Re: To Dan Singer

[Velaires <Velaires...>]

Authenticity is probably best defined as sounding like you sound because you 
want to, instead of sounding like you've been told is the correct way to 
sound because some toady has a party line to enforce, anyway.

I don't think Tarras sounded appreciably like Brandwine.  And I don't think 
Statman sounds like either.  But they all register on my little emotional 
geigercounter.  And I'm certainly not wrong for this.

These arguments about authenticity being based on the playing heard from 
records made by the 1945 rarely occur outside of ethnic music.  I have never 
heard anybody say Dizzy Gillespie didn't refer enough to Louis Armstrong to 
be considered the "true" jazz.  Nor have I heard anyone say that Stevie 
Wonder didn't refer to Louis Jordan enough to be considered the "true" 
rhythm'n'blues.  Jewishness has endured and developed past Yiddishness, 
although Yiddishness still plays a part.  If music is a language beyond 
words, why should it be fenced into rules more stringent than language held 
to words?

skip h

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