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Re: "OT" Regarding JAZZ (Ken Burn's Series)



fff... It's quite an heavy critic!!! :) I think the "Marsalis mafia" is a
bit hard!! :).. But it is true that the first question I found asking 
myself
was: "Where are Mclaughlin, Metheny and the others?"... and I was wondering
why Burns considered that the story stopped in the early 70's by the death
of Armstrong and the Duke (I respect them a lot, though)...

What is beautiful about Jazz, it's that it never stops.... The music is
still alive... I think Zorn and cie prove that with Masada... It evolves...
Zorn did the same thing that Coltrane or McLaughlin or Mingus did, he 
merges
elements together... But with a new point of view... I think this is 
JAZZ...

I understood something recently... I consider myself as a Jazz fan (I love
Miles, Trane, Mingus, Zorn, McLaughlin and so on) and when I say that to
other people, they often respond: "Eurk, I never dig that trumpet-thing 
with
tie and uniform"... And Burns continues to promote that idea with JAZZ and
it is sad I think.. Big bands, ties and trumpet are only small parts of 
what
is called Jazz..

Best,


----- Original Message -----
From: <KILLINFO@aol.com>
To: <Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com>
Sent: Tuesday, February 20, 2001 3:54 PM
Subject: "OT" Regarding JAZZ (Ken Burn's Series)


> Hi All.
>
> I thought I'd send this in as sort of food for thought (and comment). A
good friend of mine who is a jazz drummer sent it to me. It's written by
another friend who's a fairly visible music journalist.
>
> Please no flame wars. The opinions contained herein are not neccessarily
mine to begin with (althought I share a similar view on some points).
>
> Have fun,
>
> T.Killian
>
> ________________________________________________________
>
> By Josef Woodard
>
> KEN BURNS JAZZ, ROYALLY:
>
> This just in: jazz, it turns out, is dead. The fact was duly reported by
Ken Burns's 10-part PBS documentary, called, with encyclopedic sweep, JAZZ.
Apparently, jazz reached an early apex, in the feel-good throes of the 
Swing
Era. Then, corruptive influences spoiled the party, including heroin (the
program is careful to index those musicians who used the stuff) and a
protracted period of confusion, from 1960-2000, which barely even deserves
mentioning, let alone chronicling.
>
> Thankfully, in the early '80s, the young wonder, suit-donning Wynton
Marsalis, came along to save the music, with chops aplenty and a fierce
reactionary bent, sniffing at the guises of fusion, avant-garde, or 
anything
that didn't suit his shamelessly antiquarian biases about the music
(Marsalis, like Ken Burns, is a necrophiliac, saddened by having been born
too late).
>
> That's the story of JAZZ. And it's an unconscionable crock. The infamous
finale of JAZZ, in which roughly half of this great music's evolution was
scorned and many of its most important elements patently ignored, screened
last week. At the IAJE conference in NYC in January, coproducer Lynn Novick
appeared in a panel discussion on JAZZ (Burns was too battle-weary to show
his face). She fended off frustrations about the program's myopia by asking
us to suspend judgment until we'd seen the controversial episode.
>
> We have seen it and are more incensed than expected. We have seen the
sleazy docu-tactics in attempting to discredit the Art Ensemble of Chicago
and Cecil Taylor "pettily sneered at by Gene Lees and Branford Marsalis" 
and
how they dismiss Miles Davis's hugely influential electric period
out-of-hand, as if an outgrowth of Miles's lust for fans and goofy clothes.
JAZZ patently ignores important jazz musicians from the '70s and beyond,
including John McLaughlin, Weather Report, and Pat Metheny, who may be the
most significant living jazz musician in terms of straddling many worlds.
They inexcusably gloss over Keith Jarrett, one of the giants of the current
scene (and, it should be noted, a foe of the show's puppeteer Marsalis
clan).
>
> We have seen how, in one laughable sequence, they tried to quickly survey
current artists, flashing still shots under a Cassandra Wilson vamp that 
eve
n she would admit has little to do with jazz. In short, Burns, et al.
amplify their contempt for anything after, and much before, Coltrane's 
death
in 1967. The final episode is a blight, which negates the virtues of the
project's earlier segments, and certainly the most infuriatingly 
imbalanced,
culturally suspicious program ever screened on PBS. We need to start a
letter campaign to the irresponsible parties.
>
> Warning, before we go any further: this column may be tainted. It's being
penned by one of those "jazz critics" who Burns repeatedly claims (even in 
a
pathetic post-show appearance by the mop-top marauder) are an 
insignificant,
elitist minority finding fault in his efforts. He's badly mistaken. Jazz
lovers take their music seriously, not as an idle diversion, and we're not
amused when half the music's history is casually slandered.
>
> Burns, ignorant about jazz, but intrigued by its narrative possibilities
(think of the archival imagery!), apparently fell under the spell of the
notorious charmer and arch-conservative Wynton Marsalis and his sidekick
Stanley Crouch. Somebody neglected to alert Burns to the dark side of his
advisors' agenda, that, in fact, they want to kill the progressive spirit 
of
jazz and turn it into a museum piece.
>
> Then there's also the carpet-bagger factor to consider. Burns is a good
filmmaker, and has also learned a trick rare in the parallel universe of
documentary-making - turning a tidy profit. Through profits on albums,
books, T-shirts, whatever, Burns stands to rake in more lucre than most 
jazz
musicians would make in two lifetimes. And, in a sense, he knows less about
jazz than when he started. What the Marsalis mafia failed to impart on him
is that, yes, jazz is America's great music, and it's very much alive and
kicking and evolving, right under Burnsalis.
>
>
>