Like a Storm in the Desert Monday, June 20, 2005

Music, aesthetics, etc.

Thanks for all the jazz feedback. I actually saw a good portion of the Ken Burns series when it first aired, and it went a long way toward turning me off to the music in the first place. Or, rather, it reinforced my prejudices. I really dislike the Stanley Crouch/Wynton Marsalis view that true jazz died around the same time as JFK, and the documentary more or less set that storyline in stone for a generation of viewers. Even better, Burns dismissed (both on air and in interviews afterward) the one genre of jazz that I still love fiercely, the modern Downtown-NYC style: John Zorn and his wrecking crew.

At any rate, I'm trying to rediscover bebop and cool jazz. I love the Miles Davis/Gil Evans records, and lots of Brubeck and Dexter Gordon: moody and groovy without being arcane. But I don't seem to have the time and patience to give it a fair listen. So here's a more practical version of my original question: What would be good jazz to play for a tiny tyke to expose him to the music (and keep him happy)? Stuff that's rhythmic and melodic and not squeaky-squawky avant-garde. I'm thinking something in the Vince Guaraldi vein. Any suggestions?

To leap sideways...after many half-viewings of the John Denver bio during PBS Pledge Week, we picked up a comprehensive best-of. Good stuff. His music has an undeniable goofy side, and some of his more writerly stuff is unlistenable in the same way that Jimmy Webb's is. But when he wrote simply, he wrote some real stunners; he had a gift for melody that rivaled Paul Simon or even Paul McCartney.

Could he make it today? I don't know. He wrote, essentially, melancholy A.M. radio songs, and I just don't think that market exists anymore. Sure, there are plenty of middle-of-the-road artists these days, but I think the subset of that group that writes wistful, lyrical ballads has more or less migrated to the alt-country or "contemporary folk" market. To put it another way, I think the MOR market has been co-opted by Lite R&B and Air Supply follow-ons like Celine Dion. If you're writing stuff as simple and smart as John Denver--or even America--you'd end up on in the nonprofit-radio bin. I think that says something Hugely Profound about popular taste, but I don't have the energy to analyze it.

Sideways again: Aaron, in the comments below, made an excellent observation about pretension. Read and learn!

@ 7:01:00 AM,

2 Comments:

At 9:18 AM, Blogger BeK said...

You mention Vince Guaraldi, so how about Vince Guaraldi for WTJ Jr? If you don't have "A Charlie Brown Christmas" yet, you should purchase it immediately.

Another child-friendly jazz classic that springs to mind is "Getz / Gilberto," which (if memory serves) has 'The Girl from Impanema' and other latin-jazz classics.

Dig it.

 
At 11:42 PM, Blogger Rob L. said...

The Putamayo label has a lot of great CDs of "world music" - including a lot of music for kids that might be more fun to listen to than the hokey-pokey song for the millionth time in a row.

 

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