why jazz doesn't speak to me
The other night I went to a jazz concert in San Francisco. It was contemporary free jazz, and I knew of one of the musicians, and respected his percussion work quite a lot. I thought I might review it for New Music Box, as a kind of exercise. If you can write an effective review of a genre which you really dislike, that's a success of some kind, right? So I thought. I won't mention who the band was but I quickly realized that I had nothing to say about them. Well, what I mean is, I had a lot to say but it wasn't very polite. I realized that it wasn't so much that I hate jazz, it was more that I just could not understand anything it was saying and the performance was just, well, irritating. Irritating like someone you're not attracted to but who is interested in you, and they won't leave you alone. Jazz keeps wanting to seduce me but I wish it wold just go away. While listening to the band, I took some notes:
"I don't know what it says, where it's been, whose brain cells it passed through to get here but I hate this music. I hate jazz's inherent homophobia and its incapacity for clear statement. I hate its reliance on vagery and slipperiness. I don't like that it is only able to say one thing, musically speaking, which is 'I stopped now, aren't you surprised?' I hate its reliance, on boring cliche and its macho attitude. My capacity for surprise has been taxed by [__________] and now it is completely worn out, [_______] has taken it as many places as it can go and now I'm tired. Kerouac.. Boring..."
Comments
I agree that most jazz and free jazz is b-o-r-i-n-g and too macho, unless you consider philip cohran as strictly"free jazz". I think his is the only group I can really get into(erm.. dance stupid dances at home to).
Posted by: David | March 29, 2006 8:52 PM
"I hate jazz's inherent homophobia"
I'm not deep in the jazz scene or anything, but there's stuff I like. I wonder if you could elaborate on this statement, as it's not something I've ever been aware of and would like to know about.
Posted by: Les | April 2, 2006 3:51 PM
It just seems to me that jazz, at least the strain that is known as "jazz" (barring be-bop, etc), has this air of heterosexual-male bravado and pomp that is the antithesis of traditionally male homosexual ideas of kitsch and camp, which mock those straight-man values.
I know there are a lot of gay people who are very much into jazz. And the Log Cabin Republicans exist as well, so gays are equally as capable of oxymoronic behavior as any other group.
Posted by: roddy | April 3, 2006 12:25 PM