I took the liberty of sharing this Paul Secular quote with a colleague of mine, who is also a former modslister: Paul Secular wrote: >>If you're all so clever - why doesn't one of you explain why, 'Green Onions' for example, is 'soul' and not hammond/dancefloor jazz. Please excuse my ignorance (I'm no music expert - just someone who loves listening to it and dancing to it...) - but what is the definition of jazz? << Below are his thoughts on the topic. From: Brian Phillips <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: What is Soul? What is Jazz? As it always is with music, boundaries are hard to define. Soul, to me is R&B with a heavy southern U.S. Gospel feel. While it is true that Jazz certainly did infuse Soul with Jazz (nothing new as Jazz is very open to assimilating diverse influences), not every piece of African-American based music without words, with improvisation is Jazz. I will grant you that some Soul has Jazz tendencies, but it is NOT Jazz. Jazz has many, many definitions (one of my favorites is, "an articulation of a people suffering"), but it also can be partially defined as a summation of influences, infused with Blues, Ragtime and improvisation. Green Onions? Soul, but closer to Blues, which is defined by the feel of the song and the solos. Nothing really too Jazzy about the solos or accompaniment (i.e., no ninth chords, the backing never varies), as they are quite rough and funky. Notice I didn't say less articulate and ignorant, just different from Jazz. Work constricts me slightly from going into too much depth, but are there such things as Soul instrumentals? Certainly. To confine Soul solely (sorry) to the vocal realm is constricting and unnecessary... ...and not at all Jazzy, if you will. Brian Phillips
