[Dixielandjazz] CORRECTION TO By George, Ned, half the friggin' secret is sloth!

will connelly willconnelly at BELLSOUTH.NET
Tue Jul 14 12:22:40 PDT 2009


Your scrivener shamefacedly admits that he pressed the “send” buton 
before engaging his brain in a thorough editorial scutinification of the 
subject post. The most grotesque of the errors which eluded the blue 
pencil was the then-incomplete sentence, now rendered below in 
[[BRACKETS]], that reveals a previously undisclosed Brit teaching method.
W.C.


  It is futile to argue with the peripatetic, omniscient and all-around
seer plenipotentiary, His Exalted and Fragrant Cerebral Phosphorescence,
who sat for a time at the Right Hand of the late K.O. Eckland to mentor
and nourish the minds, even as now, of unwashed multitudes.

As the Maestro would have  taught had he not been so busy illuminating
the root truth that we, by gum, invented jazz, a significant difference
exists between how youthers are instructed and how they learn music in
the US and in other lands.

Fewer than one in a hundred US brass students, for example,  begin to
achieve the near sinusoidal tonal purity, precision attack on each and
every note at any tempo, and mastery of embellishments that toungle many
a US tang but which are de regueur for British brass band artisans.
[[The Brits use waterboarding to bring their musicians to this level of
proficiency.]]

In America, on the other hand, the main function of music education is 
to provide the athletic department with a band at half time during 
varsity footballgames. It is small wonder that members of bands that 
must swing and sway,   and in which sousaphone players must pirouette 
upon stages of mud, grass and snow, might evoke a certain sloppiness in 
intonation and articulation  and carry these aptitudes into the saloon, 
there to productively employ the unusual chord progression learned by 
tripping in a gopher hole at the thirty yard line, the millisecond 
advance or retard of a note, and the  random semitone deviation as 
elements of jazz innovation.

The musical sloth that distinguishes jazz from lesser forms is also 
attributable to the fact that jazz players are intrinsicaly romantic 
figures who get laid a lot and accordingly have less tim for practice

Respectfully submitted ... and
Kindly,
Will Connelly

Don Ingle wrote:
> will connelly wrote:
>> It is futile to argue with the peripatetic, omniscient and all-around
>> seer plenipotentiary, His Exalted and Fragrant Cerebral Phosphorescence,
>> who sat for a time at the Right Hand of the late K.O. Eckland to mentor
>> and nourish the ninds, even as now, of unwashed multitudes.
>>
>> As the Maestro would have  taught had he not been so busy illuminating
>> the root truth that we, by gum, invented jazz, a significant difference
>> exists between how youthers are instructed and how they learn music in
>> the US and in other lands.
>>
>> Fewer than one in a hundred US brass students, for example,  begin to
>> achieve the near sinusoidal tonal purity, precision attack on each and
>> every note at any tempo, and mastery of embellishments that toungle many
>> a US tang but which are de regueur for British brass band artisans.
>> The Brits In America, on the other hand, the main function of music
>> education is to provide the athletic department with a band at half time
>> during varsity football games. It is small wonder that members of bands
>> that must swing and sway,   and in which sousaphone players must
>> pirouette upon stages of mud, grass and snow might evoke a certain
>> sloppiness in intonation and articulation  and carry these aptitudes
>> into the saloon, there to productively employ the unusual chord
>> progression learned by tripping in a gopher hole at the thirty yard
>> line, the millisecond advance or retard of a note, and the  random
>> semitone deviation as elements of jazz innovation.
>>
>> The musical sloth that distinguishes jazz from lesser forms is also 
>> attributable to the fact that jazz plaayers areintrinsicaly romantic 
>> figures who get laid a lot and sccordingly have less tim for practice
>>
>> Respectfully submitted ... and
>> Kindly,
>> Will Connelly
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> To unsubscribe or change your e-mail preferences for the Dixieland 
>> Jazz Mailing list, or to find the online archives, please visit:
>>
>> http://ml.islandnet.com/mailman/listinfo/dixielandjazz
>>
>>
>>
>> Dixielandjazz mailing list
>> Dixielandjazz at ml
> Thank you, thank you, thank you Herr Professor Connelly for your 
> insights and judiciously findings on the development of jazz.
> 
> To have read your words of wisdom, and being put into a a state of 
> innocuous desuetude by the metabolic massage of the menses was 
> invigorating at the least. Especially the part about getting laid a lot. 
> (Perhaps I missed the workshop /lab!).
> 
> But I am indeed thankful that your have thus expressed the retort to 
> some of the meadows muffins going on far too long on this thread. 
> Perchance, we could get back to jazz which we can share with a little 
> more scope in the myriad choices we have.
> 
> I subscribe to the theory that: If it sound good, listen. If it doesn't, 
> turn it off.
> 
> Yours for further explorations of the music we call jazz but seem unable 
> to fully describe in less than 20 posts.
> 
> I recall the words of wisdom of my mentor and first teacher, Ernest 
> Loring Nichols, who summed up the basic truth to guide a life by in 
> these succinct words: "The essence of good taste is simplicity."
> 
> As an old Scottish motto goes, "having done all - stand."
> 
>  From North Michigan where the temperature two nights ago in Cadillac 
> was 34 degrees F.
> 
> Don (The glaciers are NOT melting this week) Ingle
> 
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> To unsubscribe or change your e-mail preferences for the Dixieland Jazz 
> Mailing list, or to find the online archives, please visit:
> 
> http://ml.islandnet.com/mailman/listinfo/dixielandjazz
> 
> 
> 
> Dixielandjazz mailing list
> Dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
> 



More information about the Dixielandjazz mailing list