[Dixielandjazz] Is it tuning up? Far less jazz

[ROBERT R. CALDER]

It is I believe well documented that a remarkable number of jazz musicians were interested to go along and hear Ornette Coleman when he first appeared, saxophonists especially listened with considerable interest TO HIS WARMING UP. 

I mean, they actually were more interested in his warming up than in the performance which a lot of listeners were happy to pay to hear. 

I suspect there could be no analogous interest in the ensemble which has been received with displeasure lately on this list. I'm not myself interested enough to take time and listen, the last I heard of Robert Glasper was his first CD in 2005, which I reviewed. I said there was one very nice thing on it, and to sum up I said basically that there were a few other less nice things which the young man did too often to warrant BlueNote touting him as the next BlueNote pianist in a great succession. Like a number of things I reviewed around that time, it lacked a proper basis for musical development, I suppose it was a pursuit of novelty without awareness of possible real musical objectives. 

I blamed the record company.
Maybe Mr. Glasper has learned since then. I'm not impatient to find out. 
Had he himself listened to the earlier BlueNote pianists, or to anything more than the narrow range of current pop, reliant as that is on electronic cosmetisation? 

You don't interest people in jazz by adding a splash to a pot of overspiced stew. 

Ah, the endless succession of latest near-nothings!

cheers!
Robert