Jazz for aficionados

A little more Sunday music.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLg1vRMGQolPNNaT0x5pBIH4TS68mIMKmS

acman, your Trio link was blocked, sorry. 

Rok, this is "doo wop";


  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBT3oDMCWpI


This is Rock and Roll;


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgdufzXvjqw


Somehow I can not accept that these two are of the same genre.

I don't know if it's apparent to everyone else, but when I listen to all this music, it's apparent to me, that I have been through many phases of music in life; when I was young and extremely active, I was more into music that reflected that; rock to some extent. Now that I'm more inactive, I want to be in a reflective groove;


      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxz9eZ1Aons


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CutrIZzTJl0


It's fair to say that while I don't find some Rock unappealing, I wouldn't rush out and buy it.

There are two principles that I believe are really important to consider when discussing the relative merit of any music and that I have mentioned several times over the life of this thread. One is what I feel is the need for listeners who consider themselves true music lovers to have and to approach the listening experience with a certain amount of humility. What I mean by this is that we should never forget that the art form is bigger and more important that anyone one of us and our particular tastes and preferences. Our preferences and tastes in music will always color our judgment of the merit of any genre; and consequently, whether we like that genre or not is not what determines its ultimate merit. Nothing wrong with not liking any particular genre or style of music nor of having strong preferences, but to make grand statements about its merit as applicable on a universal scale is foolish and arrogant, imo. We all judge and like/dislike music according to what resonates with each of us. This is determined in great part by our age and what is familiar to us, among other things. Sure, we all like to think that we push the boundaries of the familiar and are open minded to the new, but I think that the reality is that we are all governed to some degree by what is comfortable (familiar) to us and tend to resist and resent what we perceive as challenging or perceive as destroying the familiar.

The second principle is something pryso alluded to, the idea that good art is a reflection of the time of its creation. I would add that what determines the merit of any art is how well it reflects that time. We may not like what any art says about the time of its creation, but our reaction is ultimately more of a statement about each of us than about the ultimate merit of the art. Moreover, this notion is not limited to the 60’s, it is applicable to any era. Every genre or style of music, from Early music to swing, to bebop, to fusion, etc. is a reflection of the times; just as R&R was and is. There are good and artistically valid examples of each of those genres just as there are bad examples. For me, many on mary_jo’s Rock list are on a higher artistic level than some of the second and third rate “jazz” that has been produced and recorded over the years and that gets automatic cred simply because it is “jazz”. I like good rock and roll and I see no point in comparing its merits to jazz or Classical or whatever. I may not love it the way I do great Jazz or Classical, but it is certainly valid and relevant and sometimes exactly what I want to listen to.  ( Besides, it’s not quite the same working out to “Kind Of Blue” 😓).  Do I wish that we still lived in the era when Jazz was the “popular” music genre? Sometimes I do; but then I wake up to reality. Rock and Roll did not destroy jazz; it is a product and reflection of the times. If you don’t like it, don’t kill the messenger!

Nice list, mary_jo.