Jazz at its best is just as polyphonic as Palestrina, just as harmonic as Haydn, just as complex as Chopin, just as riveting as Ravel, and requires the musicianship of a Marsalis or a Milhaud--who as a classical composer taught jazz to Dave Brubeck, who taught it to Darius Brubeck, who taught it to Pamela Myburgh among many others.
America has its classical composers who are the equal of anything out of Europe, from MacDowell to Gershwin to Ives to Still to Copland to Bernstein to Cascarino to John Adams and John Williams, but jazz at its best is the American classical music.
Love Classical, it’s the only music I listen to.
Hate Copeland. NPR is CONSTANTLY playing his Appalachian Spring. I hear 1/4 second of it, and reflexes take over, and I’m on another station. Copeland is the Progressive classical.
I discovered Polish Jazz (yes there is such a thing)
My favorite is this album
Komeda - Astigmatic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9KM_KJKPMo
I had no clue stuff like this was being made behind The Iron Curtain
I saw Charlie Mingus at the Village Gate around ‘77. Danny Richmond I think was on drums and he just seemed to roll out of a ventilation duct and land on his feet. Somehow they managed to herd all that chaos and coral it into something that made sense — a picture of city, traffic, people, moment.
I saw the Grateful Dead once. Yes, I went. I served. I was there.
Then other day I revisited them by way of a 50-minute Youtube video: I needed the time to try to install an alternator. It was before J.Garcia had completely cooked himself and had a little bit of bite left. It was good-bad, but there were sublime instances. It can get repetitive and predictable, but occasionally...