I'm Tim Beau Bennett, and I'm making videos about jazz history. Sometimes I talk about jazz musicians, sometimes the songs, and sometimes about genres. I play jazz guitar, though I would call myself a keen amateur, rather than a professional. These videos are a work in progress, but there are many more to come - so please subscribe and let me know what you'd like to see in the comments!
This is not that wild from Wynton. He's right, pop music is not as much about the music it's more about people realising a common ground. Where sex is a similar thing - bringing yourself to the same level as another person and connecting with other people. This, in my opinion is more important than Wynton tries to make out, but how important both of those functions of music are is down to personal taste. Jazz is about the music, art and emotions - acting as a language that can and is understood in and of itself. There's bad pop music and there's bad jazz music. Jazz takes genuine concentration and has the potential to bring you to a completely different space in your mind. Pop music is much more obvious and I don't think there's anything wrong with that I think thats just what Wynton is trying to say.
Forget both of them. The listener approves of what they themselves like. Doesn't matter if the guy at the record shop can't decide what category an album belongs. as long as it is available to be purchased because the music is liked. Food, Wine, dog breeds, music, doesn't matter. I dislike purists. If I'm snapping my fingers to something I'm enjoying, it doesn't matter if it is Miles, Joe Pass, Steely Dan, The Temptations, Mingus, or Funkadelic.
Our host at the 1-minute mark: "Him, along with the Young Lions, were blowing up the 1980s' jazz scene." Me understand. Me appreciate this information. Me told my friends. Them really liked it. Her and him wanted to know more. Us gave them insights into jazz. Now them are happy. Us, too.
Very enjoyable presentation. This is a rare gem where the presenter gets out of the way and let's the people he is talking about speak. He gets right to the point and there is no waste of the listeners time.
One thing to keep in mind in these type of discussions, is there are plenty of jazz musicians dipping their toes into pop music, but there aren't all that many pop musicians attempting anything jazzy.
Thank you so much for spending 50 years of your life curating this video for us poor idiots. If you hadn't explained it at such great length, given our extremely limited cognitive faculties, we couldn't have grasped a word.
That you group Getz and Kenny G together makes you a non jazz musician definitely. Getz is very harmonically advanced and hyper-melodic. That said no one is happier that Hank is getting some love I noticed his playing over and over as a teen jazz student in the 70s.
I really like 10+ minute solos when performed by someone such as Pharaoh Sanders. But broadly speaking i agree it's a liability for general audiences who may enjoy jazz but aren't deep into it. However, good chunk of jazz history favored more economic solos. Bird himself is reported to have called recorded solos longer than few choruses basically "practicing" in public lol. This makes even more sense when you recall only late in his brief career were there Long Playing 33rpm recording available.
Love that you displayed how gorgeous many of Bird's melodies are just by slowing down a gem like Blues for Alice. Parker's Mood doesn't even need to be slowed down. And the amazing melodies r there throughout solo.
BeBop began in the 40's, not the 50's. Guys first heard BeBop while coming back from Europe after the war. In terms of what Wynton actually is and does, I would say he's a taxidermist. An excellent taxidermist of the highest order, but a taxidermist nonetheless.
It’s so tiresome to listen to amateurs when we have primary sources available. This is a very superficial attempt to address deeper issues in American music. Your approach is slapdash and condescending at the same time. Why do so many Brits feel that they have to explain our culture to us? i’d rather hear your takes on Brexit.
Wynton Marsalis talked a good game but jazz, like all music, ain't about how you talk. Jazz is about how you play. Other musicians, like Miles Davis, are forever listened to around the world because they focus on what they play. Miles Davis, the Rolling Stones, Paul Desmond and so many other great musicians never wasted their time thinking about what to say about music. They just played great music and rocked on. And still rock on, forever.
I just last night stumbled upon an article in the Washington Post (2/4/23), which suggests that the hat was stolen by "neighborhood kids" who were unable to sell it. It's not explained how, but Bill Robinson ended up with the hat. The article quotes Jim Haskins and N.R. Mitgang whose 1988 biography of Robinson says, “The episode became a joke on the street," eventually leading to his acquiring the moniker. Regarding Jerry Jeff Walker writing the song, David Bromberg recorded a live version, which was released on his album Demon in Disguise. He interrupts the song to tell about touring with Walker, and provides some colorful background to the circumstances behind Walker's encounter with the titular wandering dancer. Might just be my favorite version of the song.
To be fair to Wynton....wasn't he right about the purpose of pop music? It's primary function is to make as much money as it can, chasing whatever trend it can. Haven't we seen enough of that in our lifetimes to know it's true?
One thing of note: the “Big 3” of Japanese jazz each represent a flavour of jazz fusion - Prism - Jazz Rock The Square - Jazz Funk/Pop Casiopea - Straight Jazz Fusion They’re all very evident on each of these band’s debut albums. Prism has several songs that really stem from progressive rock, T Square’s debut is very much a disco album, and Casiopea takes up the jazz tradition, sounding like Chick Corea or Weather Report.
Monty wrote the theme melody (good sign bad sign) which Barry salvaged, and retweaked. Barry wrote the rest, including the elegant danger vamp in the beginning of the theme. In my book, Barry is the genius.
Well...Miles stole solar. It wouldn’t matter if he built on it. But he appropriated authorship, that’s theft and it most likely made him a lot of money. John Lennon was persecuted for using two lines of text from a Chuck Berry song.
I was way into Hank Mobley for a couple of years. Listened every day. Studied him. The problem with Hank is, it's not all good. I'm sure heroin played a role. But there's so much that is iconic to me, some real masterpieces of "spontaneous composing".
I love Wynton Marsalis. His opinions used to bug me, but I understand and respect them now. And he is more than just a skilled player. He is still one of the best jazz musicians in the history of the art form.
After Charlie Parker's dead . Miles tried to stole Charlie Parker`s Donna Lee ... each time that he listened new chord changes and/or ways of playing 'jazz' ... he wanted to be credited by that ...
How is Hank underrated? He played and recorded with virtually every major trumpeter (Dizzy, Miles, Hubbard, Lee Morgan) every major drummer (Max, Blakey, Philly Joe, Elvin), every major pianist (Monk, Horace, Wynton, Barry, Sonny Clark, Kenny Drew) and so on.... We all should be that underrated!
He did this often, it's surprising that musicians didn't lean on him about it. One person he gave credit to was Wayne Shorter. Perhaps Wayne gave Miles a good talking to. Other members of the 2nd Great Quintet were also given composer credit occasionally.
Yes, technically the origins of the theme are a melody of Norman's from an obscure musical that was never produced and it took Barry's musical instinct and arrangement to turn it into gold. Clearly Norman could not. I agree that Barry did just fine throughout his career financially and in terms of artistic acclaim. Even so, I think most artists would still be frustrated after doing the work he did and seeing the royalties go to someone else. The contrast between the JB Theme and the rest of the Dr. No soundtrack is pretty stark. As someone who hunted down Bond soundtracks on vinyl as a kid (while my peers were buying pop music 🙂), overall it's a pretty weak score. I've only seen a few interviews with Norman on Bond DVD extras and such, referencing the origins of the theme. In any case, he was extremely fortunate that his work got the Barry orchestration and he was able to capitalize on it, especially since that would be his one and only contribution to the franchise and it would not be his musical perspective that would define the Bond sound for decades to come.
