Pete Effamy
Well-Known Member
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There has been a lot of chatter recently about many jazzers being too busy in their playing. I'm with you on the subject of being too busy - I switch off, unless they truly are exceptional and their onslaughts are well-crafted and not just finger-flapping.
We can't just smite jazzers though as you get fast technical players in many forms of music - country, blues, rock - even classical music. It is the definition of the concerto, in fact, to be showy and allow the player to demonstrate exactly what his/her instrument can really do. For busy classical music think Paganini, Liszt, Rachmaninov. Even the Mozart Clarinet Concerto is really quite notey - for 1790.
There are many players in the field of jazz that play atuned more to a Paul Desmond rather than a Michael Brecker, it's just that they don't get many column inches because the guys like Brecker are few and far between. I'm not belittling Desmond either, he was one of my first loves and I still marvel at him now.
Are we too hard on jazz? There are plenty of players to suit each and every taste.
We can't just smite jazzers though as you get fast technical players in many forms of music - country, blues, rock - even classical music. It is the definition of the concerto, in fact, to be showy and allow the player to demonstrate exactly what his/her instrument can really do. For busy classical music think Paganini, Liszt, Rachmaninov. Even the Mozart Clarinet Concerto is really quite notey - for 1790.
There are many players in the field of jazz that play atuned more to a Paul Desmond rather than a Michael Brecker, it's just that they don't get many column inches because the guys like Brecker are few and far between. I'm not belittling Desmond either, he was one of my first loves and I still marvel at him now.
Are we too hard on jazz? There are plenty of players to suit each and every taste.