Re: Meaning of "Klezmer"

[Velaires <Velaires...>]

In a message dated 1/3/00 9:55:40 PM, you wrote:

<<Also, I think that the categories suggest another thought (the one with 
which 
the last thread from which it derived concerned itself):  Namely, does the 
performance group try to meet the expectations of the general audience (the 
one that wants to hear the old songs), or do they find that to be an obstacle 
to their creativity?

If you're making the music to cash in as a representative specimen of a genre 
with an existing audience, meet their expectations for however long it takes 
before they move onto another Buena Vista Social Club.  Creativity is, on the 
other hand, an internal thing.  It might be inspired by the audience, but it 
is rarely defined by them.

>>Look, even Coltrane was entertaining to the jazz aficionados of his day, 
but 
if you tried to book him as "an entertaining jazz musician" you would not be 
representing him to the general public in a way that would fulfill their 
expectations. 

No, Coltrane was not "an entertaining jazz musician" at all.  He was 
something else entirely.  One does not witness that sort of innovation 
("Giant Steps", the quartet with McCoy and Elvin etc) and view it as an 
entertainment anymore than watching the Berlin Wall go down in entertainment. 
 In fact, he ran screaming from the rhythm'n'blues world because he was 
expected to entertain (honking, walking the bar), and his soul was a little 
more delicate than to be able to handle that.  Also, anyone who finds his 
"Meditation" LP entertaining should take advantage of the recent developments 
in happy pills. 

Skip H

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