On Fri, 11 Feb 2005 10:23:36 -0500, John Howell wrote:And I don't even need to do more than mention jazz, which has finally made it as an academic study and lost sponteneity and creativity in the process (referring to the current fad of be-bop worship).
Be-bop worship? I'm not aware of this fad. Do you mean the worship of be-bop, or the use of be-bop in church music? Either way, I'm not familiar with this phenomenon.
I guess you *will* need to "do more than mention" jazz. :)
The academic approach is exemplified by the curriculum at Berklee, which emphasized (and may still do so) transcribing from recordings of "Golden Age" be-boppers. Terrific ear training, no question about it, but memorizing Charlie Parker solos is only the beginning, not the eventual goal, for a jazz player or singer. And that Berklee approach has been adopted at many other schools, including this one before state budget cuts gutted our excellent and growing jazz program. The be-bop greats themselves weren't imitating anybody else, and the market for imitation Charlie Parkers is somewhat limited.
Disclaimer: While I've worked with some really fine jazz players over the years, it isn't my field and I'm not up to date on what the really creative people are doing these days. I'm just looking at it from inside academia.
John
-- John & Susie Howell Virginia Tech Department of Music Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240 Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034 (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
