Could Jazz Provide the Occupy Wall Street Soundtrack?

[Teasing the Korean]

http://www.salon.com/2011/10/25/smooth_no_more_jazz_gets_political/

[cannonball-addict]

Good article.

[colinmce]

No offense intended but I thought the article was ridiculous.

[Big Wheel]

No offense intended but I thought the article was ridiculous.

Agreed. While I like Darcy James Argue's music very much I have a feeling he didn't have any idea what Johnson's real angle for this piece was going to be. Argue is basically saying that his music is political and topical, and that's fine. But that's very different from what Johnson is saying, which is that jazz has some special claim as protest music in 2011 that other styles do not have, while not bothering to support this point at all.

Mostly it's just an incoherent mess though. How is Leo Smith's piece, which is an explicit commemoration of events that happened 50 years ago, supposed to any connection whatsoever to Occupy Wall Street?

[colinmce]

Note this: I saw this story when it first posted and the headline was "Smooth No More: Jazz Gets Political" (which is six different kinds of stupid all by itself) but when I checked back a couple hours later they somehow slipped OWS in there. Absolutely random and definitely not the original impetus for the article.

& I don't think it needs to be said that political jazz was made all through the 70s, 80s, 90s, and 00s. For that matter saying that jazz took an "easy listening" bent in the 80s is totally odd, like saying that Peter Cetera-era Chicago wholly characterized rock and pop music in the 1980s.

[johnlitweiler]

The auy who wrote the article is too young to know that folk music, pop music, and sacred music that provided the musical element in the civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1950s and '60s. Of course a some of the best jazz musicians back then expressed their solidarity with the Freedom movement. But for instance it was Mahalia Jackson, not Sonny Rollins or Archie Shepp, who sang with Reverend King.

[Teasing the Korean]

I am not defending the article, but I agree with the sentiment expressed that beginning around the 1980s, when jazz started becoming a heritage industry and losing its relevance, that jazz has not been perceived as being particularly connected to any sort of social or political movements.

[Big Wheel]

I am not defending the article, but I agree with the sentiment expressed that beginning around the 1980s, when jazz started becoming a heritage industry and losing its relevance, that jazz has not been perceived as being particularly connected to any sort of social or political movements.

But what do we mean by relevance? To the vast majority of Americans jazz was already irrelevant by 1980. Would it really be a stretch to say it was already irrelevant by about 1973? How relevant was it in 1968? Because most of the people connected with the radical/protest culture of that time don't seem to have been inspired by it nearly as much as other styles.

The "heritage industry" transformation to me is more of a symptom than the cause.

[.:.impossible]

Ignorance is bliss as I bumble through.

[mattes]

What's the point of the "bigband" contraction. Is that a socio-political statement?

[Big Wheel]

Argue himself doesn't use the single-word version consistently on his blog (yes, I checked using Google). I am left to conclude that Argue used "bigband" in a hurriedly typed email to Johnson without thinking much about it, and Johnson made a big deal out of it because...well, probably because he had nothing of substance to say.

[A Lark Ascending]

I am not defending the article, but I agree with the sentiment expressed that beginning around the 1980s, when jazz started becoming a heritage industry and losing its relevance, that jazz has not been perceived as being particularly connected to any sort of social or political movements.

Equally true of other forms of music in the West. Music tends to be regarded as either entertainment (for indulging in) or 'Art' (to be glowered at over pince-nez).

Be interesting to know what part musicians are playing in Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Syria.

[thedwork]

No offense intended but I thought the article was ridiculous.

i had the same reaction to merely reading the title and its subtitle. then, proceeding to read through the entire article just made matters worse. dreadful...

[Dan Gould]

I don't see why jazz couldn't provide the soundtrack, they'd just need to commission a few new songs like:

"These Zionist Jews (Got to Go)"

"Crapping on a Cop Car" (maybe someone can rip off the "Smoking in the Boys Room" riff for that one)

"Raped? (Don't tell the cops)"

[Leeway]

I don't see why jazz couldn't provide the soundtrack, they'd just need to commission a few new songs like:

"These Zionist Jews (Got to Go)"

"Crapping on a Cop Car" (maybe someone can rip off the "Smoking in the Boys Room" riff for that one)

"Raped? (Don't tell the cops)"

[Swinging Swede]

It could be Duke Ellington's Wall Street Wail.

[Dan Gould]

I don't see why jazz couldn't provide the soundtrack, they'd just need to commission a few new songs like:

"These Zionist Jews (Got to Go)"

"Crapping on a Cop Car" (maybe someone can rip off the "Smoking in the Boys Room" riff for that one)

"Raped? (Don't tell the cops)"

What exactly makes you turn thumbs down? Embrace the movement!

BTW, 964 "Likes" for that video vs 470 "Dislikes" on Huffington Post.

I'll spare everyone the image documenting suggested song title #2.

[Leeway]

Thumbs down, Dan, on your sick offensive examples (and if you can''t see that, I pity you).

[Dan Gould]

Do you really need more examples of the anti-Semitism expressed at these protests?

What was that? Its not fair to extrapolate out from the crazies and paint with such a broad brush the whole movement?

You mean, like when a smattering of Lyndon Larouchies led the MSM and every lefty you can find to label the Tea Party as racist?

Sucks when the shoe is on the other foot, huh? You can re-read my signature for another example of the hypocrisy of the left.

Edited October 30, 2011 by Dan Gould

[Teasing the Korean]

I posted this in the "Jazz in Print" forum to talk about jazz's cultural relevance, or lack thereof, relative to previous decades, not to get into a political discussion about Occupy Wall Street. I guess this should have gone into the "Politics" sub-forum. I should have known that one or more of Glenn Beck's houseboys would have chimed in.

Edited October 31, 2011 by Teasing the Korean

[Noj]

The protests have about as much to do with anti-Semitism as they do jazz.

I'd suggest "Right On For Anti-Trust Legislation," "Serenade For Patriotic Dissent," "Waltz For White Collar Crooks," "Most Unsoulful Republicans," "Willow Weep For America," "Lament For Victims Of Police Brutality," "Freedom Of Speech Suite," and "I Remember Patriotism."

[thedwork]

The protests have about as much to do with anti-Semitism as they do jazz.

agreed. and i already posted at length weeks ago on a longer video that included the very same footage that's been thrown up here. recycled bullshit for the mindless. i certainly won't be explaining that thing again...

i was listening to "Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys" today. seems to fit the movement somehow:

The percentage you're paying is too high-priced

While you're living beyond all your means

And the man in the suit has just bought a new car

From the profit he's made on your dreams

But today you just read that the man was shot dead

By a gun that didn't make any noise

But it wasn't the bullet that laid him to rest

Was the low spark of high-heeled boys

If I gave you everything that I owned

And asked for nothing in return

Would you do the same for me as I would for you

Or take me for a ride

And strip me of everything, including my pride

But spirit is something that no one destroys

And the sound that I'm hearing is only the sound

Of the low spark of high-heeled boys...

High-Heeled boys

Edited November 2, 2011 by thedwork

[Noj]

Greedy's Got $400 Million

A cop's rubber bullets hit my sister Nell.

(because Greedy's got $400 million)

Her face and arms bled and swelled.

(and Greedy's got $400 million)

I can't pay no doctor bill.

(but Greedy's got $400 million)

Ten years from now I'll be paying still.

(while Greedy's got $400 million)

The man just upped my rent last night.

(because Greedy's got $400 million)

No benefits, no raises, no better jobs.

(but Greedy's got $400 million)

I wonder why he's upping me?

(because Greedy's got $400 million?)

I was already paying too much per month.

(while Greedy's got $400 million)

Taxes taking my whole damn check,

Foreign wars making me a nervous wreck,

The cost of living keeps going up,

And as if all that shit wasn't enough:

A cop's rubber bullets sprayed my sister Nell.

(because Greedy's got $400 million)

Her face and arms bled and swelled.

(but Greedy's got $400 million)

Were all those taxes I paid last year

(for Greedy to have $400 million?)

How come there ain't no money here?

(Hmm! Greedy's got $400 million)

You know I just about had my fill

(of Greedy and his $400 million)

I think I'll send these doctor bills,

Airmail special

(to Greedy with $400 million)

...with all due respect to Gil.

[thedwork]

Greedy's Got $400 Million [*]

A cop's rubber bullets hit my sister Nell.

(because Greedy's got $400 million)

Her face and arms bled and swelled.

(and Greedy's got $400 million)

I can't pay no doctor bill.

(but Greedy's got $400 million)

Ten years from now I'll be paying still.

(while Greedy's got $400 million)

The man just upped my rent last night.

(because Greedy's got $400 million)

No benefits, no raises, no better jobs.

(but Greedy's got $400 million)

I wonder why he's upping me?

(because Greedy's got $400 million?)

I was already paying too much per month.

(while Greedy's got $400 million)

Taxes taking my whole damn check,

Foreign wars making me a nervous wreck,

The cost of living keeps going up,

And as if all that shit wasn't enough:

A cop's rubber bullets sprayed my sister Nell.

(because Greedy's got $400 million)

Her face and arms bled and swelled.

(but Greedy's got $400 million)

Were all those taxes I paid last year

(for Greedy to have $400 million?)

How come there ain't no money here?

(Hmm! Greedy's got $400 million)

You know I just about had my fill

(of Greedy and his $400 million)

I think I'll send these doctor bills,

Airmail special

(to Greedy with $400 million)

...with all due respect to Gil.

"Speculators On The Moon." rock on Noj. outstanding

[*] - did you get that $400 million figure from the current "clear channel" thread?

Edited November 2, 2011 by thedwork