[Dixielandjazz] Jazz Tunes

[Stephen G Barbone]

> Joe Carbery <joe.carbery at gmail.com> wrote (polite snip)
>
>
> With regard to Steve Barbone saying certain tunes are jazz tunes by
> definition: A tune is not jazz until it's played. On the paper it's  
> not a
> jazz tune. "It ain't what you do.........." Or, as Bill Evans said,  
> "Jazz is
> a how, not a what."
> Re "Jazz Instruments" the same criterion applies. Any instrument can  
> be used
> to play jazz if the instrumentalist is skilled enough.

Not so Joe. Having been up in New York City about 20 times in the last  
3 years, I listened to the innovators in jazz there. Young masters of  
their horns who write new jazz tunes as well as play them. It is a  
given that they are avant garde, however it is called "jazz" by them,  
the jazz critics in New York, and by their audiences.

The tunes they write and play are totally written out, including the  
solos. There is no room for deviation. If musicians play them as  
written, no matter who those musicians are, it is therefore jazz.

For those who do not, or cannot play them as written (me, for example)  
they would be trash rather than jazz even though I might play what I  
could of them in a jazzy manner. <grin>

Point being, we are talking past each other. We have, on one hand,   
the old schoolers talking about mostly dead musicians/composers and  
older forms of jazz. And on the other, we have those from the school  
of what's happening NOW in jazz. Unless we've heard the music and  
understood both sides of the issue, we cannot possibly say "on paper  
it is not jazz". Bill Evans opinion included.

This brings us back to definitions of jazz. We can argue all we want  
about whether certain songs are jazz of not and still not reach a  
universal conclusion. For there are those among us who live in denial  
about certain forms of modern jazz (bop, avant garde, fusion etc) or  
live in denial about certain players (Coltrane, Ornette Coleman  
etc.,). Those forms or players are to them "Not Jazz". And to them,  
the totally written out music being played by the young maestros would  
not be jazz either.

And then to further confuse the issue,  there is Duke Ellington who  
said: "Rock & Roll is the newest and most exciting form of Jazz",  
circa 1960s.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband