[Dixielandjazz] A Simple Way To Define Our Kind Of Music

[Mr McClernan]

The following quote keeps ringing in my ears:

"Critics can't even make music by rubbing their back legs together."

	~ Mel Brooks


On Oct 29, 2018, at 4:27 PM, Marek Boym wrote:

Must one really give reasons for liking this or that?  I don't think so.  It speaks to me, and this does not.  With all the explanations, Coltrane still sounds to me like musical torture, exposure to which for too long (over 20 seconds) would lead me to confessing the assassination of Kennedy and even Lincoln just to stop the din!
I, too, studied English literature, but the more modern "poetry" I read, the more I hated it.  Johnny Frigo's poem on critics best expresses my thoughts on the subject.  Many years ago I read that "a literary critic is a person who reads into literary work meanings which would have never come to mind of an averagely intelligent writer" (quoted from memory and translated from Polish).   
The literary criticism assignments we had seemed to me like a post mortem; the poems could never come back to life after the dissection.
I like what I like and I do not apologize for it.
Cheers  

On Mon, 29 Oct 2018 at 18:27, Charles Suhor <csuhor at zebra.net> wrote:
Agree with Stan. It's a matter of personal taste, but also of expansion of taste, which works for some in some directions and not for others. A parallel on my experience is in literature. When I first read T.S. Eliot/'s "Waste Land" in college, I thought it was sort of insane. After reading more modern poetry, I "got" that it's is a different aesthetic. I treasured Eliot'c collected works and became an English teacher with an abiding love for most literature. But not all. I still find most of Milton booorring, though I know he was a genius. In jazz, I'm fondest of traditional jazz and bebop, but can't stay with most free form jazz. In classical music, Bach is very much like God, and I levitate when I hear much of Bartok and Stravinsky. Opera pretty much eludes me. I can give "reasons" why my faves are my faves but we're each bribed in a sense by our own history. Let that be an appreciation of the great variety of life and fodder for discussion. Hey, I think that's what we're doing, for the most part.

Charlie

> On Oct 29, 2018, at 2:15 AM, Stan Brager <stanbrager at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> From what you've expressed, I understand that you find musical pleasure in a personal feeling for some forms of music. There is nothing wrong with that.
> 
> On the other hand, there are others who appreciate the flow of more forms of music as well. My personal experience has been to appreciate these other forms of music as well. It's taken time and critical listening to get to that point. To be honest, there are some works of music which I do not like.
> 
> When many of the modern composers have presented their music, they were panned. Yet, after listening to a piece for a time, a person can learn to appreciate it.
> 
> What, after all, is music or art?
> 
> Stan
> Stan Brager
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Steve Voce [mailto:stevevoce at virginmedia.com] 
> Sent: Sunday, October 28, 2018 9:49 AM
> To: dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
> Cc: Dixieland Jazz Mailing List <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
> Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] A Simple Way To Define Our Kind Of Music
> 
> It seems like a very laboured way of saying "hot".
> Steve Voce
> 
> On 28/10/2018 15:22, Dan Spink wrote:
>       I have never authored an original email to this list. I hope your readers find this interesting. All of the years I've played piano in different bands I've noticed that the music I truly love can be easily categorized harmonically and rhythmically--but I've never seen anyone comment on this idea. Maybe the list mates have some opinions: 
> 
>       The music I love I call "emotional" music which I contrast with "intellectual" music. The first is harmonically centered on triads and sevenths with a clearly "felt" two-beat or four beat. This includes Dixieland, folk, church hymns, Rock, and even Classical. The opposite I see as dissonance focus and a steady but not easily felt four beat. I was playing in the Fifties when I sensed the split in "Jazz". I do not wish to offend anyone, but I do not like Bebop or what could be called "Modern Jazz" with so many complex, dissonant chords I can't tell them apart sometimes. 
> 
>       My bias may not be appreciated but I respect musical skill in any genre.
> 
>       Any comments from anyone?
>       Dan Spink
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