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Some recent conversations I've had about music have got me a bit frustrated and I'd like to clear up my opinion and where I stand on the subject of music in the 21st century.
Now I am a musician. I have been a Rock, Metal, Punk, Hardcore, Hip Hop, and Pop musician or what I prefer to put into the POPULAR category, because really there's no argument that all of that music is infinitely more popular than the rest I've been a part of. What is underground in those communities is like a stadium show for the rest. I love much of that music, although Metal has a special place in my heart for some reason.
So here's the thing:
I meet many musicians and when the subject of Jazz comes up I hear all kinds of remarks immediately...Snickering and disses and such. It's pretentious or egotistical and shit like that. This could not be further from the truth! In fact, I find it to be the exact opposite. While many musicians are good at what they do, I have been on both sides and have to say that unless you have gone through the ride to play Jazz, unless you've made the sacrifices, endured the mental and physical challenges, reached for that place in your brain where you hear something but can't articulate it and strive to do so in order to better communicate a larger feeling, in order to challenge the ear and mind of those you wish to communicate with, played all the nastiest, filthiest gigs for the most mundane and mediocre simpletons, destroyed your personal life, health and lifestyle just so you can play this great music, endured the popular Jazz community who blacklists you, rejects you, and tells the media and population what is Jazz, have to listen to countless mediocre conversations about music that has nothing to do with what you do just because people know you are a musician, tell me to listen to all those albums I've already listened to a thousand times, I've listened to all of that plus so much more that those same people telling me what to listen to will NEVER listen to. played thousands of gigs in every conceivable setting of almost every kind of style of music, studied the history of the whole of music - the great spiritual music that comes from all the cultures around the world and not some rip off with a beat thrown into it...i mean some deep shit here...music that is life, that is connection, that is spiritual in its own way, the metaphysical way but not the religious way...something that rises out of the ashes and lifts up mankind...something beautiful...something lost and swallowed up by the barbaric forces of evil human universal law...
WELL THEN DON'T TELL ME WHAT IS JAZZ OR WHAT IT IS LIKE TO BE A JAZZ MUSICIAN....
I don't go around telling you what you do...
Peace,
-Steve
Monday, January 18, 2010
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4 comments:
THATS WHY IM GOING TO CALL MYSELF AN IMPROVISING MUSICIAN, I MEAN ITS ALL ABOUT COMMUNICATION, I PERSONALY DIG THE GUYS WHO PLAY EVERYGHING, I LIKE JOHN ZORN WHO CAN THRASH WIH THE BEST OF THEM, AND OR I MEAN I DIG LIKE NOISE AND I DIG BEAUTIFUL STUFF, I DONT DIG STUFF WHERE IT SOUNDS TO ME INDULGENT. SOMETIMES. I MEAN LIKE PAT M. ZERO TOLERANCE FOR SILENCE, I CAN LISTEN TO IT, AND PEOPLE WONT EVEN LOOK AT IT OR THAT SONG X, I USE TO LISTEN TO THT AND LIKE FREAK OUT, LIKE IN A GOOD WAY,
AND THEN I REMEBER I USED TO LISTEN TO LIKE THS
MUSIC FROM GAMBIA AND IT WOULD LITERALLY FLOOR ME, AND U KNOW ITS ALL ACOUSTIC AND VOICES, YEAH SOME OF THE MOST HEAVY PERSONAL SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCES I HAVE HAD HAVE BEEN WITH
LIKE THESE HAVE EMPT ROOMS BY MYSELF USUALLY STARING AT A CEILING LAUGHING MY ASS OFF,
AND THEN U KNOW LISTENING TO THESE GUYS SAY SOME SERIOUS SHIT LIKE SERIOUS SHIT THAT WILL REVERBERATE THROUGHT TIME.
HEY MAN
I REMEMBER I WAS DOWN BY THE BEACH ONE TIME THEERE WAS THIS GUY PLAY A FLUTE ALONGWITH THE RADIO LIVING IN HIS CAR AND IT WAS CLASSICAL MUSIC, AND MAN HE WAS RIGHT THERE IT WAS LIKE I DON'T KNOW WHY THIS GUY WAS THERE BUT IT WAS WEIRD MAN LIKE HERES SOME MOTHERFIKER WHO COULD PLAY AND EVERONES JUST WLAKING BY GOIN ABOUT THERE BUSINESS. WEIRD.
HEY MAN, HERE SOME OF MY GIG STORIES,
ONE TIME THE DRUMMER STARTED
STRANGLING ME ON STAGE, ON A GIG
SERIOUSLY, AND I USED TO PLAY A GIG
EVERYWEEKEND AT A COFFESHOP
IT WAS A GHOSTOWN, BUT THAT WAS COOL,
I DON'T MIND GETTING NOT PAID, AS LONG AS I COULD U KNOW JAM, AND I USED TU PLAY COFFEHOUSES, DID BIRTHDAY PARTIES RESTAURANTS,A
CORPORATE GIG EVEN, FUNNY.
ONE TIME THIS GUY DIDN'T DIG THE GUYS MUSIC
NO ONE WAS IN THE BAR ANYWAY AND
STARTS SWINGING A CUE STICK, AT US
THAT WAS FUNNY NEAR BRAWL IN AN EMPTY
BAR.HAHHHAHAHAAA
REFINE IT, THERES NOTHING LEFT TO REFINE
IT IS PERFECT! LIKE NATURE, HOW COULD IT NOT BE!!!!!!!!!!AHAHAAAHAH WATOO!!!!!!
HEARS ANOTHER ONE, PLAYING IN A BIKER BAR, IN THE SOUTH, WHERE THEY SERVE ONLY BUDWEISER AT THE BAR, AND THESE GUYS WENT APESHIT, WHEN THEY HEARD THAT AOR ROCKNROLL FROM THE SEVENTIES, MAN...
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