Introductions and Pet Peeves

I'm happy to announce the residents of the 2011 Spring Residency of BHIC. We'll be starting up early next month so if you're interested in writing for the group, contact me as soon as possible. 

Matt Otto - bass sax in Bb, soprano, tenor

Andy McGhie - tenor,clarinet

Hunter Long - tenor, computer

Russell Thorpe - alto, soprano, bass clarinet, bari

Peter Lawless - alto

Nick Howell-  trumpet

 Mike Stover - steel guitar, regular guitar, possibly theremin and mandolin

Jeff Davis - guitar

Brian Padavic/Gerald Spaits - bass

Sam Wisman - drums

If you haven't checked out George Colligan's jazztruth blog, you're missing out. I think it's probably the best jazz musician's blog out there. Unfortunately I have to a bit of an issue with a recent musing of George's because he gets dangerously close to a widespread practice among the jazz community: bitching about the audience.

Can we please quit acting like its anyone else's fault but the musicians'? For some reason in jazz musician culture there is the myth that all your problems can be solved with more practicing. And then once you've practiced enough to impress all the other practicers you get to blame society, or culture, or the club owners, or the lack of education.

If nobody cares about your music it's your own damn fault. It's really hard to have sympathy for people who blame everyone but themselves for their own lack of fans and then suggest that the government should be supporting them.

(For the record I define a fan as someone who actively follows your career.  They seek out your performances and check out your recordings. Not someone who enjoyed your set while they had an overpriced drink and then forgot about you as soon as they left the club.)

Recognition is an incredibly important part of enjoyable listening. Early jazz musicians dealt with this by improvising over tunes that everyone knew at the time. In that sense, the stantard repertoire has been a valuable tool in giving listener something recognizable to hold on to while musicians develop the music and make it their own. Unfortunately for the standard repertoire, popular music changed 50 fucking years ago and is no longer a particularly fertile ground for jazz musicians to mine for tunes -- or least not to the extent that it once was. Consequently, audiences no longer know these so-called standard songs and as far as they're concerned, they were always jazz tunes to begin with. 

A lot of the best music is hard to digest the first time you hear it, and frankly, listening to it live is not always the best way to hear difficult music. Personally, I can think of many albums that I had to spend some serious time with and repeated listenings to really get into. Instead of criticizing the audience, perhaps we should just accept that people generally check out our music through a recording and if they like it, they come out to see you and expect to hear at least a little of something that they recognize. No one is trying to put you in a box and make you play the same solo every time or make you play your tunes in the exact same order. So let's all get over ourselves.

Comments

[Peter Lawless]

I couldn't agree with you more Hunter! I think you're point about people getting into the recordings is a great one, and we in Black House may want to think about.

Some musicians can get away with not caring about their audience (like Miles) but in most cases this will simply leave them unheard. I've been trying to reach out a little more with my music lately.

[Beau Bledsoe]

Yeah Hunter! Me Gusta mucho! "And then once you've practiced enough to impress all the other practicers you get to blame.." great stuff.