Friday, August 5, 2011
Now's the Time: Marcus Miller
While the DMS name doesn't work for me, I'm rather partial to everything else about the combination of George Duke, Marcus Miller and David Sanborn. If I'm going to listen to so-called smooth jazz, I'd like it to come from these guys. They perform together Monday at The Uptown Theater.
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2 comments:
You know Happy, watching this and enjoying it and knowing that somehow if i was as legit as they get I should be ashamed of myself for liking it, but I'm not, ... either of those things.
I can see how the harmonic cats aren't into it because its a 2 chord vamp with a bridge. The sax players are probably like "guitar.. pfff, whatever." These gentlemen can trade fours just fine, play heads, and take choruses, etc. This "smooth jazz" is mostly for the aging boomer population. Which is great, because they have more disposable money than me. And besides I bet Marcus Miller, David Sanborn and George Duke all work their asses off. and have for a long time.
So is it really such a problem that they have figured out that the more you think about what the audience thinks and cares about, probably the more the audience will like it and thusly be willing to pay more for the pleasure of it. That whole previous heated discussion last week got to me. Why be such assholes to each other over bullshit that ultimately doesn't matter?
I get Leifer's take. Wynton is obviously an older cat who's been around and knows a thing or two. But what he doesn't know I'd wager is that all the "young avant garde" players here in KC are going to be here much further into the future than he. People get old and they change and they mature and some of us are impatient with youth while others are 2 generations removed from that youth; so we'll probably really never get each other. But trust me, the young people will learn their lessons, just maybe not in your precious lifetime, and many of those lessons will be harsh. At root its a massive social problem that I needn't take up space with here.
The young cats need to respect tradition, uphold the flame, blah blah blah, yes i get that too. But you know what, people die, and memories are short. So why cant we make Kansas City the place people talk about in the 2020s and 2030s with the same reverence they hold for the previous century?
Is it so wrong to think years ahead and aim for a bigger goal than just "%35" ?
The players on this video are all virtuosos. They all came out of the tradition with validity and their homework done. Check out Sanborn with Gil Evans. He also studied at Northwestern with Fred Hemke. Marcus Miller plays great Bass Clarinet!
These guys mastered the BeBop language which is one of the pinnacles of American music period, and then moved on.
These guys are the real deal, technically, soulfully, and harmonically because of what they accomplished twenty and thirty years ago as they grew up.
Leo
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