Everyone, I feel so drawn in to this topic and my post will be 'winded. You have been warned.
As a child, my home was veried on thier music habits. My mother loved R&B (a part of my heart goes to the late Luther Vandross....what a musician). Her mother (grandma 1) loved gospel (I still like the Winans, Andre Crouch, etc). My grandfather loved jazz. My father's mother loved jazz. I had a mix of different types of music.
To be brief (or at least try), I see a major difference between the music exposure of my generation (I'm 25) and the 16-18 year olds today.
The major reasons that most kids today don't know about jazz or classical is:
1. School teachers are not as 'stringent' to teach these art forms to students as 10-20 years ago.
2. The ear (ability to discern and appreciate music) is lost in most comtemporary music. Ability to extract melodic, harmonic and poly-harmonic details doesn't help you keep 'jiggy' with J-Lo or 'crumped' with Lil' John and the Eastsiders.
3. Kids who do actively listen to 'instrumental' music are hiding behind it--no more 'loud pride' in loving jazz. Lucky for me I knew lots of 'band geeks'. Miles was the man!
Do I fear for what music is to come? Yes. Not personally--I don't mind finding the $3 Coltrane albums or the $1 Lee Morgans.....all the better for me. What I fear is what is happening to literature and already has started in paintings--disconnection with the emotional.
See, music is a language. (Ok, you guessed afro18 is black) In my heritage, music was the spirit of strength being passed from fieldhand to fieldhand. On Sunday, it was a way to connect with The Master, the Eternal. In the early century (blues), it helped you understand the depression that man felt.
I feel power in the ability to commmune with the past. When I listen to Coltrane, I feel what he felt. Trane's music speaks to the inside of me. Same for Bill Evans. Ditto Art Pepper and Miles (although Miles is more difficult for me). Let me add also Billie Holiday, "Mama" Mahalia Jackson, John Lee Hooker, and more.
So, in conclusion....I must say that the main reason kids nowadays don't know about Jazz and classical is because they don't know about music. Music is a language.
God bless my father's mother (grandmother). Had she not spent those hours playing Eddie Harris, Trane, and Lionel Hampton on the old Dual with me in her arms I might not know either *watery eyes*
thanks for letting me speak.
As a child, my home was veried on thier music habits. My mother loved R&B (a part of my heart goes to the late Luther Vandross....what a musician). Her mother (grandma 1) loved gospel (I still like the Winans, Andre Crouch, etc). My grandfather loved jazz. My father's mother loved jazz. I had a mix of different types of music.
To be brief (or at least try), I see a major difference between the music exposure of my generation (I'm 25) and the 16-18 year olds today.
The major reasons that most kids today don't know about jazz or classical is:
1. School teachers are not as 'stringent' to teach these art forms to students as 10-20 years ago.
2. The ear (ability to discern and appreciate music) is lost in most comtemporary music. Ability to extract melodic, harmonic and poly-harmonic details doesn't help you keep 'jiggy' with J-Lo or 'crumped' with Lil' John and the Eastsiders.
3. Kids who do actively listen to 'instrumental' music are hiding behind it--no more 'loud pride' in loving jazz. Lucky for me I knew lots of 'band geeks'. Miles was the man!
Do I fear for what music is to come? Yes. Not personally--I don't mind finding the $3 Coltrane albums or the $1 Lee Morgans.....all the better for me. What I fear is what is happening to literature and already has started in paintings--disconnection with the emotional.
See, music is a language. (Ok, you guessed afro18 is black) In my heritage, music was the spirit of strength being passed from fieldhand to fieldhand. On Sunday, it was a way to connect with The Master, the Eternal. In the early century (blues), it helped you understand the depression that man felt.
I feel power in the ability to commmune with the past. When I listen to Coltrane, I feel what he felt. Trane's music speaks to the inside of me. Same for Bill Evans. Ditto Art Pepper and Miles (although Miles is more difficult for me). Let me add also Billie Holiday, "Mama" Mahalia Jackson, John Lee Hooker, and more.
So, in conclusion....I must say that the main reason kids nowadays don't know about Jazz and classical is because they don't know about music. Music is a language.
God bless my father's mother (grandmother). Had she not spent those hours playing Eddie Harris, Trane, and Lionel Hampton on the old Dual with me in her arms I might not know either *watery eyes*
thanks for letting me speak.