Pierre

I was talking about his lack of respect for people like Miles Davis (who's 'electric' jazz-rock output isn't to Wynton's liking) and his general disdain for any jazz-related music after 1965 that doesn't accord with his narrow criteria of what 'jazz' is supposed to be (irrespective of whether the actual music aspires to this aesthetic).

That's fine in a way, no one has to like every style, but Marsalis has a tendency to fundamentalize his opinions as if they were indisputable facts rather than aesthetic judgements. He doesn't simply express dislike for modernist music so much as he tries to make a very selective cultural case for seeing it as some kind of dereliction of duty in what he sees as the endless fight to preserve (in aspic no doubt)the essence of 'true' jazz from corrupting non-jazz influences. Ironically in attempting to see this issue in purely stylistic/technical terms his own music is often lacking in the exploratory spontaneity and openness to new approaches that characterises jazz at its best.

What is galling about this is the fact that his ubiquitous diatribes have allowed him to become an arbiter of taste for a great deal of the American jazz audience, recording industry, media and many aspiring musicians of the newer generation. This can only auger badly for the music's future as anything more than a museum piece stuck in a time warp.

Alan

Last edited by alan S.; 01/17/11 06:35 PM.