Wynton Marsalis on Rap etc (edited)

[rosethecopycat]

Please, let me preface this with: I've been around the jazz lifestyle for my entire life. I have a degree in Jazz Studies. My husband is a professional jazz pianist.

I am aware that there are close to 27 jazz fans, nationwide.

It's not popular because it is hard to listen to and understand. It's the equivalent of picking up a Russian novel, like Anna Karenina. And understanding it.

For the average listener/reader, it's too much. It will wear you out.

Jazz is a learning process, still there is jazz out there that I cannot even wrap my head around.

Wynton has been on the scene for 30 some years now and is generally thought of as kind of a jazz elitist. He is not nearly the most highly regarded of jazz giants. Please don't think that I am talking about the 'jazz' that Kenny G plays. That's not jazz. I'm talking about giants like Coltrane, Bird, Monk, Mingus, Cannonball, Clifford Brown, and many more.

I don't appreciate, or like Rap either, but where I disagree with Wynton is, I don't think it is a passing fancy. It's just that the listening audience is getting more ignorant, and not demanding content in music any longer.
Soon, it won't meet the definition of music: organized sound. What we are experiencing is the 'dumbing down' of the listening audience.

Death to the drum machine!

[Freedom]

Death to the drum machine!

LOL, as someone who spent years learning how to play the organ - 2 full keyboards (61 keys each), 26 pedal board, and a shorter third keyboard - I feel the same way about electronic keyboards!

Jazz is an acquired taste. It takes time to learn what you are listening to, and to appreciate it.

[Catty1]

rose, there is a link there to the whole interview...he does refer to drum machines and there are a few more details there.

If you want to read the whole article (too long for here), that will give a more complete picture of what Wynton is saying.

You'll also see that he had to have some surgery on his mouth several years back...and he is a lot more understanding of students that have a hard time. I think he might have mellowed on the 'elitist' thing.

You and he agree on something....that today's audience is not educated as it was in the past....hence the "27 jazz fans, nationwide."

[DJFyrewolf36]

I happen to like Jazz music even though Im not all that musically trained(I really aprriciate ALL music actually). I do have to say one thing though. I agree that rap is a sign of the decline in the overall intelegence level of the average person but not all digital music is that low brow. True electronic music fans (not idiotic party heads) apriciate subtleties in music, as a lot of what moves people on an emotional level is that fine detail. A good track will move you and inspire you and will be more than just repetive noises with a lot of bass behind it. True fans of electronic music DEMAND depth, otherwise it is just a whole wad of boom boom boom *cymbal* (repeat)

A drum machine is a tool to make music, and you can sound really stupid at it or really good at it just like any instrument.

Sorry to hijack but I had to add my 2 cents as not only a person who enjoys music on a spiritual level but as someone who is very in to music production. I may not be able to sing on key or play an instrument but Im fairly good at producing tracks and I can set up just about any sound system

[rosethecopycat]

Im fairly good at producing tracks and I can set up just about any sound system

I can't do any of that!

I did read the entire article Catty, thanks.

I'll tell you how 'inside' the jazz language is:
The writers on The Simpsons are jazz insiders. I can tell by their subtle references.

[Catty1]

AH! A secret code from the jazz world...has Homeland Security investigated this angle? (Now that the sax-playing president is out of office... )

[DJFyrewolf36]

I can't do any of that!

I did read the entire article Catty, thanks.

I'll tell you how 'inside' the jazz language is:
The writers on The Simpsons are jazz insiders. I can tell by their subtle references.

My mom said the same about the Simpsons, its part of why she enjoys the show so much lol

[RICHARD]

Drum Machines have no soul.