>>> dhenwood at panix.com 01/19/01 10:48AM >>>
The culture surrounding jazz has always mystified me. Though it's a kind of "popular" music, there's an air of painfully high seriousness among afficionados. Jazz DJs assume a tone of almost funereal reverence when they identify what they've just played, and read the name of everyone associated with the recording except the janitor who swept the studio. It's like they're trying soooo hard to be taken seriously that you almost suspect them of a cultural anxiety about not being really serious. I mean, not everything has to be on a par with the Hammerklavier sonata.
(((((((((((
CB: I know where you are coming from.
Actually, the original culture surrounding jazz was Black people partying. It was a component part of Black highlife and merriment. If you want to get the feel of the culture that generated jazz, you would have to go to a Black cabaret or house party in the 'hood. It is not serious , but fun. However, jazz is now hip hop. The blues is dialectical, and things change, just as Black life has.
Black is beautiful !