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Gay Musicians

#241
In the classical musician realm, the cliche statement is "There are only 3 types of musicians: gay, Jewish, or bad." The straight gentiles are screwed in that assessment which would include Yo Yo Ma or IIRC Edgar Meyer.

I suppose what drives playing with somebody is more whether they have chops and are not a flaming terminus of the GI tract. Obnoxious behavior transcends sexual orientation, though it may be considered rationale or license for it. In the final analysis, it is because the person is obnoxious and destructive that you don't want proximity. That drives band personnnel choices.

As far as I know, Jaco was not pounded for sexual orientation or Native American blood. It was because he was bipolar and was a very obnoixous drunk towards the end. Arguably a genius player whose life was trumped by lack of "social graces".
 
#242
DaZombieWoof said:
In the classical musician realm, the cliche statement is "There are only 3 types of musicians: gay, Jewish, or bad." The straight gentiles are screwed in that assessment which would include Yo Yo Ma or IIRC Edgar Meyer.

I suppose what drives playing with somebody is more whether they have chops and are not a flaming terminus of the GI tract. Obnoxious behavior transcends sexual orientation, though it may be considered rationale or license for it. In the final analysis, it is because the person is obnoxious and destructive that you don't want proximity. That drives band personnnel choices.

As far as I know, Jaco was not pounded for sexual orientation or Native American blood. It was because he was bipolar and was a very obnoixous drunk towards the end. Arguably a genius player whose life was trumped by lack of "social graces".
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Mr. Pastorius' deteriorating condition and eventual tragic fate underscores the need for one to develop a network of true friends in life--including the kind who'll rack ya off the wall when ya need it.

RIP Jaco. :atoz:
 
#243
devilock76 said:
In NC you need to speak redneck! Just kidding. Seriously though I got enough Italian and Spanish under my belt to get the gist most days if written or spoken slowly. My sentence construction is weak though.

Wish I had better retention of the bit of Japanese and Hindi I learned.

I have been trying to work on my Spanish for the sake of teaching it to my kids from day one. I am a firm believer that teaching your child Spanish or Mandarin from the start is like giving the kid $1 Million. And since I have no clue where to begin with Mandarin...

Ken
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Recognizing - and staying a step ahead of - the flow of evolving history forms an astute investment.
 
#244
Maybe being famous people are too busy taking your money and kissing up. Lots of people would likely be with us today with real friends to help. Entwhistle needed somebody to pull him out. Jamerson had issues too. Out of control behavior in the sex and drugs and rock and roll tradition tends to be life limiting. Even Aerosmith figured this out. Freddy Mercury is the gay fatality. Elton John survived. Surely a number of aggressively hetero folks got shot by outraged boyfriends or husbands.
 
#246
You should just move to NYC, where I have to assume all men I encounter are gay unless told otherwise :hiding:

I kid I kid, but as the OP and many others stated I've never come across any gay musicians into jazz or funk, and I wouldn't care at all if a gay guy wanted to jam on some funk tunes, but they just don't come up (although a few people think the drummer in my band is gay, don't tell him i said that ;) )

It seems in my experience the only bands I've heard of with all gay members are strictly "queer bands" and play in gay bars only, with one of my few good gay friends playing in a "queer girl punk" band and only playing in girl bands.

If thats how things stay I won't be upset, because the NY jazz scene isn't suffering at all, so I really won't feel concerned unless all of a sudden the only good jazz gigs are at gay bars :p

now if only more straight girls wanted to jam with me.... :bassist:
 
#248
My input:
I did pit band one year for the LA gay men's choir. Now That was Gay. But a blast to do and the guys were all great people, and amazingly talented. At first, they were more reserved around me, but when they figured out I didn't care, then they, as a whole, were much more open to me.

I played behind a gay male singer / songwriter. He appeared straight, a heck of a lyricist. Again, he was concerned about my reaction. Again, I didn't care, and he felt comfortable enough to introduced me to his boyfriend.

I played with a gay girl drummer. She was really good- solid, in the pocket and all ears to my playing. We worked very well together. But we had this very crude game we'd play together, called "Would you kick her out of bed?", where we would sit by the door as the people came in, and size up the women. When it came to raunchy, but insanely funny comments, she had me beat by a mile.

My brother was gay, BTW. And he figured out I didn't care. See the thread here? It's tough to find a good partner if you're gay, but you will.

Let your talent speak for itself. If you are with people who judge you first by your relationship preferences, get away from them, because they are poison, and they will do their best to snuff your talents. The only shame in being gay is what people try to project onto you. IOW, it ain't you. F'em, I say.
 
#250
DaZombieWoof said:
Mandarin is way harder than Spanish, but if you look obviously not Chinese and come in with passable fluency you win all manner of points and they realize talking about you in Mandarin is not safe. Same goes for Japanese.
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I have actually tried a little. I work with a Taiwanese lady who speaks Mandarin (and on her own time teaches Mandarin and English). The problem I have run into is just how varied the inflection can be combined with the huge phoneme list the language seems to have. Japanese was much easier because Japanese for the most part is spoken with two inflections, stern, and really pissed.

But Chinese there are like 5 ways to say wu and wu going up at the end, wu going down at the end, wu flat, wu starting low, etc. And all those wu's mean a completely different thing.

Sometimes you have to recognize when something is beyond your limitations. I can master most any computer language and deal with most of the romance languages but all dialects of Chinese seem to baffle me. Like when my neighbor made a comment about being able to open up electronics and car engines yet being thwarted putting up a chain link fence. We all have our forte's and our failings.

Ken
 
#252
HI

Im straight but have been in a couple bands where the band leaders were gay. Both turned into lifetime friends, one passing away a year and a half ago.

Your goal should be to be the best musician you can and find good people to make music with. Whether they are gay or straight should have no bearing on if you can make music together and have a good relationship. I know plenty of straight people who are deceitful, fake, and not worth 5 minutes of time. Im much more concerned about their character, commitment, and skill to play music.

Rob
 
#253
bikeplate said:
HI

Im straight but have been in a couple bands where the band leaders were gay. Both turned into lifetime friends, one passing away a year and a half ago.

Your goal should be to be the best musician you can and find good people to make music with. Whether they are gay or straight should have no bearing on if you can make music together and have a good relationship. I know plenty of straight people who are deceitful, fake, and not worth 5 minutes of time. Im much more concerned about their character, commitment, and skill to play music.

Rob
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That lamentable lack-of-character profile can be readily found in this end of the courtyard too.

+1 on being good--in all regards.
 

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