> [too many U.S. public schools cut back
> or don't at all supply music eduction]
This is very regrettably so. And granted, too, one anecdotal report can be misleading. Nevertheless: in a New Rochelle, N.Y., multi-racial and multi-ethnic background middle high school about a month ago, a school sponsored orchestra concert of young violin- and other "classic" instrument playing kids - substantially more than one hundred - could barely fit on the (large) stage. And the intemission included a 6th/7th/8th grade jazz group playing (only slightly simplified arrangements of) Ellington, etc.
> As far as music (if not sex) is concerned, the doing
> part has been increasingly outsourced. A new
> international division of labor in classical music may
> be that China plays and the West listens. * * *
Here, too, all too true - but this is hardly the only "outsourcing" going on.
www.sessionplayers.com, www.esession.com, and www.e-studio-drummer.com, www.efiddler.com, and www.hispeedhorns.com are just a few of the web sites which provide for (comparatively: modest) fee services enabling recording with musicians one might not otherwise be able to play with.