The French Six, The Russian Five, and the Second Viennese School

When I think of music in America's history, in comparison to the French Six, the Russian Five, and the Second Viennese School I think of the "Fab Four."  Better yet I remember the jazz vocal group the "Four Freshman."  While fully I believe America is responsible for more than one indigenous musical art form, jazz must be our torch.  More diverse music has been created and performed since the l920's than could be imagined by a youth of this generation.  This is a good thing for jazz in academia.  It has cemented itself as a true art form and should around for centuries to come.  (or will it?)  I am hung up in the now, because now is what is happening to me at the moment.  I have studied this diverse and varied history of jazz, and once I held it dear to my soul.  It became a part of my own personal musical voice, a voice that was both my identity and my opinion.  Somewhere down the beaten path it became clear to me that jazz was dead.  Jazz was dead, because it was not being recognized and supported in our country.  Ironically the art from I chose to study and champion my entire life became the butt of cruise ship jokes.  Working as an orchestra pianist on cruise ships was by far the most difficult and demanding musical job I ever have had.  It was difficult, because those who produced the musical products must have been lazy.  They would produce a show and its accompanying "tracks," but then their efforts writing written music to be played by real musicians fell short.  We were given mistake-ridden fly paper and expected to make it sound like these prerecorded tracks.  My experience and study of composition is what allowed me to keep the orchestra piano job.  I would say half of my efforts in realizing the music necessary for my position were spent on making the music I was given readable.  For the most part it was not.  For those of you that do not read music, there are practices agreed upon by professionals which allow a legitimate musician to read at sight.  It is part of our training to be able to sightread music.  It is impossible to sightread music which does not adhere to the norms in traditional music notation.  The world of "pop" music made its way into cruise ship music, and the tried and true traditions of music were abandoned.  It became the hired musician's job to decipher the negligent scribble and make the best of it.  I am not a ship's captain, so I did not write the job descriptions.  It seems this process of interpreting and salvaging negligent arrangers' work was our job.  The music had been chosen and produces, and it seems we were paid to make the best of it.  Because we wanted the jobs, we did it.  For me it was not a begrudging process.  I took pride in knowing more than the musical arrangers.  It gave me peace of mind to take their insulting, self indulgent, amateur notation and make it playable.  Often I had to do so against the wishes of the performer.   There were Guest Entertainers so vain, that they would give you a mistake-ridden arrangement and insist you could not fix its mistakes.  Once the musical arrangements were handed to us in plastic lamination to prevent any potential stenographic molestation.  The definition of humility and vanity is a musician who fixes this music, while an "artist" demands it stay erroneous.  Why would a Guest Entertainer demand his music stay erroneous?  The answer is clear, and it became the driving force of entertainment on my particular cruise company.  They it seems were not interested in a quality musical performance.  They were interested in the drama of watching a musician squirm in such a situation.  I was required, instead of being an instrumentalist, to be a slave.  My actions in response to this requirement became the entertainment.  Sound familiar?  I do not believe this concept is American.  I believe it is a manifestation of a Scandinavian television producer who brought his particular products to American airwaves as the "reality show."  I don't much like it, and I don't think professional musicians will either.  Then again there is Showbiz.  The soul of American musical entertainment is found in the minstrel shows, and their concept was the conflict between the country bumpkin and the tight-pants city slicker.  Fully I understand this history, and I am not so much of a curmudgeon that I cannot loosen up and let humor enter my musical product.  There was a time in American music history that jazz was serious.  Possibly I am more familiar with this Third Stream side of music than the minstrel side.  That is because it interested me more.  Miles Davis did not play the fool.  He, unlike Dizzy Gillespie, did not "Uncle Tom" during his performances.  Vehemently he was opposed to such a practice.  I am not opposed to light-heartedness and tomfoolery in music, but very much like the difference between Funk and Hip/Hop serious music and diversion are two different things.  Because many people do not understand these inherent differences disparity occurs.  It's a bitch being smart.  It's a bitch understanding and demanding your craft and art need a concept to be authentic and great.  It's a bitch not prostituting your life's chosen purpose.  As I realized that "entertainment" more was the key on cruises, I got better at not caring about my art.  I got better at keeping my mouth shut and taking the money.  I got better at forgetting how to be a great musician, because it was not the goal.  The goal became, because of all the other mediocre musicians, to lay down.  My outstanding jazz skills became a liability.  I have yet to recover from this change, but  I know for certain I am not a masochist.  I know for certain I am not a sadist.  I derive no pleasure from pain inflicted upon others or myself.  I am a Christian, and simply put with this particular religion on the chopping block, Christianity can be represented by one overt emotion.  The ability to feel compassion for those in need is the difference between the two opposing forces on the planet today.  When I feel joy in some way, I am feeling someone's compassions for others.  This can be accomplished in many ways, but for me most notably it is through music.  I feel joy when I feel compassion in music.  Most classical music contains this sentiment, and more importantly it often is the defining expressive element of the music.  It cares about things, and it cares about things other than itself.  In really good contemporary classical music it cares about many things, and they are referenced as an homage.  Glorifying one's self is not the point.  If I were asked if the "Fab Four" cared about things other than themselves, I would say yes.  You can't escape the reality that the Beatles were a skiffle band doomed to work on the docks of Liverpool, unless they found commercial success playing Rock 'n' Roll in America.  There is a time in your life when you choose to grow up.