XPost: rec.music.bluenote   
   From: jcmartin@sonic.net   
      
   Melodious Thunk wrote:   
      
   > 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.   
      
      
   God, how silly.  How about you provide some concrete examples?  Even on   
   Mangione's instrument, he improvised.  He was also a bonna fide jazz   
   musician who paid his dues playing with the likes of Art Blakey.  What   
   jazz band has Sting played in?  Where's the improvisation?  Come on, put   
   up or shut up.   
      
   -JC   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)