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Old 03-27-2010, 08:27 PM
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Default Re: Pat Metheny on Kenny G and other Jazz greats

Originally Posted by DrumEatDrum View Post
One one hand, I completely agree.
It makes me near ill when I read autobiographies of musicians from past eras who just took up drums, and found paying work, because everywhere had live bands. While today, a drummer is about as relevant as a 5th wheel on a car in so many situations. So many bands would just assume use a drum machine, so many clubs would just assume have DJ, and so many people think the DJ is a musician because he/she mixed together some pre-recorded files together. It's rather sick for someone who prefers real music. I often think it would have been better to have been born in a different era to have been a part of better musical experiences.

But in grand scheme of history, these eras were talking about are not that long ago, nor very long. The United States has been around sine 1776, but the drum set only since approx 1890. England has been a formal country for over 1000 years, but traditional jazz is only about 100 years old (give or take).

In the grand scheme of music history, from the 1st Gregorian chants, and when tribesmen first realized they could make music by banding on hollow logs, these "traditions" we are discussing are only blips in musical history. People existed for thousands of years before they ever head a jazz standard, people existed for thousands of years before they ever heard Beethovan.

In the art world, "Modern Art" is usually anything from around 1900 to now, while the traditional stuff is hundred upon hundreds of years old. In literature, modern literature is usually considered anything written in the last 100 years, while traditional literature is Shakespeare from 1589 and 1613, or at least Mark Twain, who wrote his best known books well before anyone played the 1st notes of what we call jazz.

So, compared to nearly every other artistic endeavor, jazz is still a modern art form, not a tradition.

What we call "jazz standards" would not be called "old" or "standard" in many other artistic fields.

So while I may cry and lament over what I consider real music fading away, being replaced by lesser forms, in the grand scheme of music history, I'm pinning over a mere blip in the history books. Keep in mind, rock and roll, jazz, and even Mozart, were once considered the rebellious music of youth, replacing what was considered the traditional music of the time. If the internet existed in 1910's, I'm sure there would be forum where someone was complaining about all these new jazz guys playing this new fangled music who don't respect tradition.

If you think it's sad that people don't listen to Coltrane anymore, think about the poor sap writing folk music in the 1500's would feel, knowing that few people give his style the time of day, and knowing no one bothered to write his name down as the author of so many songs that only get played at renaissance faires!

That wasn't the point I was trying to get across but made for a interesting take and read. Thanks!

My point was we are more and more being conditioned and trained to treat music as a form a mere background fooder with developing less and less skills on how to interact with actual live music and its musicians performing it on the listener end. Even in all the times frames you mentioned yes social background music of one form or another has coexisted at the same time as formal, tribal or concert hall, club, pub etc... music...sometimes providing the same social function at the same time in some cases.

Today the attempt is being made by the marketing suits {love the reference Polly!} to reduce music to a social form of a pure background/ ignore function and "drug and sedate" the listener without any listener interaction or challenges on that recieving end..... Polly calls it the safe place or zone...I call it a evil form of a "comfort" zone. That was my point on "elevator music" which is becoming more of the standard "norm" in general society.

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