
at home longer and often go to college while still living at home.  That 
pesky need to make a living isn't a real issue with them.  Equipment isn't a 
problem either because many parents are affluent and a lot of young people 
could put a recording studio to shame.   Now put them into a college where 
there are other talented kids who also don't have to make a living and have 
time on their hands.  It's not all study.  Now you add the energy that young 
people have to the desire to do their own thing and what you end up with is 
innovation.

The other side of the coin is the poor kid who gets one bite of the apple. 
He works hard and gathers around him other's, like him, whose outlook is 
also bleak.  Sometimes that formula works too and has been working since 
before Motown set up.  I think you find the most dynamic of the innovators 
here.  I think you could lump the Beatles and Elvis Presley along with 
countless others into this group.  Innovation isn't always Jazz as most of 
us would define it.
Larry
StL


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve Barbone" <barbonestreet at earthlink.net>
To: "Larry Walton" <larrys.bands at charter.net>
Cc: "Dixieland Jazz Mailing List" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Friday, October 26, 2007 8:19 PM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Big Business & Art


> Rob Wright  rwright at siatucson.com wrote (polite snips and excerpts)
>
>>I think this is an interesting question about art in general.  Having a
>>liberal arts education along with many years as a professional musician 
>>and
>>being a successful business man after all that. . . In summary, most 
>>artists
>>are just not very good.  Yet so many poor artists have the arrogance to 
>>believe
>>that they are the ones who see the truth and that the people who won't pay 
>>them
>>are ignorant. I think it is usually the other way around!
>
>>Second, most successful artists I have met , ie those who are able to make 
>>a
>>living at it, are resourcefull, imaginitive, and innovative business 
>>people
>>themselves.  I cannot for the life of me understand the attitude that
>>artists who make it commercially have somehow sold out.  That's nothing 
>>more
>>than sour grapes in my opinion. . . snipped for brevity.
>
> Well said IMO Rob. A myth put to rest perhaps. Not too different from the
> myth of the greedy, grasping corporate heads who ruin art, kill the music
> business and or the business world in general because they don't innovate,
> don't take chances, don't move their product or art into the future, etc.
>
> Myths that persists even though we share these views on PC's, 
> blackberries,
> or Ipods invented and marketed by YOUNG innovators who took a chance, and
> saw the future. Who among us gray bearded keepers of the status quo would
> have bought their stock when they first started out? Remember that first
> picture of the "hippies" who founded Microsoft? Or a young wise guy named
> Steve Jobs? Or a young New Orleans trumpet player named Wynton Marsalis?
>
> Funny thing about innovators, whether they be in the arts or the business
> world. They are for the most part, members of that younger generation we 
> so
> love to disparage. Sour grapes indeed.
>
> Cheers,
> Steve Barbone
>
>
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