Thu Jul 8 10:37:27 2010I've given it a chance, I still don't much care for it. In much the same way, I'm sure there are genius Country and Western artists, but I'll never know.
Wow---I'm actually kinda shocked that jazz does nothing for someone with such an intricate musical knowledge. The Diz & Bird record? John Coltrane's A Love Supreme? Charles Mingus' Ah Um?
I do think Birth of the Cool is wildly overrated, though.
What can I say? As a musician I can appreciate the virtuosity, but it's just not my cup of tea right now. Maybe some day I'll develop a taste for it.
Ironically, at the same book club, I had to defend jazz against the accusation that it's an "elitist, over-intellectual" form of music, as if it had, Athena-like, sprung wholly-formed from a San Francisco Starbucks. People have short memories, apparently.