Dear Friends:
So for the second time in two weeks a writer for a major national publication has attacked Jazz Music. This time in an article in the Washington Post titled “All That Jazz Isn’t All That Great”, writer Justin Moyer gives a point-by-point thesis about why Jazz Music isn’t that good or worth listening to. Here is a link to this sickening article --> http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/o...ll-that-great/
But to highlight some of the points Mr. Moyer makes:
He says that Jazz ruins songs by abandoning the lyrics and cites Charles Mingus and Eric Dolphy as an example of how to “ruin” a song.
He calls Wes Montgomery a “serviceable, forgettable, uncontroversial player” whose music is suitable for “piping into elevators”.
He calls Ornette Coleman’s “Shape Of Jazz To Come” an “uncoordinated mess”.
He calls Jazz “…a genre loosely defined by little more than improvisation, sunglasses and berets”.
He says that Jazz is “fetishized by the select few who actually listen to it”.
So who is this wise-sage that can so definitively dismiss a 100 year old tradition of music and the genius minds that created it? He’s a schmuck who by his own admission “studied jazz while an undergraduate at Wesleyan University” and admits in the article that “like cirrus clouds or cotton candy, I found jazz generically pleasing, but insubstantial and hard to grasp.” Here is an example of this self hating mediocrity’s personal music (warning: this is hard to take) --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z__REL2n5Y
Ok, so we know that idiots abound. The world is full of them. We know that there are many, many self-hating musical failures that need to lash out to justify their own complete inability to be either creative or find any kind of beauty in themselves. We also know that many people may not like Jazz – it’s not for everybody. But the issue here is that this jackass somehow has access to publish his rants in The Washington Post, a paper second only to the New York Times in significance and readership. What’s going on with these publications that they can let articles like this or last week’s Sonny Rollins “satire” in the New Yorker get published? Where are the people in charge? For me it’s more an indication of a disturbing trend towards anti-art and anti-intellectualism. It’s easy to attack something you don’t understand. But how can a major newspaper let someone with such few credentials write an article like this that is so poorly written, poorly researched and so just plain old mean. Who does it serve? How does this serve the community at large? Doesn’t it simply harm the music and the people that make it and ridicule those that appreciate it and need as part of their spiritual food? Can you imagine if an ass like this wrote a similar piece but say against Christianity? There would be a riot. But because Jazz is so marginalized and specialized it seems to be a target – an attack on the “elite” perhaps. But really, it’s an attack on thinking people. People who are not satisfied with the “pop” music being force-fed down our throats. It’s something to take note and something to be aware of. It’s something to be afraid of. When a major media outlet calls for the death of an art form it’s a dark day indeed.
I urge anyone that’s so inclined to write Justin Moyer and let him know how you feel. His email is justin.moyer@washpost.com. You can also write a letter to editors of The Washington Post directly by emailing letters@washpost.com
Meanwhile back at the front, Smalls Jazz Club is alive – vibrant, exciting, full of people of all races, colors, religions, and cultural backgrounds hanging out late at night and listening to JAZZ MUSIC – live music. Jazz is alive because you can’t kill a spirit and the spirit of this music lives today in the musicians who play it and in the hearts of those that seek it out. Jazz is beautiful and it is profound. It expresses joy, humor, religious reverence, sexuality and all things that are good about Humanity. It is not a joke. It is the legacy of the American culture – one of the truly pure and beautiful art forms brought to existence by the United States and the culture of the people. It’s music for thinking people and people who feel. Idiots are alienated by it but that is not the fault of the music. I thank everyone for the support of the club and this great art form. I hope to see you at Smalls.
Spike (Wilner)
" In 1994, Spike began to work a regular gig at Smalls Jazz Club. This became his permanent musical home and eventually led to his current position there as a partner and manager of the club. Spike now spends most of his time at Smalls and still plays there regularly with his group. "
So for the second time in two weeks a writer for a major national publication has attacked Jazz Music. This time in an article in the Washington Post titled “All That Jazz Isn’t All That Great”, writer Justin Moyer gives a point-by-point thesis about why Jazz Music isn’t that good or worth listening to. Here is a link to this sickening article --> http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/o...ll-that-great/
But to highlight some of the points Mr. Moyer makes:
He says that Jazz ruins songs by abandoning the lyrics and cites Charles Mingus and Eric Dolphy as an example of how to “ruin” a song.
He calls Wes Montgomery a “serviceable, forgettable, uncontroversial player” whose music is suitable for “piping into elevators”.
He calls Ornette Coleman’s “Shape Of Jazz To Come” an “uncoordinated mess”.
He calls Jazz “…a genre loosely defined by little more than improvisation, sunglasses and berets”.
He says that Jazz is “fetishized by the select few who actually listen to it”.
So who is this wise-sage that can so definitively dismiss a 100 year old tradition of music and the genius minds that created it? He’s a schmuck who by his own admission “studied jazz while an undergraduate at Wesleyan University” and admits in the article that “like cirrus clouds or cotton candy, I found jazz generically pleasing, but insubstantial and hard to grasp.” Here is an example of this self hating mediocrity’s personal music (warning: this is hard to take) --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z__REL2n5Y
Ok, so we know that idiots abound. The world is full of them. We know that there are many, many self-hating musical failures that need to lash out to justify their own complete inability to be either creative or find any kind of beauty in themselves. We also know that many people may not like Jazz – it’s not for everybody. But the issue here is that this jackass somehow has access to publish his rants in The Washington Post, a paper second only to the New York Times in significance and readership. What’s going on with these publications that they can let articles like this or last week’s Sonny Rollins “satire” in the New Yorker get published? Where are the people in charge? For me it’s more an indication of a disturbing trend towards anti-art and anti-intellectualism. It’s easy to attack something you don’t understand. But how can a major newspaper let someone with such few credentials write an article like this that is so poorly written, poorly researched and so just plain old mean. Who does it serve? How does this serve the community at large? Doesn’t it simply harm the music and the people that make it and ridicule those that appreciate it and need as part of their spiritual food? Can you imagine if an ass like this wrote a similar piece but say against Christianity? There would be a riot. But because Jazz is so marginalized and specialized it seems to be a target – an attack on the “elite” perhaps. But really, it’s an attack on thinking people. People who are not satisfied with the “pop” music being force-fed down our throats. It’s something to take note and something to be aware of. It’s something to be afraid of. When a major media outlet calls for the death of an art form it’s a dark day indeed.
I urge anyone that’s so inclined to write Justin Moyer and let him know how you feel. His email is justin.moyer@washpost.com. You can also write a letter to editors of The Washington Post directly by emailing letters@washpost.com
Meanwhile back at the front, Smalls Jazz Club is alive – vibrant, exciting, full of people of all races, colors, religions, and cultural backgrounds hanging out late at night and listening to JAZZ MUSIC – live music. Jazz is alive because you can’t kill a spirit and the spirit of this music lives today in the musicians who play it and in the hearts of those that seek it out. Jazz is beautiful and it is profound. It expresses joy, humor, religious reverence, sexuality and all things that are good about Humanity. It is not a joke. It is the legacy of the American culture – one of the truly pure and beautiful art forms brought to existence by the United States and the culture of the people. It’s music for thinking people and people who feel. Idiots are alienated by it but that is not the fault of the music. I thank everyone for the support of the club and this great art form. I hope to see you at Smalls.
Spike (Wilner)
" In 1994, Spike began to work a regular gig at Smalls Jazz Club. This became his permanent musical home and eventually led to his current position there as a partner and manager of the club. Spike now spends most of his time at Smalls and still plays there regularly with his group. "
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