Stumbled on this while rifling through the usenet shitstorm on the
subject; probably the best encapsulation of what I'm feeling. I'll drop
the subject--honest!-- but having come to love jazz through the
avant-garde & electric 70's stuff, I just want to try to frame for the
apologists why the series turned my stomach so intently--
Bruce LeClaire wrote:
>
> Walter Davis wrote:
> >
> > Tom Walls wrote:
> > >
> > > In article <Nu7e6.4422$gC1.742451@news.uswest.net>, marc@outsideshore.com
> > > says...
> > > >
> > > >I find it hard to believe this was an "error" in the sense of, "ooops, we
> > > >forgot about Mingus". There had to have been a deliberate decision to
> > > >exclude him.
> > >
> > > Now that I've seen Chapter 10 where they briefly discuss "Fables of Faubus" --
> > > we even heard some of it! -- I'd have to agree.
> >
> > I gotta think Mingus is spinning in his grave. As we
> > know, he wasn't brimming with respect for the 60's
> > avant-garde ... yet here he is, lumped together with
> > them, under the banner of "protest music."
>
> The treatment of Mingus completely baffles me, what can I say. More
> than anything else, this will stand out as the greatest flaw in the
> series. Here was a giant who received barely a whisper, a performer,
> composer, and figure whose name essentially means jazz.
Aw Bruce, come on. That's the greatest flaw in the series? Mingus at
least was given a small segment. (I completely agree his work should
have had coverage on a much larger scale.)
But the greatest flaw in the series was not any of the horrible
disproportions of attention. Nor the short shrift for Mingus and Ben
Webster. Nor the omissions of Pee Wee Russell, Django, Benny Carter, Nat
Cole, Zoot Sims, Herbie Nichols, Tristano, Konitz, Lacy, or even Ayler.
The greatest flaw was what we saw last night: the position that jazz
died in the '70s, and was then brought back to life by the neoboppers.
"Raped" gives some idea what it felt like to watch that.
The '70s, the era of the Chicago out players and much of the New York
loft scene; of Air and David Murray, the Revolutionary Ensemble, Muhal
Richard Abrams, the resurgence of Sam Rivers, the Jazz Composers
Orchestra; Ornette working regularly, Cecil Taylor ditto; and Dollar
Brand; as well as the noted homecoming of Dexter Gordon not to mention
Johnny Griffin and etc. ... was a very vital, lively period. I witnessed
it.
And when, after that, Burns showed that last, lifeless batch of people
regurgitating their predecessors, and boring boring boring -- and told
us they'd saved jazz -- that was an abomination. "Flaw" doesn't even
begin to describe it.
(Lovano, though interviewed, I don't think was ever seen playing, was
he? James Carter sounded OK back there, though I believe they omitted to
identify him...)
SE.
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