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From: orel@yale-com.UUCP (Matthew R. Orel)
Newsgroups: net.music
Subject: Re: Time to talk about Jazz, again...
Message-ID: <2176@yale-com.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 14-Oct-83 20:19:27 EDT
Article-I.D.: yale-com.2176
Posted: Fri Oct 14 20:19:27 1983
Date-Received: Sat, 15-Oct-83 04:22:07 EDT
References: drux3.829
Lines: 23


	If you took 1000 people off the street and played them a certain song,
and they all identified it is jazz, does that make it so?  I'm not so sure.
In country music, for example, names like Kenny Rogers are often appearing on
the top of the charts (his name, of course, appears on a lot of big charts),
but if someone tells me (or 1000 people tell me) that what Rogers plays is
country music, I am not likely to hold them in very high regard.
	I think that most people associate Jazz simply with syncopation and
improvisation.  If a dixie-land group or a polka band performs at the local
club, they are likely to call both Jazz.  It's the Paul Whiteman legacy, I
suppose (his 1926 classic entitled "Jazz" eloquently explains how he made
many millions of dollars raping what Jazz really was).  What most Jazz musicians
think is Jazz does not seem to be the same as what most laymen think is Jazz.
In anycase, I wouldn't trust 1000 people off the street, because what they
are likely to identify as Jazz will undoubtedly be a sanitized version of the
real thing.  I'd fuly expect the same 1000 people to tell me that Styx is
really rock and roll (apologies to anyone who actually likes them).
	As for Miles Davis, well, Tom Buckley is welcome to his opinions.  Any
critic is.  But I still think "Kind of Blue" is one of the finest records I
own (even if it is 24 years old) and "Bitches Brew" isn't so bad either.  In
any case, Miles does have a style of his own, and I, for one, think that what
he puts is Jazz (i.e., not trash).  Just because he hates his audiences doesn't
mean he has no talent...