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Jazz vs. Smooth Jazz

#41
fearceol said:
"Real" music means different things to different people. Maybe this "mass produced wall covering" music brings precious memories of association ( first child, first love etc ) flooding back to people. This is just as "real" to these people as "work of art" or "on the edge", "challanging" etc music is to others.

I detect a lot of snobbery in this thread. :hiding:
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it's not called "snobbery", it's called "having a decent pair of ears" :hiding:
 
#43
fearceol said:
"Real" music means different things to different people. Maybe this "mass produced wall covering" music brings precious memories of association ( first child, first love etc ) flooding back to people. This is just as "real" to these people as "work of art" or "on the edge", "challanging" etc music is to others.

I detect a lot of snobbery in this thread. :hiding:
Click to expand...

Well there's a reason why the Mona Lisa is priceless, but you can buy a roll of wallpaper for a few dollars...:hmm:

Society values things intrinsically and we all know that there is "great art" and articles produced for functionality, to a budget!

It's a question of developing a "discerning taste"....but even schoolchildren know the difference and are taken to museums from an early age, to appreciate "culture"! It's just how society is - we value certain things above others!
 
#45
PsychoScout said:
thank god, imagine everyone would like jazz, then I'd have to go see jazzconcerts in stadiums instead of clubs :p
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Yeah, but what if everyone liked smooth jazz ???

You'd have to find yourself a bunker some where to live out the rest of your life !!! :p

So, I take it that you accept as a good thing that everyone is different, and have a right to be, without being looked down upon or judged by others :confused:
 
#46
fearceol said:
Yeah, but what if everyone liked smooth jazz ???

You'd have to find yourself a bunker some where to live out the rest of your life !!! :p

So, I take it that you accept as a good thing that everyone is different, and have a right to be, without being looked down upon or judged by others :confused:
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I don't care about what other people like to listen to, as long as I can listen to what I want.

And hey, the question was: what is the difference between jazz and smooth jazz, no question about "looking down" or any other emotions :p
 
#47
fearceol said:
So, I take it that you accept as a good thing that everyone is different, and have a right to be, without being looked down upon or judged by others :confused:
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According to that logic - we shouldn't look down upon murderers, rapists , paedophiles etc. :hmm:

Society is like that - we have common values - we know what we value and what we don't!

So we place what we value on display in Art Galleries, museums etc.

And we look down on things we disapprove of - so we know what is wrong, or of no value to us - that's what binds us together as a society!
 
#49
Bruce Lindfield said:
According to that logic - we shouldn't look down upon murderers, rapists , paedophiles etc. :hmm:

Society is like that - we have common values - we know what we value and what we don't!

So we place what we value on display in Art Galleries, museums etc.

And we look down on things we disapprove of - so we know what is wrong, or of no value to us - that's what binds us together as a society!
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C'mon Bruce !!

Murderers, etc is a different kettle of fish entirely from some one's musical tastes, surely you realise that ?? :rollno: People being different with out affecting others, is what I'm talking about (as if you did not know ;) ). You cant get away from the fact that people put different values on different things. What those things happen to be, should make no difference, provided they are not harming anyone else of course. Also, why look down on things we disprove of, instead of just accepting that we dont like them, but respecting other's views at the same time ?
 
#50
There's good smooth jazz and bad smooth jazz.

There's good bebop and bad bebop.



Listen to the good kinds of both.
 
#51
PsychoScout said:
it's not called "snobbery", it's called "having a decent pair of ears" :hiding:
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I agree...listening is a skill that requires constant tweaking, IMO/FME.
Most grew up listening to & liking Nursery Rhymes...there's a reason we don't like them as we mature.

And one doesn't need to be a musician to have ear chops...some non-musician friend of mine was able to notice how Beethoven inverted the rhythm/motif in the 5th Symphony (compare the motif in the 4th Movement to the motif everybody knows from the 1st Movement).

Anyway, to each his own...I exhausted myself over this many years ago.
Too many friends just say they like what they like & they don't want to think too hard while listening to music. ;)
 
#53
fearceol said:
You cant get away from the fact that people put different values on different things. What those things happen to be, should make no difference, provided they are not harming anyone else of course.

Also, why look down on things we disprove of, instead of just accepting that we dont like them, but respecting other's views at the same time ?
Click to expand...

There's too little time and too much great music to waste time on Bad music - why should I waste my time on what has been consigned to the background, when there is so much great music still to hear..?

As Jim says - Listening is a skill and musical discernment is something that I would value in anybody I wanted to play with.
 
#54
Pacman said:
There's good smooth jazz and bad smooth jazz.

There's good bebop and bad bebop.

Listen to the good kinds of both.
Click to expand...

Thanks to the above (the good & bad Smooth Jazz)...there's hardly any Bebop (good or bad) anymore.
True, the recordings can still be bought (for now)...still, I cannot recall the last time I heard any Bop played in a live setting.

On a different, more aggressive Jazz board, there were constant battles over "What is Smooth" between the Contemporary Jazz crowd vs. the Boppers vs. the Free Jazzers.
Funny...bands like The Yellowjackets would not be considered "Smooth" to many of the Contemp. Jazz fans. A friend of mine will say Spyro Gyra is too "out" for him.
Anyway, IMO, the Smooth stuff that may get under most Jazz lovers' skin is the processed/mechanized/cookie-cutter stuff.
For me, bands like The Rippingtons are not my total cup of tea...the last time I saw them, though, they were a live band & they played very, very well.
 
#55
Bruce Lindfield said:
There's too little time and too much great music to waste time on Bad music - why should I waste my time on what has been consigned to the background, when there is so much great music still to hear..?
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No one is asking you to waste your time listening to anything. All I'm saying is that if some one wants to listen to something that you consider a waste of time, why not just accept and respect their views. Life is also too short to do other wise.
 
#56
fearceol said:
C'mon Bruce !!

Murderers, etc is a different kettle of fish entirely from some one's musical tastes, surely you realise that ??
Click to expand...

But if you accept this quote as right :

fearceol said:
So, I take it that you accept as a good thing that everyone is different, and have a right to be, without being looked down upon or judged by others :confused:
Click to expand...

..then that means that you would have to accept muderers or paedophiles and not look down on them...:hmm:

You said it - not me and of course there is a difference of degree, but in essence we judge people on their taste and certain tastes go beyond acceptability, but this is only a question of degree...:eyebrow:

I would look down on somebody who spent their whole life obsessed with looking at torture porn - even though they could say that they are not actually harming anybody by what they do and should be left to themselves....:hmm:
 
#57
I have some 'smooth jazz' CD's in my collection
that are fantastic. If you haven't heard these, you should
listen to

Upfront - David Sanborn
4 - Fourplay
Love Is THe Power - Rachel Z
Best of Sade

And if you call 'smooth jazz' instrumental
pop music, you might as well include:
Amandla - Miles Davis
High Life - Wayne Shorter

I'd also like to add that out of all of the 'jazz' albums I've heard, a much higher percentage of them are absolute crap than out of the 'smooth jazz' albums I've heard. And if you listen carefully to the 'smooth jazz' records I've listed above, you will definitely learn a ton about bass playing, and music in general.

I had a roommate once who insisted that the Grateful Dead was jazz, and that's a whole different story.:confused:
 
#58
Bruce Lindfield said:
There's too little time and too much great music to waste time on Bad music - why should I waste my time on what has been consigned to the background, when there is so much great music still to hear..?

As Jim says - Listening is a skill and musical discernment is something that I would value in anybody I wanted to play with.
Click to expand...

I agree, I'm 30 now and I realise I already wasted too much of my time on "bad" music, there's so much good stuff I still need to listen to, I only scratched the surface....
 

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