Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site clyde.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!eagle!mhuxi!houxm!ihnp4!clyde!tgd From: tgd@clyde.UUCP Newsgroups: net.music Subject: Re: Time to talk about Jazz, again... Message-ID: <213@clyde.UUCP> Date: Fri, 14-Oct-83 11:18:36 EDT Article-I.D.: clyde.213 Posted: Fri Oct 14 11:18:36 1983 Date-Received: Sun, 16-Oct-83 06:06:41 EDT Organization: Bell Labs Whippany NJ Lines: 54 Careful readers will shirley recognize that I am typing this while being physically restrained by the offensive line of the New York Giants. My Blit hates to be flung against the wall after I read ridiculous ravings about a dearly loved art. Tom Buckley, whoever you are or from whatever AI project your intolerant, arrogant, hateful words spew, DON YOUR ASBESTOS. I'm coming out scorching. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > So, Is Miles Davis a jazz musician? He certainly is > interesting. Here's a man who's technical ability on the > trumpet is nil, his tone is terrible, his musicianship is > questionable to say the least, his ability to improvise on a > melody is poor, and his contempt for his audiences and > followers is astounding. And yet, he remains as a cult > figure with many jazz musicians who can't tell hype from > good music... > Even when the music is absolute trash, it's > defined as a "new direction in music," and everyone rushes > to hear what it is. The public can be conned so easily. In > short, not only is Miles not a jazz musician, he's not a > musician PERIOD. > > There's a > great deal of good music out there, but let's be sure we > call a spade a spade; let's keep the jazz name for just jazz > and call the other stuff something else. And let's also > differentiate between good music and the crap that Miles and > Ornette throw on us! (Oh, everyone's the critic!) There are two kinds of people in the world - those who think there are two kinds of people in the world, and those who don't. I fall into the latter (occasionally tripping, sometimes sliding). I also don't think art can be partitioned into half-planes (the ISes and ISN'Ts). Tell me how it is what it is, or even why it is what it is, but don't tell me what it means and keep your narrow-minded invectives to yourself. Dick Butkus: "Tomorrow night we're going to the ballet". Bubba Smith: "Yeah. I sure hope they do it in English". I'm with Bubba. I study and listen to contemporary music in the hope that sometime they'll start doing it in English. It's a process of mind expansion (oh wow). You wouldn't be reading these high-falutin' words if at the age of 7 or 8, I said "I know all the language I need - anything else simple doesn't conform. They're not good words - in fact, they're not words at all. Period". Maybe we'd all be better off in that case, but that's another subject. Let's expand our musical vocabularies. It's satisfying. It's fun. We'll start to understand. It'll be in English. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Tom Dennehy AT&T BL Whippany, NJ {whuxh|clyde}!tgd