[Dixielandjazz] Kenny G

[alevy at alevy.com]

Sorry for the long quote but what I write might
be misunderstood with out it.
I originally wrote:
=============================
a) Entertainers aim to please the public.
b) Artists aim to please themselves.
==============================
Pat Ladd responded:
So to be an `artiste` you have to starve in a garret.
What rubbish!  You have just consigned to the `non artiste`
bracket all the great jazzers who have made a living from
playing the very music for which we remember and revere them.
Are you arguing that you must be talentless, and a `mere entertainer` to 
make money?
===============================
No. I made no mention of earnings nor did I use the word "mere".
In fact I was quoting Billy Taylor. At the time he said
those words to me he was donating $20,000.00 a year (matched
by the feds) to Jazzmobile. Billy had a great house in
Riverdale and playing about five recording dates a week
as a side man.
I do not know his earnings at the time but he owned a
advertising agency, had a daily radio program on
WNEW in NYC. In addition Billy was station manager for
a radio station in Westchester County and writing music
for Walter Hansen's publishing company.
So all in all I would say that Doctor Taylor was doing well.
I never thought of him as an entertainer.
====================================
In addition - entertainer and artist are not mutually
exclusive. For example, I believe Sinatra was both.
Even Duke Ellington did shtick. It had to do with
"how to snap your fingers".

New subject:
As for taste - it is very personal. If I like eating
hot sausage with sour cream or fresh oysters
with jelly, you can't tell me it's bad taste, only
that you don't like it.
My musical taste runs from Gregorian Chant to
John Cage. Kenny G just doesn't grab me!
I own and love some 78 rpm recordings by Guy
Lombardo and also some by Boyd Raeburn.
(I wonder how many on the list have heard the
Raeburn Big Band)
As a kid I started out learning to play the trumpet.
(How I played is no reflection on my teachers)
My first idols were Bunny Berigan, Harry James and
Rafael Mendez. In my teens I heard and learned to love
Dizzy Gillespie and Chet Baker + many, many, many others.
==============================
A lesson in taste.
As a teenager I was very much a Be Bopper. 
I was totally intolerant of other kinds of music...  
with the exception of George Gershwin. 

In 1950 I was hired by Sy Oliver. I was 18 years old.
The Andrews Sisters were certainly not my taste. I
thought they (their music) was cute, commercial, and
not my taste.

Sy had a recording session with the Andrews Sisters
at Decca. I was at all of Sy's recording sessions. 
I handed out the parts to the band and the three ladies.
On the vocal part Sy wrote:"sing in unison" and/or "harmonize."
This was sight reading. a) In tune, b) In time, c) absolutely right on
each take.
Perhaps I grew up an inch. I may not have appreciated the
taste nor style of the vocal group but I sure respected their
musicianship from that point on.
'nuff said.
Cheers,
Al
Pianist, Composer, Arranger, Conductor, Teacher and Music Prep.
Please visit me at
http://alevy.com