PeteSilas said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

Eric explained it well.
Knowing about Jazz and how it feels is very different than the actual technic

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Just because someone plays a tombale doesn't make it Latin music
Just because someone plays steele drums doesn't make it Calypso or Caribbean music

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TLM: Earlier you said that you realised that Prince was special. What makes him special?

EL: It's just little things like the fact that he can be very spontaneous in the way that works in the studio and the way he approaches music, which I've always kind of related to someone of the jazz ethic. Prince is not a jazz musician in the traditional sense and certainly doesn't have the harmonic background that we would associate with straight-up jazz musicians, [but] he can apply a sense of spontaneity, whether he's in the studio or in rehearsal or in a life situation that is more true to the jazz ethic than a lot of jazz musicians that I've played with [laughs]! I always responded to that because that's what I came out of.

eric leeds is totally irrelevant as any kind of artistic force whatsoever. So what he can play a horn. He's no different than any other musical snob and there are no shortages of them in classical and jazz not to mention rock. I've mentioned recently how Mark Cardenas called Prince "ghetto" and said he didn't really know basic things about music but Mark, as good as he is, is totally irrelevant. It's like a minor league baseball player talking shit about an all time great ball player, it's almost meaningless.

- Sorry, but I agree with Eric. It´s not because he isnt a jazz legend that he doesnt have a right opinion. I know some jazz musicians that would say the same thing. Prince had the jazz influence, but he wasnt a traditional jazz musician. And there is nothing wrong with that. Prince himself didnt want to go in this direction.

GustavoRibas said:

laurarichardson said:

GustavoRibas said:

- Sorry, but I agree with Eric. It´s not because he isnt a jazz legend that he doesnt have a right opinion. I know some jazz musicians that would say the same thing. Prince had the jazz influence, but he wasnt a traditional jazz musician. And there is nothing wrong with that. Prince himself didnt want to go in this direction.

The problem is no one ever said Prince was a jazz musician.

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So, Eric was right. That´s why I didnt understand Pete´s comment criticizing Eric as if that interview was something bad. It´s the opposite. It was a compliment.

it's not just that quote, i'm also counting his quote where he says he really didn't like Prince's music. Now, as a musician, I know how most musician are, most of them are ultra-egocentric and their attitude is "i'm the best, everyone else sucks". I don't know Eric, but I'd bet he just another one of those, so what, there are a million of them, they aren't all that special. Musicians are the worst critics, prince included, how many times did prince give props to other legends? It took him until the mid nineties to even acknowledge Hendrix, he said something to the effect that the beatles were "great for what they did but I don't know how that would work today", and he dodged the question of what he thought of other artists by saying he never listened to them. I'm sorry but there is lots of great music out there from all over the place, no one is the center of the musical universe.

PeteSilas said:

it's not just that quote, i'm also counting his quote where he says he really didn't like Prince's music. Now, as a musician, I know how most musician are, most of them are ultra-egocentric and their attitude is "i'm the best, everyone else sucks". I don't know Eric, but I'd bet he just another one of those, so what, there are a million of them, they aren't all that special. Musicians are the worst critics, prince included, how many times did prince give props to other legends? It took him until the mid nineties to even acknowledge Hendrix, he said something to the effect that the beatles were "great for what they did but I don't know how that would work today", and he dodged the question of what he thought of other artists by saying he never listened to them. I'm sorry but there is lots of great music out there from all over the place, no one is the center of the musical universe.

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Yes, he wasnt the biggest fan of Prince´s music, but he acknowledged how great Prince was. It´s fair.
He is a musician, he has to pay the bills. I am not a musician (I play guitar as amateur), but if Paul Mc Cartney hired me to be in his band, I would, even preferring to be in another project. And, if somebody asked me in an interview if I was a Beatles fan, I would say ´No, but I acknowledge they were historically the greatest band ever and Macca is a genius´.

A fan perspective is different from a musician perspective.

[Edited 7/3/17 12:08pm]

GustavoRibas said:

PeteSilas said:

it's not just that quote, i'm also counting his quote where he says he really didn't like Prince's music. Now, as a musician, I know how most musician are, most of them are ultra-egocentric and their attitude is "i'm the best, everyone else sucks". I don't know Eric, but I'd bet he just another one of those, so what, there are a million of them, they aren't all that special. Musicians are the worst critics, prince included, how many times did prince give props to other legends? It took him until the mid nineties to even acknowledge Hendrix, he said something to the effect that the beatles were "great for what they did but I don't know how that would work today", and he dodged the question of what he thought of other artists by saying he never listened to them. I'm sorry but there is lots of great music out there from all over the place, no one is the center of the musical universe.

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Yes, he wasnt the biggest fan of Prince´s music, but he acknowledged how great Prince was. It´s fair.
He is a musician, he has to pay the bills. I am not a musician (I play guitar as amateur), but if Paul Mc Cartney hired me to be in his band, I would, even preferring to be in another project. And, if somebody asked me in an interview if I was a Beatles fan, I would say ´No, but I acknowledge they were historically the greatest band ever and Macca is a genius´.

A fan perspective is different from a musician perspective.

[Edited 7/3/17 12:08pm]

either way, other musicians irritate me, and not just him, most of them. It's like you asking a beautiful woman about another beautiful woman, you'll likely get some catty, unobjective respones. Not always, but often.

RodeoSchro said:

All I know is that Prince's music is full of more jazz chords than I ever realized.

Yes I just realized this recently.

BillieBalloon said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

Prince was alienated from his father after he put him out at age 12.

John L Nelson came back into Prince's life around 1984/85 and then there was a period where stuff between Prince's father and sister Sharon (like that 1990ish documentary exposing the Prince of Darkness) put some serious distance between them. I don't believe Prince went to his fathers funeral.

None if this negates the fact that Prince learned from a young age his father played piano and performed in clubs with his jazz band. Prince stated publically rhat his father influenced him musically. The first music we hear as children is the music our parents listen to,...in Princes case it was his fathers love of jazz. . [Edited 6/30/17 18:59pm]

In 2009 on the Tavis Smiley show Prince said: My father was so hard on me. I was never good enough. It was almost like the Army when it came to music. I wasn't allowed to play the piano when he was there because I wasn't as good as him. So when he left, I was determined, to get as good as him, and I taught myself how to play music. And I just stuck with it, and I did it all the time...

OldFriends4Sale said:

Thewooh said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

John's career was not what he hoped. He hoped his children would go on and be what he couldn't.
By the time Prince was 10 he was no longer around any music home life. He took his own musical direction on his own Rock-Folk-Funk is where he went

His father came back into Prince's life(not really his mother) around 1984/85

John L Nelson is deceased. Yes that makes him done.

So John came back into Prince's life about the same time Prince started to introduce jazz into his music.

Yes, Prince had proven himself to the father.

But I guess that also asks what do you mean by 'introduce jazz into his music'?
When was that actually? the Parade sessions?
It is kinda the same ole, that the family/father comes back into the childs life after they make it big.

But Prince still wanted to extend a hand to his father who made it so hard for him.

it is also the same time that whole group of people were some kind of family community

Eric Leeds Sheila e Melvoin(father was a jazz musician)Joni Mitchell & Miles Davis etc.

OldFriends4Sale said:

Thewooh said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

Yes, Prince had proven himself to the father.

But I guess that also asks what do you mean by 'introduce jazz into his music'?
When was that actually? the Parade sessions?
It is kinda the same ole, that the family/father comes back into the childs life after they make it big.

But Prince still wanted to extend a hand to his father who made it so hard for him.

it is also the same time that whole group of people were some kind of family community

Eric Leeds Sheila e Melvoin(father was a jazz musician)Joni Mitchell & Miles Davis etc.

Well, I think it mskes more sense to think that Prince was introduced to jazz by his jaźz musician father than by Wendy who didn't know jazz.

not really. Prince's father kept Prince away from his music. And as the 2009 quote pointed out Prince's father had a very non inclusive approach with Prince. Father Nelson wasn't sitting down with Prince showing him the ropes.

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And Prince's time living with his father was actually very short in connection to Prince's age when his parents divorced and he lived with his mother, to being put out by his father after a short period of living with him.
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I mean it sound nice and fluffy, but it isn't reality that his father 'introduced' jazz to Prince.
Wendy came from a family whose father Michael Melvoin was a Jazz musician(piano) composer and arranger. So your post that 'she didn't know jazz' is off. She actually grew up with it her whole life.

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Now. The article 'Bobby Z' never said Wendy introduced jazz to Prince. Right? So you can relax. It clearly said 'Wendy & Lisa took him too a jazz spot/place' It is highly plausible that Prince never went to a Jazz club. A lot of people haven't.