Is it just me (and it just might be), but why is it that those who listen to "jazz only" try and portray themselves as super-sophisticated, sitting with their legs crossed, in their smoking jacket, being so critical of all forms of music that isn't "pure jazz"? Is it maturity? Will I ever get there someday?

no, just more confused.

yes you are right,the chordal structure and the improvisation is technically more challenging so this makes the jazz people feel they are above everything else!

ask some top line old school type jazzers (like wynton marsalis) what do they think of prince? they laugh and say he is simple.

jazz is great live,can't listen to that shit too long though on a cd at my house.

thechronic said:

I hear ya!

I listened to one of the best jazz jam sessions ever on mother's day and will have the guys in the studio next week.

But I seriously doubt we'll get the same energy on tape.

'Does listening to jazz make you more mature?'

It's like public speeking vs preaching.

One envokes thought and skill and the other envokes emotion.

I don't believe either is better, jazz vs other music, just different.

A lot of great musicians switch to jazz for the challenge and study of music. It's cool Prince is doing this because it shows that he truly striving for great musicianship and not just showmanship.

Many music lovers tast good jazz for the first time and feel like: "What's the big deal?" I suppose because they expect an emotional response to listening to music.

In a way, there is musical maturity in playing jazz but not nessisarily listening to it.

Most people that are really into jazz and fusion are musicians.

Ask ya momma!

Am I close to an acurate description?

Anyone?

Go to a website I recently made for a really good musician, teacher, session player.

http://www.frankaxtell.com


Tell me whatcha think about jazz!

listening to jazz
MEANS
that you have quite a bit of maturity
that you have an appreciation for complex musical structures
an appreciation for music that is HARDLY "mainstream"

I'm not very knowledgable about jazz music,
but I do love to listen to it when I work, when I do something creative..

I can listen to it, get into it as much as I want, & still be creative...


the older I get, the more I want to listen to jazz!



long live REAL jazz

Anyone else excited to hear Victor Wooten will be at the celebration?

Funny - I'm listening to A Love Supreme for the first time in years. It's the only jazz album I've heard that I've loved from beginning to end, which is not to say that there aren't more out there that I could adore equally.

I'm not a big fan of jazz, but I like anything that reaches me. Sometimes it's jazz, sometimes it's country, sometimes it's funk, sometimes it's modern composers, sometimes it's...you get the idea.

Maybe I'm a philistine, I dunno. I just like what sounds good to me. I don't try to pledge allegience to any particular style for the sake of how much credibility it might lend me.

Does listening to Prince make you feel like an idiot?

Really is this an honest question?
Getting laid gets you more mature.

OK i can't do with only that.
As i experience is that as one gets older ,i speak for myself, i get more patient. Some pieces of music take more time and some calmness within to really lurn to appreciate.
Since a few year i really started to like classical music for example. So maybe you like to appreciate or really love jazz in the future ,it is the other way around.
What i do believe is that listening to jazz early on ,makes you feel you think you are older as you are. Has nothing to do with maturity.

Anybody who listens to ONLY one artist or style of music seems to have a superiority air about themselves. That includes some Prince fans.

Hey! So funny you should ask this. I sing live jazz at a club every Friday night. I can sing anything else, but prefer jazz because it takes a keen sense of timing, phrasing, excellent knowledge of keys, pitch, tone, harmony and good improvisational and listening skills to be a good jazz musician. when I sing and master an old jazz standard, it makes me feel better than humming to pop or r&b with the radio. it doesn't make me smarter, it makes me sound smarter that I like to do something that challenges me a whole lot more than other music. Hey that's why Prince likes it!!!

Supernova said:

that's true before I started only listening to Prince, I used to pretty much be able to listen to the radio, but now I am critical about everything and I don't have as much fun just listening like I used to. Sometimes I don't know if Prince's influence on me has been all positive.

adorable2 said:

Are you saying Prince's influence on you has made your listening more stringent when it comes to other types of music?

Good Morning Everyone,

Well I don't know about jazz making me more mature(been mature for a long time now..... ) But jazz has certainly made me a better listener. It shapened my listening skills as it relates to picking up on harmonic, melodic chord structures and phrasing. Jazz gives me a solid foundation of what a pure groove should sound like, through ostinatos or vamps. Ostinato is a rhythmic riff or pattern repeated over and over. As a musician, you can really play off of those. Horace Silver (just to give an example)is an artist who is a master at using ostinatos. I Also learn through jazz that an instrumentalist can say a lot of times more through their instrument than an artist can through words. Sounds strange and unorthodix, but a TRUE in-depth exploration through the genre of jazz and you'll know exactly what I mean. Out of all the years I've listened to many many styles of music(and as a musician...playing several styles),I have yet to hear any pop or R*B music that have given me the kind of high a jazz instrumentalist have given me expressing themselves through their instrument. I know that's a profound statment, but that is how I feel. For example, listen to the way John Coltrane communicate to God on his saxophone on his classic 1964 album "A Love Supreme". Most of the great lengendary jazz artists like {Miles, Coltrane, Horace, Wayne Shorter, Roy Ayers, Freddie Hubbard, Jaco, Herbie Hancock, Lee Morgan, Dizzy, Pat Metheny, Wes Montgomery, George Benson, Joe Sample, Chich Corea, Keith Jarrett, Bill Evans, John McLaughlin, Dave Holland,and the great Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers just to name a few) eloquently display their instrument as an extension of their own being...once again a profound statment.

I listen to mostly jazz now, I'll say 87% of the time, good old school R%B/Funk stuff 5% of the time(I grew up with this stuff...especially stuff in the 70s, so it's a part of me and don't feel the need to still listen to it on a sheer regular basis now) Gospel 4% of the time and modern pop/R&B music 4% of the time. This just a rough estimate. Today's pop and R&B music state is truly saddening.

Simply put, it is unoriginal, uninspiring and unintersting. As Miles once said,,,,,"too many musicians now-a-days are just a bunch of lazy sorry MFs who are just copying cliches". And he was right. Strangely enough, this is a problem in contemporary jazz(Miles was more so referring to the state of contemporary at the time of this statement).

I don't mind giving my financial support to our true REAL jazz stations here in Atlanta...(WCLK 91.9 FM...one of the best stations in the world). The station is awesome... good music, good discussion forums that are interesting and educational and insightful knowledgeable DJs who know the music inside and out. The station(which also plays gospel, latin jazz and underground reggae) has and continues to turn me on to great music in the jazz idiom...(both traditional jazz and comtemporary jazz) and serves as a source of inspiration in my life. So there you have it from a true jazz head. I'm continuing to learn so much from this great genre that is jazz.

Brother 9/15 aka CR3
Jazz Fan 4 Life

Just a quick follow up to my last post.I wish to mention, as it relates to the SORRY state of pop and R&B music now-a-days, only a handful of artists are doing anything vital in the genres.

I BELEIVE MUSICLY IT DOES
MY OPINION...
IF HENDRIX WERE STILL ALIVE
HED BE DOIN JAZZ FUSSION, WITH REGGE (?)OVER TONES

jazz used to be youth music, its jut nowadays that it has gotten so stuffy and uptight.

all the most interesting jazz was done when the players were in their youth anyway, and that is still some of the most exciting work in music, period, not just jazz.

jazz is challenging though, and so compared to what a lot of people hear on the radio is almost the antithesis.