Most over-praised musician

[David Ayers]

Ok its a hodge podge. Still, I had no difficulty placing my vote!

[David Ayers]

PS Excluding WM of course cuz we just about covered that.

[jazzbo]

Freddie Hubbard.

[brownie]

Keith Jarrett

[Claude]

Joe Zawinul

[Joe G]

I didn't vote, as I don't even know anything about some of these people, so obviously to me they aren't over-praised. Wasn't there an issue of JazzTimes that tried this concept on their cover a few years ago? Just to get everybody pissed off so they'd write letters to the editor? Lame.

[Claude]

I guess Norah Jones is excluded too?

[Dan Gould]

Actually, I enjoyed that cover article and its follow-up letters. While it did give some people an opportunity to mouth off about some guys it also gave some props to people who deserve it.

You know, if you remember that its all individual opinion, you ought to be able to accept it for what it is. Not that I'm speaking directly to you, Joe-more in terms of the letters of outrage that people wrote to Jazztimes.

I would nominate Keith Jarrett too. Or Thomas Chapin, but only because anyone that Steve Reynolds overpraises couldn't have been that good.

[paul secor]

Quite an odd collection of musicians listed to vote for. There are a few whose music I've never heard, but I wouldn't consider any of them over-praised. Are these just musicans whose playing you don't care for?

[John L]

Ken Vandermark

David Douglas

[tonym]

Britney 'Titney Spheres' Spears.

Oh, and Mariah.

errr, Celine.

umm, Kelly Osbourne.

bloody Justin Timberlake.

MADONNA

Surely those on the list fade in comparison in terms of being over-rated.

[Joe G]

Well, for me the problem with the JazzTimes cover wasn't so much the free expression of everyone's opinions. That's fine. It was the inherant contradiction of a magazine devoted to publishing articles and reviews of the works of these musicians allowing their critics to take potshots at certain people for being "over-rated". In my view, the musicians are just doing the work to the best of their abilities. It's the critics that are doing the rating (as well as the listeners). Keith Jarret has no control over how he's rated, praised, or despised. His job is to make music. So, my issue is that the blame seemed to be falling on the players rather than the marketplace.

[Dan Gould]

I see your point, Joe, but who does the "rating"? Its the critics, so while the subject might be Jarrett, one critic is taking the rest to task for over-rating him; or, in the case of the "under" rated, saying why don't you people recognize this guy.

I think it was the partisans of certain musicians like Jarrett and Ornette who took the greatest umbrage at any suggestion their favorites are "over-rated", not the musicians themselves.

[Brad]

I'm surprised Wynton M wasn't picked for this list.

[EBrew]

Considering how hard it is to play jazz - NO musician is overrated in comparison to main stream artists.

[David Ayers]

I missed off Eberhard Weber, whose brand of bland annoyingness we were all once supposed to revere as 'art'.

[Joe G]

I see your point, Joe, but who does the "rating"?  Its the critics, so while the subject might be Jarrett, one critic is taking the rest to task for over-rating him; or, in the case of the "under" rated, saying why don't you people recognize this guy.

I think it was the partisans of certain musicians like Jarrett and Ornette who took the greatest umbrage at any suggestion their favorites are "over-rated", not the musicians themselves.

If that were the case, that it was one critic taking only his peers to task, then it doesn't seem like everyone would have gotten so riled up feeling the need to defend their favorite musicians. Instead, they would have defended their favorite critics. Unless it was just one big misunderstanding.

I did see at least one letter from a female singer (whom I hadn't even heard of) who made someone's list for over-rated. She articulated more or less the same view I gave earlier, that if she was over-rated, JT surely had something to do with that, since they had favorably reviewed her album and wrote a nice article about a concert of hers. And there was a letter from Jarrett, who, not suprisingly, gave a big

I can understand the desire to deflate some of the over-reverential hero worship that sometimes occurs in this business, though. People can get carried away.

[Dan Gould]

Can we at least agree that, when it comes to ways to rile up their readership, the over-rated/under-rated issue was a much better way to do it than hiring Stanley Crouch?

[Joe G]

NO!

[Joe G]

Actually Dan, I think you are right on that, by a slim margin. But firing Stanley Crouch, now that was a stroke of genius! Now they got Stanley trying to rile everybody up!

[connoisseur series500]

I don't know many of the poll selections so I didn't vote. They can't be that much over-praised when I haven't heard of these guys.

My selection would be Josh Redman. He's a good tenor player, but nowhere near as good as the critics rave. The only cd I have of his which I feel qualifies as a "keeper" would be "Mood Swing," and that's mostly because of the piano work of Brian Meldau.

He is certainly a good tenor player; I don't claim he isn't, but I just don't think he's the greatest thing since Coltrane as the critics like to state.

[JohnS]

Esbjorn Svensson-just can't understand all those four star reviews.

[David Ayers]

Well my selection might not have been very well thought through (), but I was just basically getting at the fact that at certain times certain names get pushed and then pushed some more, but basically beyond the fact that they can tickle or puff their instrument you can never quite see what the big deal is. I don't blame artists (except the self-hypers), but a media (including 'big' companies and the futile infrastructure of reviewers and critics) which needs someone to puff or it will fold.

[shrugs]

Seems like an odd selection. And the fact that it contains two great yet mostly ignored saxophone players of the music makes it even more puzzling.

[John L]

On that point, how many people could really be "sick of hearing about" the vast majority of artists on the Leo label? Or should I ask, how many people have even heard of the vast majority of artists on the Leo label?

Edited June 16, 2003 by John L