Good gig, and "Why People Don't Like Jazz"

Had a really good gig last night. Quartet at the Sidewalk Cafe on Ave A in NYC. Plus, I got home in time to watch the Yankees salvage a game against the Mets. All in all, an excellent night. The same group has another gig on July 15, and I'm looking forward to it. Putting together additional repertoire - last night was only one set, the next gig is two sets.

Now - after us there was a duo, alto and upright bass. Young kids, and deadly serious. They were the ultimate example of why people don't like jazz. Their manner was totally off-putting. No talking to the audience (if you call the band that played before you, the sound-person and a waitress an "audience"), no introduction of tunes. Plus, they showed up late (we could have played an extra 10 or 15 minutes. I guess they were on JST - "Jazz Standard Time" - thanks, Rob). And my personal favorite, after a tune (which sucked) we all responded with undeserved enthusiastic/encouraging applause, the sax player FINALLY deigned to acknowledge it with the slightest nod of his head. WHOA!! Jackass! I don't NEED to clap! I could have just told you that it sucked and that you should abandon whatever twisted vision of music you're laboring under. But I did the polite thing and tried to support your lame endeavor. You should at least show a little appreciation for our attention.

Now, the reason they sucked so bad. Tha bass player had intonation troubles, which is not uncommon for a young upright player. I could almost have forgiven this. The alto player, who had a nice sound and some chops, would seemingly play the melody to the tune IN A DIFFERENT KEY than the bass player. At first I thought he hadn't transposed something correctly, but he made a habit of doing this, so I can only assume that he thinks it's some sort of stylistic/musical breakthrough worthy of dedicating his "art" to. He is, sadly, misguided. It just sounded bad. And it certainly didn't give the bass player anything to anchor his adrift-at-sea intonation to. I kept trying to find some logic to what was taking place, but there was none. He would sort of start the tune in a different key, but gradually make his way around to the same key as the bass player. I really couldn't tell if it was intentional or not, but either way, it just didn't sound.

Playing in a duo, with no chords, is hard enough to put across. You have music that people find too abstract already, and further remove any points of harmonic reference (compounded by his haphazard polytonalism). It really becomes gnat notes. There was nothing to grab hold of, nothing worth an investment of your attention. This, combined with the serious, aloof stage demeanor - it's easy to see why jazz is no longer popular music.

Now, as the blog goes along you will see that I have fairly broad musical tastes, and I would only encourage someone to push the envelope in any way they think matters. But, when something is just bad, well, I'll call it out and say so. This was just bad. I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt - I had my young serious days, when I was far too full of myself. I could forgive that. I certainly have played things that traveled too far along the abstract highway. And I don't need(nor do I think it should) for jazz to be "dumbed down" to try and broaden it's appeal. But, before you subject an audience, however small, to your ramblings, you better have your shit together. If not - back to the woodshed.