Just an awesome and beautiful piece, Gary. I originally came to the Bay Area because of its jazz clubs, but drifted away during the rock era of the Sixties.

Now, although I lost all my jazz albums in the 1991 fire, I find myself coming back and wanting to remember and learn anew.

You captured much of what it meant to me. I cannot thank you enough.

Robert Bruce

This past January, I got to see the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and the Rebirth Brass Band at Tipitina's in New Orleans. One of the best shows I've ever seen. The interesting thing about it is while one would be likely to call this a jazz show, both bands also borrowed heavily from funk and rock and to a lesser extent soul.

And it was a phenomenal party of a show. Anyone who had preconceptions that night about what jazz was supposed to be had them blown away.

Music of all kinds can do whatever one wants it too. Jazz has its funky backbeats, and rock has its ballads and technical wizardry. Smart, adventurous jazz and rock musicians have been borrowing from each other since the late '60s. No one should discount the other out of purism.

P.S. Don't remember who brought it up, but great point that both styles of music come out of the blues. (with a few strains now and then of gospel and country.) So let's just rock out and dig that sound on the radio.

You are completely right re: virtuosity. That's what nearly killed rock in the 70s... the early rebellious fires had been tamped down into rote "musicianship". Certainly there are rockers who can fuse virtuosity and songcraft, but hacks with chops like Steve Vai are still packing 'em in.

And yeah, when Kirk does the multi-instrument thing, it's entertaining as hell but often yields mixed results. Take "Medley" from Rahsaan Rahsaan, where he plays "Sentimental Journey" and a Dvorak piece at the same time. Impressive, but kinda empty. But let him loose on more trad stuff like Kirk's Work and you get all the thrills of musicianship with all the rough imperfections of humanity. Some people hate that they can hear him puffering away, but to me, his snorts and grunts are half the melody.

Excellent article. I don't think it's really a Vs. thing. I think it mostly depends on where the individual's head is at, really.

Speaking only for myself, as someone who has been playing bass guitar for 30+ years.. I would love to be able to have the skills play jazz..and then not play it.

I grew tired of bass teachers who INSISTED I must aspire to play jazz(Except for the guy who turned me on to Rufus Reid). I grew to resent being cajoled into playing music I had absolutely no interest in, didn't move me, and didn't benefit my growth as a musician in any of the bands I was in.

I am tired of being dragged to jazz shows by my aging friends, (who claim to have "outgrown" rock)where all anybody ever does is noodle on their instrument, with the occasional exciting "trading 4's."

Jazz is a pretty exclusive little club, and if you don't have the chops..you can't be a member.

I admire jazz musicians for their brilliant technical and theory skills. But emotionally, I don't connect with what they're doing at all, and find myself quite bored by it. My fault.

Fine album??? Hancock drained all the blood from Joni Mitchell and then dialed what remained in. To call it even soporific would be an insult to elevator music. That it sold even one copy speaks to the power of faith and loyalty over literacy. Mr. Kamiya, I'd suggest cultural illiteracy starts at home. Find a mirror, fast.

One more suggestion for jazz wannabees.

The Quadromania 4-CD Tal Farlow set has as disc #1 a fantastic recording date with the Red Norvo trio from the early 50s.

The band comprises Red Norvo (vibes), Charles Mingus (bass), Tal Farlow guitar. A real all star grouping.

The first two are better known. Farlow was a brilliant jazz guitarist used by Artie Shaw in his last group recording, whose speed of hand make Eric Clapton look retarded, though his playing is in no way flashy.

The tunes are classic standards like Night and Day, Got You Under My Skin (heroin, anyone?), Cheek to Cheek, I Get a Kick Out of You, Zing Went the Strings of My Heart, all played in the most unimaginably funky way.

And you don't have to take my word for it either.

To play sample tracks just paste the next line below this paragraph into your browser and strap yourself into your seat so that you are not blown away.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/recsradio/radio/B000001CUA

There are 3 more CDs included in the set and they are all good.

Yes. But especially "...Keith Jarrett is a self indulgent jerk."

Bless you, my child (and I feel safe in putting it that way as I seem to always be the oldest in the damn room).

If it ain't got that swing.

The rhythm is such an important part of jazz, and some people just can't swing, don't get it. I had a roommate who was like that. He couldn't get off of straight time if his life depended on it.

He was also very song and lyric based, didn't like instrumental music much at all. Some people just don't like instrumental music. They need the vocals.

I would agree that you don't really need to intellectually understand the intricacies of jazz, you just have to be able to hear it, to feel it. Eventually, you start humming Straight, No Chaser as you are walking down the street.

A word on snobs. I know a guy, he's into old R&B, rock and blues, and he can rattle off more obscure bullshit on artists I may or may not have heard of and don't really care about, other than "I like this song but not the one before." Bores me to tears. He's a snob. There are serious rock snobs out there, but perhaps they are more the anti-snob type snob. You know, just "regular guy" snobs.

But yeah, some of your jazz snobs are pretty obnoxious.

One final point. For some people, there is an anti-intellectual aspect to the "I don't like jazz" riff. See, jazz is for smart people (as is classical music, as are films with subtitles), and you think you're so much fuckling smarter than everyone else (hello, jazz snobs!), so fuck you and your fucking jazz music, you...you...you SNOB!