XPost: rec.music.bluenote   
   From: replyto@website.com   
      
   In article <4260083c.9272362@News.sprint.ca>, hepkatreetaroonie@hotmail.com   
   (Max Leggett)   
   wrote:   
      
   > On Fri, 15 Apr 2005 17:54:41 GMT, JC Martin    
   > wrote:   
   >   
   > >Melodious Thunk wrote:   
   > >   
   > >> In article , "Larry Guichard"   
   > >>    
   > >> wrote:   
   > >>   
   > >>    
   > >>   
   > >>>Though I love it, jazz has never been very main stream in music.   
   > >>   
   > >>   
   > >> Sure it has. As J. Scott pointed out, what's now called "the jazz age,"   
   > >> and "the swing era" that   
   > >> followed it marked periods when the popular music of north american was   
   > >> jazz.   
   > >>   
   > >> Nowadays, jazz aficionados tend to look down on popular artists who, were   
   > >> they not popular,   
   > >> would be hard-pressed *not* to be called jazzers. "Rock" acts such as   
   > >> Sting and Steely Dan are   
   > >> essentially jazz artists; and there's no need to point out how much   
   > >> product Kenny G. moves, is   
   > >> there?   
   > >   
   > >They're hardly jazz artists.  Influenced by jazz?  Sure.  Improvisation?   
   > >  No.   
   > >   
   > This is a superb example of the triumph of marketing, that well   
   > meaning people can state, and evidently believe, that Sting and Steely   
   > Dan play jazz. As to the amount of product that Kenny G moves, that's   
   > a complete non sequitur, unless one wants to assert that the Beatles   
   > played jazz, as evidenced by the amount of product they moved.   
      
   I don't qualify Sting, Fagan or Feldman as my favorite artists on their   
   respective instruments   
   (though Gadd is right up there as a favorite drummer); all these artists,   
   though, cite jazz   
   masters as important influences on them, and all these artists incorporate   
   jazz elements,   
   including improvisation, into their works. Even Keith Emerson cites beboppers   
   and striders as   
   his biggest lnfluences; and he too incorporates many jazz elements (but not   
   enough that I'd call   
   him a jazz artist).   
      
   Although I agree with you about marketing triumphing inappropriately. Now how   
   would you qualify   
   an artist like Mangione? Twenty years back he was marketed in a manner   
   essentially like Kenny G.   
   is marketed today; was he more undeniably a jazz artist? Some of his biggest   
   hits had virtually   
   no improvisation (or changes, for that matter). Mangione's not my favorite   
   flugel player,   
   anymore than Sting is my favorite bassist; but I can't deny that jazz has been   
   a major influence   
   on either of them, and that each of them incorporates sufficient jazz elements   
   that I've got to   
   call at least some of their respective output jazz.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)