elitism, etc.

Haverstick here...a story from my own experience will show pretty well
what I mean by musical elitism. I have a good friend in Denver who is
a hell of a classical clarinetist...able to play very difficult works,
great sight reader, plays good jazz, and can improvise. He is openminded
enough to try about any kind of music, and occasionally takes blues gigs,
too. But, one day he gave his true thoughts away when he said, basically,
that "Classical music is superior to blues"...Yikes! I couldn't believe
my ears, but he really meant it. Only thing is, he's a mediocre blues
player, and has barely a clue about the true depth of the genre, and
knows none of the real serious standard riffs, or how to use the rhythms
of the style to make it happen...I finally quit hiring him for my blues
gigs because it was embarrasing me.

So how, then, is classical repertoire "superior" to blues if this dude
can't even PLAY the blues? And, I hate to say it, but I've heard this
sort of nonsense over the years from other players, mostly classical
musicians, but occasionally from jazz players as well...country music,
for example, is boring because it's too "simple", or blues is "easy"
because it only has 3 chords...ugh. One thing that has set me apart
over the years is an ability to move from genre to genre, and both play
and appreciate what makes each musical dialect unique and profound...
I have hung with just about every sort of musical faction in Denver,
and I've played blues, rock, country, jazz, classical, flamenco, folk,
bluegrass, and miscellaneous other styles as well...from this moving
around, I've come to the conclusion that all styles are equal at their
deepest level. Interestingly enough, I have found that most players can
only do one style well...very rarely do you find blues guys that can
play bop, or flamenco guys that can play blues, or classical folks that
can improvise competently. The level of ability required to play (or
sing) like BB King is surely the same as the ability to play Bach
or Beethoven, and the fact that you can sight read your butt off does
not mean that you can play "Crazy" by Willie Nelson worth a poot.
Believe me, I've been on many a gig where a bunch of jazz musicians
absolutely ruined some rockabilly tunes because they didn't have a
clue as to what the proper FEEL was. I always dreaded doing '50's
music on big band gigs because it sounded ridiculous...and, what made
it worse was that a lot of the players didn't even know, or care,
that it sucked.
So, that's what I mean by musical elitism, the inability to realize
that different folks express their souls with different sorts of
musical expression, and that the level of feeling reached is the only
real issue, not the number of chords in a piece, or it's supposed
complexity. There is much complex music, Schoenberg's serial music
being one prime example, that is almost totally devoid of any humanity
or passion, and much "simple" music, blues again being a good example,
that moves me to tears or joy. Willie Dixon's "Spoonful", to me, is a
great masterpiece of composition, and there's only one chord. And,
Bartok has stated that his really serious life's work in music was
his collecting and cataloging of folk music.
This is directed not at anyone in particular, but I did need to clarify
this point. I am aware that there will always be music, or other kinds
of art, that will not be liked or understood by large groups of people;
this is not an issue...not a whole lot of folks understand the Theory
Of Relativity, either, but it is a masterpiece. I don't like the
sort of false elitism that comes with a sort of smug superiority complex
that says "we are inherently superior to you" because "our" art is
"better" than yours. There are no bad styles of music, only poor
individuals within a style.

One last brief question...Jon (sorry, I don't know your last name), you
said something in your last post about "free" music, and how it remin_
ded you of when you were a child in the '60's...since I never used that
word in any of my posts, I'm not sure how you were applying that to
what I said...could you elaborate a bit? Thanks, Hstick

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