Wynton Marsalis speaks to the National Press Club about America's growing cultural ignorance, and disses hip-hop again.
Wynton Marsalis has managed to get himself in the news a lot the last week or so. First he spoke at the National Press Club about "an entire generation of Americans who are culturally ignorant". Although I have issues with Wynton (see below) he made some excellent points in his speech. Like pointing out that many a school band doesn't play jazz and classical music, but rather watered down versions of pop songs. My man MaoXian highlighted parts of the speech and also points to a video of the speech (55 minutes of RealMedia) - there's also a full transcript available (PDF):…
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26 - godoggo
I wonder what Marsalis thinks of the jazz/hip hop played by former sideman Russell Gunn or acolyte Nicholas Payton. Me I like'em a lot, and I simply loathe most hip hop, although I've heard some interesting stuff on public radio. But there's something fundamentally wrong to me about the idea, let alone the sound, of electronic drums.
I have my problems with Wynton as a musician (for one thing, I think he's influenced some trumpeters who actually improvise more expressively and melodically than he) , but I disagree that he hasn't innovated. Listen to Blood on the Fields.
27 - HW Saxton
I don't know about Wynton but Branford
has experimented with Hip Hop. He likes
a lot of the musical aspects.The use of
experimental & cutting edge production
techniques,use of samples and blending
of CG beats with organic music/musicians
getting out a strong & positive message
and just the musical end in general.
He's against the gangsta lifestyle,guns,
misogyny,dope,glorification of violence
and those aspects of it though. He did
those "Buckshot LeFonque" records in the
mid 90's."Breakfast At Denny's" was even
a semi-hit. The best stuff from B.L.F is
the tracks Branford did with DJ Premier
from GangStarr. Really funky HipHop with
some slamming sax work.
28 - godoggo
Don't forget that he also recorded with Public Enemy.
29 - francisco68
He is right about popular culture. It is deteriorating although not with the help of Wynton or Branford Marsalis; fine musicians.
Hip Hop and rap remain to be seen although all genres of music find their geniuses -- and their hacks. As do the other arts.
30 - Vern Halen
Some wonderful & thought provoking reading here in this thread.
Maybe the whole issue is the fact that the music industry has simply fragmented over quite a long period of time. If a person likes jazz for instance, he or she may have time to listen all the way back to Charlie Parker, but not have time to listen to other genres like hip hop, consequently leading to a misundertanding of that genre. But if a person says they listen to all kinds of music, perhaps they never get more than a superficial undertanding of many different styles. I dunno - you'd have to be your own judge of yourself there. But in both cases, blanket statements like "(insert least liked genre here) is dead" are somewhat invalid. The fact is, few people have the time, training and/or intuition to fathom the history of popular music from even the last 50 years, much less the parallel developments in jazz, blues, folk, rock, world music etc.
I think at this point in music history you've got to be very subjective and develop your own concept of how music works for you in your life - there's no point arguing whether either the Stones or Eminem are geniuses or just past their best before date. Whatever works for you.
31 - Stonedog
One thing so many people don't understand; Hip-Hop has exploded, grown, mutated, bred and cross-bred. What IS hip-hop?? There are so many styles,forms and wings of hip-hop... You can't really say hip-hop = x or hip-hop= y. It's too multi-faceted.
Know this; hip-hop can absorb, imitate or accomodate any other style of music. That's why artists of all other genres have worked with hip-hop influences or artists. You see it every day!
There's Blues&hip-hop, Jazz&hip-hop, Classic music&hip-hop, Metal&hip-hop, House&hip-hop, Latin&hip-hop....it goes on and on... Hip-hop can adapt any style, it is like water. Like clay as long as you're creative and daring. And every day Hip-hop also creates completely original sounds and forms.
Right now the answer to "what is hip-hop?" is a very long answer. It might take a whole book with audio CDs to explain it.
So how can anyone make a generalising statement about hip-hop?? You can't. Wake up.
32 - J.R. Ortiz, jr.
Mr. Marsalis has a very good point. In this country, USA, ignorance is promoted as some "virtue". Rejection of the past is the norm. Being "scruffy" and uncultured is considered "cool". How often do I hear about "hip hop", Madonna, "The Sopranos" and other cheap "popular culture", yet rarely one hears about George Gershwin or Leonard Bernstein. The problem gets more complicated when this country try to "sell" itself to the outside world. Has nothing to offer except the same cheap "popular culture". Aren't we promoting more "anti-americanism" with our attitude? Thanks!