Jazz musician and the Internet

[spencer096]

it's an interesting debate...i can see the case being made for jazz as a dying art form as clearly above as i could twenty years ago when i was in college. but im not sure how much truth rings from those macro thoughts when i look at the modern environment...

in college...right before ipods came out...id make daily trips to the library to take out the max 5 cd's, run home and burn em, and repeat. that's how i built my music collection. fast forward...i have the entire library, plus just about everything else, in my pocket. if you already have a musical foundation built, it's never been easier to get access to jazz since you already know how to filter things. back in the day, i'd have to take out CD's...or burn a one-off playlist...if i wanted to compare various orchestras doing beethoven's 3rd. today? i can synch up multiple takes to the same point and look.

and it's not just music. interviews, lessons, workshops, clinics, transcriptions, etc etc etc. this might not be good for younger musicians who have to sift through it, but for people like this community, it's manna from heaven. my last year of college was the year before the ipad came out...i lugged a 40lb messenger bag everywhere i went...and all of that wouldve been replaced a mere 18 months later.

if the next generations of jazz musicians can get through this barrier, they'll find every single bit of information regarding the previous generations' immediately. in this context, it's hard to see it as being truly negative.

[mr. beaumont]

real jazz died with Buddy Bolden. It now exists only in the imagination of Wynton Marsalis and must be reconstructed from his scat singing on HBO documentaries. FACT.

You see, before Buddy Bolden, all the cats played "doo-shoop-BOP-do-bam." But Buddy came around and he played "DOO-doo sh-BOP BAM BAM!" And that was IT!

As for the internet, much if it is a horrible cesspool of bad information with a few peaks of sunshine...but how is a beginner player ever supposed to know what's good and what's bullshit?

But the access to the music is better than it's ever been. And YouTube can slow down tempo and keep pitch...all the shedding and listening and copping licks is much easier, and that's the first essential part...but then there's nobody to kick your ass on a gig, which is the second essential part.

[kris]

+1= Jeff

[Stevebol]

You see, before Buddy Bolden, all the cats played "doo-shoop-BOP-do-bam." But Buddy came around and he played "DOO-doo sh-BOP BAM BAM!" And that was IT!

As for the internet, much if it is a horrible cesspool of bad information with a few peaks of sunshine...but how is a beginner player ever supposed to know what's good and what's bullshit?

But the access to the music is better than it's ever been. And YouTube can slow down tempo and keep pitch...all the shedding and listening and copping licks is much easier, and that's the first essential part...but then there's nobody to kick your ass on a gig, which is the second essential part.

Everything went horribly wrong when Californians started rapping.
Words can't describe it;

I'm totally off gangster rap now. It's all about Chicago mumble rap.

[Bop Head]

Everything went horribly wrong when Californians started rapping.
Words can't describe it;

I'm totally off gangster rap now. It's all about Chicago mumble rap.

OMFG I am really getting old. I think I am a trad hip-hopper.

[Litterick]

in college...right before ipods came out...id make daily trips to the library to take out the max 5 cd's, run home and burn em, and repeat. that's how i built my music collection. fast forward...i have the entire library, plus just about everything else, in my pocket.

These days, renowned jazz musicians need help to pay their medical bills.

[voxo]

upsets me to see so many Ferrari wrecks on you tube...Maclaren is another beast...i drive a mazda Mx5...safer

[Marlot]

So normal people don't like jazz.

i prefer heavy metal, so i go more for jazz fussion, like weather report or mateo mancuso. I think this style will assure jazz existence.

[mr quick]

The new listeners will find an awful lot of videos on Internet. They can search for jazz guitarists and find historic footage of the greats and film of contemporary masters in concert. They can find a lot of advice on how to play. If they hear a song, they can find information about it. They can join a jazz guitar forum and ask questions about the future of jazz.

In those respects, jazz is more accessible than ever before.

This is such an excellent point. I had a light switch flipped when my group at band practice were given the assignement of learning the melody "Blue Bossa". I was completely apathetic at best towards jazz, and one of the guys searched "Blue Bossa" on the internet, and this came up:

... and my life was never the same. From that moment on, I loved jazz.