Post Django Gold, the trend continues

[7/4]

Justin Moyer

2:52 PM EDT

Dear Readers:

The piece above is a work of parody and was not meant to be taken seriously. My apologies to anyone who thought it was real.

The reasons given for jazz being boring and overrated are ridiculously flimsy and ill-informed. Ask anyone who knows me--I do not feel this way. I might as well have penned a column that says, "I don't understand soccer and thus it's boring and overrated." Sure, some Americans may concur, but such an exercise would only serve as a triumph of ignorance.

Thanks for reading.

Another fucking moron......kids!

ha!....check this comment out:

mperk2000

2:24 PM EDT

Just a dumb white boy who prefers country western because he knows how to clap to it.

[Larry Kart]

"A work of parody"? Parody of what? Django Gold's piece? In order to parody that, or anything for that matter, you'd have to imitate the nature of what you're parodying. Moyer didn't even try. As for "Ask anyone who knows me," I have asked several people who know Moyer what they think about him, but I can't say in a public forum what they said.

[danasgoodstuff]

Sad part was that some of those defending jazz in the comments were just as clueless....but what is it with no good parody/satire being written, is it the writers or the times or what?

[bogdan101]

"A work of parody"? Parody of what? Django Gold's piece? In order to parody that, or anything for that matter, you'd have to imitate the nature of what you're parodying. Moyer didn't even try. As for "Ask anyone who knows me," I have asked several people who know Moyer what they think about him, but I can't say in a public forum what they said.

That was probably just a comment by a reader, not by the author.

John Coltrane is "John Coltrane", and Wynton Marsalis is "jazz giant Wynton Marsalis". How much funnier than that can you get?

[mjzee]

I dare Django Gold and Justin Moyer to have the guts to write a "satire" about Kim Kardashian. Kim's publicist would get on the phone and have them out of a job within hours. Or how about a "satire" about football, or (dear to the New Yorker's heart) Vogue Magazine or the New York Film Festival? Putting down jazz is too easy because there's no one with muscle to fight back, y'know?

[Big Beat Steve]

Satire or not, is he "putting down jazz" per se or is he putting down certain styles of jazz?

Maybe this (misconception IMO) is part of the problem in the first place?

Don't tell me you claim that free jazz/avantgarde is the beginning and end (or should I say culmination) of jazz?

BTW, this here ....

"The band starts a song, but then everything falls apart and the musicians just play whatever they want for as long they can stand it. People take turns noodling around, and once they run out of ideas and have to stop, the audience claps."

very, very strangely reminds me of what some jazz insider (musician?) said or wrote about bebop when first being exposed to it in 1945. Can't find the exact wording of it right now (though it's been quoted and printed often). And anybody passably aware of the history of jazz ought to be aware of that quote so if you write something like the above then either it IS a put-on or it uncannily borders on one.

And that thing about that "inglorious flirtation with jazz" makes the entire piece reek that much of sour grapes etc. that it is pretty hard not to see it as some sort of attempt at being tongue-in-cheek (never mind if that attempt was successful or not..).

[7/4]

jazz is not just a pretty tune.

[Big Beat Steve]

Who ever said so?

But jazz most definitely is not just all "screeching" either.

And the entire rest of this debate (and similar ones) ultimately is just a matter of taste. And tastes do differ. Like everywhere else in everyday life too.

Edited August 10, 2014 by Big Beat Steve

[Scott Dolan]

So the author employed some truly nefarious misdirection by announcing up front it wasn't satire.

Then he sheepishly owns up to it being a parody?

What a piece of shit. If I were his editor, he'd be on the streets.

[Big Beat Steve]

So the author employed some truly nefarious misdirection by announcing up front it wasn't satire.

Would't have been the first time pieces were written (on whatever subject matter) that started off by saying "this is NOT a parody" when in fact they were.

Admittedly that piece read pretty non-satire - BUT: Didn't any of you feel that from the moment the author admitted his "brief and inglorious" association with jazz that this piece COULD only be less than straight? Because .... hey .... nobody who gets published would be dumb enough NOT to notice that THIS statement alone were a blatant invitation to being torn to shreds by the defenders of whatever he attacked in that piece, isn't it? You don't serve your opponents the ammo to shoot you THAT easily on a silver platter ....

So ... big deal ...

Honestly, as long as others put down other streams of music (including certain facets of jazz) - and they ARE out there and they DO get published - that THEY don't like or for some reason feel of lesser musical worth (by their personal yardsticks ultimately dictated by their own tastes and not by some higher truth) then he can go on about why he can't stand Brötzmann et al. To each his own ... simple as that ...

and the caravan passes ....

[bogdan101]

So the author employed some truly nefarious misdirection by announcing up front it wasn't satire.

Then he sheepishly owns up to it being a parody?

What a piece of shit. If I were his editor, he'd be on the streets.

Most likely that comment was by a reader pretending to be the author.

Hey, a Washington Post column mentioning Parker, Coltrane, Dolphy, Mingus, Braxton and Brotzmann is a good thing regardless of what it says.

Edited August 10, 2014 by bogdan101

[7/4]

All what jazz? Or: How to declare something dead without listening to it

By Chris Richards

the Washington Post, August 11

[T.D.]

I'm not sure that the Moyer piece was satire.

Both it and the Gold piece confused me. Thinking about it for a while, maybe such pieces are a first step toward arguing that jazz is institutionally over-represented in MacArthur Foundation grants, Kennedy Center Awards, Pulitzer Prizes and the like. (I think there was some debate in the UK a few years ago concerning the premise that classical music was over-subsidized and that more "popular" musics should receive a larger share of subsidy money.)

[7/4]

I'm not sure that the Moyer piece was satire.

Both it and the Gold piece confused me. Thinking about it for a while, maybe such pieces are a first step toward arguing that jazz is institutionally over-represented in MacArthur Foundation grants, Kennedy Center Awards, Pulitzer Prizes and the like. (I think there was some debate in the UK a few years ago concerning the premise that classical music was over-subsidized and that more "popular" musics should receive a larger share of subsidy money.)

Good lord...more "popular" music!

[Neal Pomea]

They're giving parody and satire a bad name.

[medjuck]

Interesting that he chose to single out Wes Montgomery. When I heard him live some 50 years ago (on a double bill with Rahsaan Roland Kirk!) I thought he was the greatest improvisor I'd ever heard. (I, of course, can't really remember exactly what he played but nothing I've heard since has made me change my mind.) He was a great example of someone whose records did not capture his greatness.

[Neal Pomea]

I dare Django Gold and Justin Moyer to have the guts to write a "satire" about Kim Kardashian. Kim's publicist would get on the phone and have them out of a job within hours. Or how about a "satire" about football, or (dear to the New Yorker's heart) Vogue Magazine or the New York Film Festival? Putting down jazz is too easy because there's no one with muscle to fight back, y'know?

It's like I was saying the other day. Whatever happened to comedy that mocks the powerful?

Edited August 12, 2014 by Neal Pomea

[jazzbo]

It just proves to me something that I have begun to realize (partly tongue-in-cheek, partly very not): no one should write about jazz.

[Stefan Wood]

I just see it as a build it up/tear it down thing in journalism. Not very intelligent writing.

[Scott Dolan]

It just proves to me something that I have begun to realize (partly tongue-in-cheek, partly very not): no one should write about jazz.

I agree with that to the extent you mean it.

But how did Jazz end up being such a go to hot button issue?!

[jazzbo]

Partly I think because of its origins in shady districts and among the unempowered, partly due to racist minds and economically fueled conflict, it always HAS been. And now that it is a tiny little music market with a widespread diverse "following," even jazz fans find less common ground by the day in views of its past and its future. And it has little foothold in the present, little solidity and solidarity, artists and fans alike clash over petty and big notions, gigs and "cool prestige."

[Scott Dolan]

I suppose that's right.

But let me rephrase my question: why has it become such a hot button issue in the national media?

It's not like these are small blogs or niche publications.

I guess the real question is why Jazz?

[Larry Kart]

It just proves to me something that I have begun to realize (partly tongue-in-cheek, partly very not): no one should write about jazz.

I agree with that to the extent you mean it.

But how did Jazz end up being such a go to hot button issue?!

My partial guess about how (from post #10 above): "Is it an oblique latter-day offshoot of the whole solemn Marsalis-Crouch The Great God Jazz is Freedom Embodied theme, with an order of "Jazz is America's Classical Music" on the side?'

Oversell the idea that a particular cultural entity is surpassingly good for you and also exemplifies the highest human values, and a fair number of people are going to decide that this entirety instead exemplifies their desire to spit out/spit on what "nanny" has put on the table. Also, did any of us come to like jazz because some figures of would-be authority told us we should?

[jazzbo]

I suppose that's right.

But let me rephrase my question: why has it become such a hot button issue in the national media?

It's not like these are small blogs or niche publications.

I guess the real question is why Jazz?

I think it's really just a little drib and drab of media attention. Comare it to say rock, or rap.

[Scott Dolan]

My point is that it just seems like such an off the beaten path subject to use, especially when trying to scare up a cultural squabble (which it seems these "authors" are trying to do). Why use an art form 90% of the people in this country already consider long gone for such a purpose? Hell, that doesn't even make for good rubbernecking material.

I mean, ultimately, aren't we Jazz fans the only ones who truly get any mileage out of the Marsalis/Crouch thing?

Edited August 12, 2014 by Scott Dolan