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Relevance or Excellence - Its not really a choice is it?

toddc 11 June 2010

This is what happens when people talk about Jazz:

Acid jazz
Acid blues
Afro-jazz
Asian American jazz
Avant-garde jazz
Bebop
Calypso jazz
Cape jazz
Chamber jazz
Continental Jazz
Crossover jazz
Cubop
Ethno jazz
European free jazz
Free funk
Free jazz
Gypsy jazz
Jazz fusion
Jazz blues
Jazz rap
Jazz-funk
Kansas City blues (music)
Kansas City jazz
Latin jazz
List of jazz fusion recordings
Livetronica
M-Base
Mainstream jazz
Mini-jazz
Modal jazz
Modern Creative
Neo-bop jazz
Nu jazz
Orchestral jazz
Post-bop
Postmodern fusion
Progressive jazz
Punk jazz
List of scat singers
Shibuya-kei
Ska jazz
Smooth jazz
Soul jazz
Spank jazz
Splab
Straight-ahead jazz
Stride (music)
Swing music
Third stream
Trad jazz
Urban jazz
Vocal jazz
West Coast Gypsy jazz
West Coast jazz

My apologies for leaving anyone or anything out.

By reading this list it would be easy to come to the conclusion that jazz is about finding relevance or being relevant. But jazz is not about relevance. Jazz is about the journey to excellence.

Lets Play :)

Comments

John Keene Fri, 06/11/2010 - 20:49

Wow, Todd, I'm getting a headache just thinking about all of those subdivisions and what each one must represent. I guess life just isn't as simple as it used to be when I could walk into my local record store in 1970 and there were only three sections total - classical, jazz, and rock (maybe a folk section if it was a big store).

vibeman27 Fri, 06/11/2010 - 20:55

Like John, it hurts to even think about the subdivisions. There are just too damn many. I can remember four main catagories though, classical, jazz, R&B, and rock. That was it, plain and simple.

Do anyone else think we tend to over catagorize?

I agree with Todd about the journey.

jimmiew Wed, 06/16/2010 - 13:24

I'm not sure and google made things even worse XD

I did notice this though "Spank Jazz; An eclectic fusion of funk, folk, rock, jazz and twinges of 80s electro."

toddc Mon, 06/14/2010 - 15:44

I have no idea what most of these are.
It just kills me how marketing concepts rule the world.
As far as I'm concerned these labels are attempts at product differentiation.

But we don't really need to do that because people make the difference.
The problem is that it creates so much information noise and its hard to find substance.

I have no idea what spank jazz could be and I'm not sure I want to know.

Todd Canedy
Don't stop asking until you understand. Once you understand constantly confirm it.

DrBobM55 Wed, 06/16/2010 - 20:33

You may have it backwards. Marketers may believe they've developed concepts, but what they've really done is simply noticed how the brain works. We're wired to categorize things. We need to separate A from B and C from D. Then (rightly or wrongly) we decide that A is connected to C, and D isn't connected to anything. B will connect with A as long as it is already connected to C, but not if it's standing alone. What really distinguishes us from the rest of the apes is that about 10% of the time (my estimate) we make connections that actually enhance our survival. For example, if we(A) keep moving so that we live in an area that rains(B) a lot then there will be more berries and critters(C) to eat=survival. 90% of the connections we make are probably meaningless and do not enhance survival, but we give them meaning so that they're valuable. The differences in what is considered valuable is what separates one group from another (like religion, politics and so forth). And we know what happens when we start arguing over the distinctions between nebulous things. Maybe we really haven't evolved at all? I don't know if I've made any sense.

Bob Wesner

jimmiew Wed, 06/16/2010 - 13:22

It might hurt to think about all this but keep in mind that this is what allows us to play a 4 hour set and keep things fresh and interesting

tonymiceli Wed, 06/16/2010 - 21:15

we decide what we let in and accept. there can be 1000 categories, but not in my head but there are a few. many of the categories i see by the title that i'm not going to both with the. maybe there's something there i'd dig, but i'll hopefully find that music another way.

i ignore a lot of that stuff and don't waste time on it. although i waste time on a lot of other things, so i'm sure i waste time as much as anyone else. i'm just selective on what i waste time on, or so i'd like to think!!!!

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Tony Miceli
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