on 8/23/02 2:08 PM, Remco Takken at r.takken@planet.nl wrote:
What's really
interesting is the people who they would claim were making the jazz that "everybody" would be playing in the future -- Tristano, Ornette etc, which is to say people whose influence is felt a lot less than that of the 1950's Miles bands.
And ofcourse, speaking of 50's Miles: nowadays most people know about Miles records from 1956 on (that's after the heroin addiction). So the knowledge of the 1949-1955 period is spotty to say the least: birth of the cool, walkin' and the two Blue Note albums will be best known to most of us. The bulk of the 'prestige' recordings just lies there. While the critical assumption of this day is, that many early Miles albums are 'uneven', it made them lesser known over the years, too.
The first-ever review of a Miles recording was a Charlie Parker release, and he was dismiised as a Dizzy clone. I forget who wrote that, and I'm sure the the person who wrote it is glad that I forgot who he was.
I'm sure we will laugh in 20 years about the critics inaccurate/poor assesments of current geniuses. Some would say that said geniuses don't exist. Will they eat their words?
It can all be camouflaged under the 'not my taste anyway' banner. I listen to people who explain why they don't like Coltrane, think the Beatles are overrated, or try to make the point that funk musicians can't write proper songs. It's great to find counter examples in a discussion, but it is also great to learn something for yourself, from different lines of thinking. Regards, Remco Takken
True. As someone who is not an extreme post-Atlantic Trane fan, I know I'm not towing the party line the way I'm supposed to in some quarters. But I also know that, when you hear someone say "Coltrane was boring" or, for that matter, that funk guys can't write proper songs, it's usually because the have such a narrow view of what form is allowed to be. They want the stuff to fit in a box, and they hate anything that defies the shape of the box. And the last person who told me the Beatles were overrated had the joy of picking himself off the floor of a bar in Cudahy, WI. skip h