bastardised jazz-heres my letter that was published in the local paper

Here in NZ there is a "jazz"festival-it makes my fuckn blood boil

bands like"french toast" and people whom think listening to jazz equates to "dressing up"..i could go on and on

anyways heres the letter

Dear sir-

I thought before composing my letter I would wait for the backslapping to end regarding the success of the 2009 Tauranga jazz festival-Yet again being a resident of Tauranga and a lover of music including the art form jazz I again found the greatest disappointment in the line up of a festival purporting to be a celebration of jazz when infact all that as on offer was an extremely tainted view of what jazz was/is with some fairly risible acts-with the notable exception of Dylan elise and hollie smith.

The blind boys of Alabama are indeed an incredible gospel group-but jazz headliners? No. Did the director of this festival even attempt to contact the likes of Ravi Coltrane? Herbier Hancock? Roy Haynes?maceo parker? Joe Lovaro?Brookly funk essentials?-Jazz for many is one of the highest art forms in existence and the truth of jazz is contained in the works of mingus,miles,coleman,Coltrane amongst many others-I’m curious whom exactly this “jazz” festival is aimed as it is most certainly not aimed at anyone with an inkling of knowledge of jazz-what next? The Tauranga soul festival headlined by cliff Richard?

To try and degenerate jazz down to parody is an insult to the art form itself.



Yours sincerely



Jonathan Lawson

There are a number of "Jazz" festivals that your letter could pertain to.
It's simply time that they changed their names to "Music" festivals for the sake of accuracy.


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

jonylawson said:

al green played here as part of our jazz festival. i was thrilled for a chance to see him & loved the show, but obviously the show i saw had almost nothing to do with jazz.

the dirty dozen brass band did open for him, however.