Originally Posted By: Mac
If the performer is not bothering to create Musical or Lyrical jazz lines in their improvisational examples, I tend to lose interest quickly.

It is my opinion that jazz should not be a contest about who can play the most complex thing.

What Mac said. I play in a big band called "Big Band Therapy" - 17+ pieces and 3 girls on vocals - we have a great time, BUT we have 2 tenor sax players...:

One is very old school (reasonable, he's over 70) who plays some of the most beautiful, melodious solos I've ever heard. The other comes from a much more modern school. He plays very, very well. His skill is incredible but mostly his solos leave me a little cold - they seem to be more about technical ability than melody. That said, I've also heard him play stuff that almost brings me to tears, but that is the exception, mostly it's just technique.

Don't get me wrong, I like both their playing, but if I was paying to hear them and they both had a concert on at the same night, I'd go for the melodious guy every time.


Originally Posted By: Kemmrich
Jazz died in 1959

Dunno what he's smokin' but keep it away from me... What a depressing set of thoughts that was, I wish I didn't read it frown

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FWIW, I like jazz (Motown and Soul too), but not all jazz... I like Big Band Swing, I like Dixie, I like Boogie Woogie, I like some Bebop, but the closer to contemporary jazz we get the less I seem to like it...

Perhaps what jazz needs is new tunes in the old styles - new standards that can emerge that have a contemporary connection but with the musicality and chord structures that made the older styles so cool.

That said, when Big Band Therapy play, you would be surprised at how much the current generation of kids seem to connect. Admittedly we play some more recent stuff too, particularly rock tunes from the 60's and 70's, but you might be surprised how well numbers from the 20's, 30's and 40's go down.

Watching them get up and jig around (hardly seems right to call it dancing sometimes but ya get that) is such a buzz. I love to see people enjoying themselves because we're playing music!

Modern, atonal jazz is just noise to me. Even less appealing than Rap (sorry, Hip Hop) which just seems to be an expression of unbridled anger and even cruelty.

Perhaps the real blame lies with the record companies who have been teaching successive generations that a rhythm section is a real, full band or orchestra and that you only need 3 major triads and if you're really adventurous maybe a minor triad (forget those fancy 7th chords) and a pretty girl or 2 with nearly nothing on using pitch correction or a couple of metrosexual boys (with pitch correction) or some other visual gimmicks...

To counter that, I usually play 2 or 3 musicals a year and the kids that I get the privilege of playing in the pit with are simply amazing. Kids, often under 16, who choose to play Oboe or Bassoon or English Horn or French Horn or Flute or Violin, Viola, 'cello, Double Bass or Trumpet or Trombone or Tuba or Euphonium or Timpani or Saxophone or Clarinet or REAL Percussion (not simply a drum kit) - I could go on. It restores my faith smile

I guess at the end of the day it's about entertainment, but is it always music?

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