Trane

Arthur Gilroy on November 29, 2008 at 11:15 am

That’s what I’m talkin’ about!!!

Now…how do we heal the present musical culture of America?

Those players were the result of almost 100 years of positive energy inside of the majority and minority cultures of America. From the very beginnings in New Orleans.,..,,a “fusion” music, by the way, combining elements of African and Euro-American musical traditions to produce something entirely new and entirely inclusive of what “America” was really all about at the time…right through the swing era, through the great singers era…Sinatra, Ella, Nat, Peggy Lee et al on TV every night of the week…through the bebop revolution of the late ’40s early ’50s, through the cool school of our Prince of Darkness, Miles Davis, through the NYC-based Afro-Cuban school in which I have lived much of my musical life, through the freedom school that was essentially started by John Coltrane, through the whole fusion thing….

That positive energy was a two-way system. It fed off of the most positive elements of the culture as a whole…the working classes, whether they were black, latino or white (Notice how many relatively early white jazz musicians were second or third-generation Americans…the Dorseys, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Sinatra…or up from the working class)…and it fed back to the culture as a whole. I often make the point that one major reason we survived the Depression and won WW II was that our musical culture was swinging harder than a motherfucker throughout that time.

We swung our way through the troubles.

And now?

Now that our popular musical culture is sadder than shit.

It really is, folks. This is not sour grapes. It is as artificial and as non-nourishing as is McDonald’s food, top to bottom.

Not that there are not great musicians available here. There are more than ever before, actually. Fine players of the last couple of generations…myself included…have been literally forced to spend a great deal of time teaching others simply because the market for our skills has shrunk so precipitously.

So it goes.

Not so good for us, but great for the ongoing talent pool. Bet on it. I see more fine musicians coming into NYC now…over the last decade or so…than at any time since I got here in the late ’60s.

MANY more, and all of them playing and writing at a higher level given their age than has ever been the case before. There is simply better, easier to access information available to them than there was in the past. I used to have to trek into NYC and scrounge around in basement record stores to find the real thing, and there was only one AM radio station regularly playing the newest American music in NYC when I was coming up. Now? They can order the complete works of Duke Ellington or Miles Davis for $30 or so and then digitally slow it all down if they so desire so that they can figure out just what it was that these masters were doing and how they were doing it, and every little college radio station plays more great jazz than could be heard on all of the radio stations of America during the bebop era. Bet on it.

Deep.

Plus there are real masters teaching in universities and conservatories all over the country.

Now’s the time.

The Greeks knew. And so do I.

Plato believed that a change in the musical modes of the state would cause a wide-scale social revolution.

The philosophical writings of Plato and Aristotle (c. 350 BC) include sections that describe the effect of different musical modes on mood and character formation. For example, this quote from Aristotle’s Politics:

The musical modes differ essentially from one another, and those who hear them are differently affected by each. Some of them make men sad and grave, like the so called Mixolydian; others enfeeble the mind, like the relaxed modes; another, again, produces a moderate or settled temper, which appears to be the peculiar effect of the Dorian; and the Phrygian inspires enthusiasm.

Plato and Aristotle describe the modes to which a person listened as molding the person’s character. The modes even made the person more or less fit for certain jobs. The effect of modes on character and mood was called the “ethos of music”.

I hope Obama understands this. He sure as hell listens to the right stuff.

From his Facebook page.

Favorite Music:
Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder,
Johann Sebastian Bach (cello suites), and The Fugees.

We shall see.

Change can come from the top as well.

A White House Jazz Festival? One that does not include lame pop acts?

Let us pray.

Later…

4 Comments

Oscar In Dallas on November 29, 2008 at 8:38 am
Arthur Gilroy on November 29, 2008 at 11:15 am

That’s what I’m talkin’ about!!!

Now…how do we heal the present musical culture of America?

Those players were the result of almost 100 years of positive energy inside of the majority and minority cultures of America. From the very beginnings in New Orleans.,..,,a “fusion” music, by the way, combining elements of African and Euro-American musical traditions to produce something entirely new and entirely inclusive of what “America” was really all about at the time…right through the swing era, through the great singers era…Sinatra, Ella, Nat, Peggy Lee et al on TV every night of the week…through the bebop revolution of the late ’40s early ’50s, through the cool school of our Prince of Darkness, Miles Davis, through the NYC-based Afro-Cuban school in which I have lived much of my musical life, through the freedom school that was essentially started by John Coltrane, through the whole fusion thing….

That positive energy was a two-way system. It fed off of the most positive elements of the culture as a whole…the working classes, whether they were black, latino or white (Notice how many relatively early white jazz musicians were second or third-generation Americans…the Dorseys, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Sinatra…or up from the working class)…and it fed back to the culture as a whole. I often make the point that one major reason we survived the Depression and won WW II was that our musical culture was swinging harder than a motherfucker throughout that time.

We swung our way through the troubles.

And now?

Now that our popular musical culture is sadder than shit.

It really is, folks. This is not sour grapes. It is as artificial and as non-nourishing as is McDonald’s food, top to bottom.

Not that there are not great musicians available here. There are more than ever before, actually. Fine players of the last couple of generations…myself included…have been literally forced to spend a great deal of time teaching others simply because the market for our skills has shrunk so precipitously.

So it goes.

Not so good for us, but great for the ongoing talent pool. Bet on it. I see more fine musicians coming into NYC now…over the last decade or so…than at any time since I got here in the late ’60s.

MANY more, and all of them playing and writing at a higher level given their age than has ever been the case before. There is simply better, easier to access information available to them than there was in the past. I used to have to trek into NYC and scrounge around in basement record stores to find the real thing, and there was only one AM radio station regularly playing the newest American music in NYC when I was coming up. Now? They can order the complete works of Duke Ellington or Miles Davis for $30 or so and then digitally slow it all down if they so desire so that they can figure out just what it was that these masters were doing and how they were doing it, and every little college radio station plays more great jazz than could be heard on all of the radio stations of America during the bebop era. Bet on it.

Deep.

Plus there are real masters teaching in universities and conservatories all over the country.

Now’s the time.

The Greeks knew. And so do I.

Plato believed that a change in the musical modes of the state would cause a wide-scale social revolution.

The philosophical writings of Plato and Aristotle (c. 350 BC) include sections that describe the effect of different musical modes on mood and character formation. For example, this quote from Aristotle’s Politics:

The musical modes differ essentially from one another, and those who hear them are differently affected by each. Some of them make men sad and grave, like the so called Mixolydian; others enfeeble the mind, like the relaxed modes; another, again, produces a moderate or settled temper, which appears to be the peculiar effect of the Dorian; and the Phrygian inspires enthusiasm.

Plato and Aristotle describe the modes to which a person listened as molding the person’s character. The modes even made the person more or less fit for certain jobs. The effect of modes on character and mood was called the “ethos of music”.

I hope Obama understands this. He sure as hell listens to the right stuff.

From his Facebook page.

Favorite Music:
Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder,
Johann Sebastian Bach (cello suites), and The Fugees.

We shall see.

Change can come from the top as well.

A White House Jazz Festival? One that does not include lame pop acts?

Let us pray.

Later…

S.
- BooMan on November 29, 2008 at 11:25 am
  
  even though your musical interpretation of culture can be a little idiosyncratic, I agree, at least, that the health of a culture can be diagnosed through the relative challenge presented by its popular culture. You might be chicken and I might be egg…the McBLT sandwich didn’t cause our problems in my view, but the point is still there.
  
  A culture that gives the people what they want without challenging them or teaching them to want something the never knew existed…no comparison.
  
  The people didn’t want Dylan or Hendrix. They learned to want it after they heard it.
  - Arthur Gilroy on November 29, 2008 at 6:35 pm
    
    To paraphrase Muhammad Ali’s answer to Howard Cosell when Cosell called him truculen:
    
    If “idiosyncratic” means in favor of good pitch and good time, then I’m it.
    
    I do not care whether the music is pop, rock, rap, jazz, country + western, swing, bluegrass, blues, raga, beatbox, house or any of the other 5 million bags that human beings have produced.
    
    If it’s in tune and played in good time…which are exactly the same thing on one level, bcause both elements are simply more or less accurate (better or worse, more talented or less talented, smarter or dumber, finer or more gross) measurements of vibration in time…if it’s in tune and played in good time, it’s good.
    
    If it ain’t…it ain’t.
    
    Simple, huh?
    
    I got yer idiosyncracy…right here!!!
    
    Later…
    
    AG

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