Re: What to call that new music all the kids are listening to

[James Forrest <jforrest...>]

Regarding terminology (and this does not pertain only to jewish music), I've
always felt a bit uneasy with terms like "progressive" or "new" or "modern"
or "avant-garde."  Those kinds of names force us into calling the next thing
to come out "post-modern" or "neo-progressive."  When are we going to get
over our twentieth-century techno-obsession with thinking that we're
constantly breaking new ground and must continue to do so?  I'm much more
content with labels that cut to the heart of what the music *is* (eg "free
jazz" or "klezmer-zydeco fusion") and not what it *does* (eg "progressive
rock" or "new klezmer").

Just my 2 cents,
James

-----
James Forrest
jforrest (at) princeton(dot)edu
http://www.princeton.edu/~jforrest
SFC '98
---------------------
Music exists - not on canvas nor yet on the staff - only in motion.  The
good listener will hear it as the present prolonged.
         ~Ned Rorem~


-----Original Message-----
From: Benjamin_Laden (at) peoplesoft(dot)com <Benjamin_Laden (at) 
peoplesoft(dot)com>
To: World music from a Jewish slant. <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
Date: Saturday, January 10, 1998 11:38 PM
Subject: What to call that new music all the kids are listening to


>For the past 3 years,  the InterGalactic Jewish Music Festival in
>Philadelphia has presented this new Jewish music we are trying to name. To
>try to convey the idea that we present new ideas in Jewish music,  without
>constraining the label to one kind of Jewish music, I have used the term
>Progressive Jewish Music.
>
>It's just another label, I know, but I think it is wide enough to include
>just about anything remotely "Jewish" while letting people know that this
>is no notstalgia festival, it is about doing new things with the music.
>
>As I thought about writing this posting, I realized that the term
>Progressive might sound like we are somehow making "progress" in the sense
>that the new music is somehow better than what came before. I don't want to
>convey that idea because I don't believe it....so how about this label,
>Digressive Jewish Music :-)
>Benny
>
>
>