Yo Gen,
without bringing the Marsalis Brothers into the same atmosphere as Miles and
Trane or even comparing them, there is simply no getting away from the fact
that both of them are very talented musicians. Now, you may not like the
music that they play or even their attitudes but lighten up just a little, I
find it hard to believe that Wynton would have played with the array of
top-shelf musicians he has played with without him having the talent to back
it all up with and while Branford might not be one of the all-time greats on
your list of horn players, there can be no denying that he is an excellent
player and he seems pretty cool as well.
I started off watching this series with a negative attitude about Wynton
although I have always held Branford in high esteem, and as the series
progressed I must say that I changed my mind about the man. His passion and
enthusiasm was no act and his sincerity was pretty obvious to me!
It is a bit sad to me that a music fan such as yourself would be subscribe
to narrow theories about musical personalities, I mean this is not Billy
Corgan we are talking about here but two really fine musicians. People like
Trane and Miles are phenomena in any terms, they are the kinds of genius
that do not appear that often in any genre and I stand in awe of them for
their trancendent playing and compositions. For the life of me I am unable
to recall the Marsalis Brothers ever being compared to either of these two
throughout the series and while I might certainly have spent the footage and
time spent on Wynton looking at other giants of the genre, he probably had a
lot to do with the series appearing in the first place and he deserved some
recognition. just because you do not care for his music does not reduce his
stature as a musician overall, far from it I think.
There is nothing, to my way of thinking, to stop anyone doing more
documentaries on Jazz and the constellation of musicians in it's firmament.
The path is open to any creative person with the get-up and go of Ken Burns
and his associates to do it, in fact I think that this series has really
re-opened some closed doors in that regard. We need to be open to that since
we have such a deep and abiding love for the music.
I have long grown past the point where I expect record company executives to
be sincere since they are really sales people who are in all likelihood
frustrated wanna-be's themselves. It is well to remember that there are some
record company people who have graced the world with the power of their
insight, sense of discovery and adventurous courage in finding new
musicians! Yeah, only a few but it only takes a few really speaking.
Why such a hard-on to denigrate the Marsalis Brothers? They showed respect,
insight and knowledge for the subject and they really can play, say what you
will. OK, neither of them has yet composed pieces like Trane and Miles did
but that does not make them less.
There can be no denying the shot in the arm that the Jazz series gave to the
music and I am all for that. In a time when many of the great musicians and
some timeless compositions have been reduced to being samples only seconds
long in other peoples compositions, I am strongly for something like this
series that brought the real thing to the ears, hearts and minds of people
who could really use the exposure to it. I loved this series and I learned
so much from it, was it really just passe' for you?
leslie/The Power of Sound
----- Original Message -----
From: Gen Kanai <gkanai@earthlink.net>
To: Ryan Hanser <ryan@hanser.com>; Acid Jazz Mailing List
<acid-jazz@ucsd.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, February 06, 2001 7:38 AM
Subject: Re: Burns' 'Jazz' gives the music a boost
> Now that's funny!
>
> That's why music company executives are so fscking slimey. Either they're
> smoking crack or they're dreaming. Both probably.
>
> The Marsalis brothers don't even deserve to be compared to 'Trane or
> Miles. It pains me to even write their names in the same sentence.
>
> "make the leap" my ass! If I had to go from Coltrane and Miles Davis to
> anything by either of the Marsalis brothers, I'd rather leap off a cliff!
>
> The biggest shame about all this "Jazz" documentary hoopla is that now no
> one's going to be able to do another large-scale documentary on the Jazz
> artists Burns didn't cover, or hardly touched on, or didn't do justice
> to. The farther away I get from the documentary, the more angry I get.
>
> Gen
>
> At 08:37 AM 2/5/01 -0600, Ryan Hanser wrote:
> >"Reignited interest in the genre"?
> >
> >Or my favorite:
> >"We're hoping that people are able to appreciate artists like John
Coltrane
> >and Miles Davis" -- said Jeff Jones, senior vice president of
> >Columbia/Legacy Recordings -- "and then make the leap to Branford and
Wynton
> >Marsalis."
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Wed Feb 07 2001 - 00:39:52 CET