Bob Soron <Mly.G.Pogo%MIT-OZ@MIT-MC.ARPA> (11/20/84)
Michael, Darn the luck, I was bagged. My simplistic tirade was my traditional response to the earlier Simon simplistic tirade. Most of the time, in verbal communication, it stops jazz fans dead in their tracks -- at least many of those I've encountered here in Boston. Just my luck to run into someone who knows what's going on. Fact is, I agree with nearly everything you say. Of course, as you point out, some of what you say reinforces Simon's comments and some of what you say modifies it. Simplistic though it may have been, I wish you hadn't read quite so much into my flippant rejoinders. I'll readily admit I'm not a fan of the :-) convention, and perhaps I'm either not as subtle as I'd thought or much more so, but I figured flippancy was obvious. One less for me. Although my main interest is in country music, I've been interested in jazz ever since I discovered that Jimmie Rodgers used Louis Armstrong and (some say) Earl Hines as sidemen back in the '30s. Shortly after that, I discovered Bob Wills and Asleep at the Wheel, along with other, lesser western swing bands, and they led me to swing and swing blues, which turned my head around. As you noted, jazz and country share roots going back to any arguable period in the nation's history; I find that neither side really wants to admit this, or that it continues today. I also find that most jazz musicians aren't as willing to cover country material as country musicians are to cover jazz. Do you have any opinions as to why this might be? Or have I been looking in the wrong places? Sadly, you're also correct that most popular country today is overly commercialized; and that's why I've frequently been puzzled by the jazz fans' lament that jazz isn't as popular as it should be. In an ideal world, perhaps musicians could retain their full integrity and vision and be popular; but I've watched the process by which Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, and many others became successful and widely popular, and it stinks. If there's another way to do it, I'll gladly eat my words, but the recording industry, as you know, is run not on artistic vision but on the almighty dollar. And I must conclude that there really may not be any other way. Of course, the continuing influence commercialism has had on country music is fascinatingly complex, and not limited simply to artists who want to pad their bank accounts. Here in the Northeast, for example, there aren't enough country music fans to give a lone station a measurable rating. This means that they have to appeal to a wider audience by playing stuff that can pass for country. And every time that happens, the integrity of the genre is hurt a little. Well, I'm a guest on Oz and time is running out; but I look forward to your response. This -is- much better than unintelligible lyrics! ...Bob -------