Yeah yeah, I'm looking forward to some real spirited discussions here when
this series finally airs!
But, one thing should be interesting to note. From what I hear, Duke
Ellington, my musical idol, gets alot of play in this series, and this is as
it should be. But I have a theory that the Duke's stance, especially from
the early years, resembles someone like Roni Size more closely than Wynton
Marsalis.
That is to say, he was creating a cutting edge dance music dismissed by the
masses as too wierd and noisy. His music was made for clubs and dancers
primarily. He realized he was on the vanguard, liked it, and strove to
create his own special sound. And, he used the very best marketing
techniques available to bring the music to a sizeable (no pun inteneded) but
still relatively small audience of people "in the know."
By contrast, what this Burns series might do is add to the further powdered
wiggery of the jazz legends. (cf. the hairdos of Mozart, Beethoven, et.
al... )Heck, Mass with the Pope has less protocol than a classical concert
these days, and these "Jazz At Lincoln Center" audiences seem as far away
from the crowds that gathered at Minton's Playhouse as it is possible to
imagine.
Let's keep our fingers crossed that some good will come from it!
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