Comes today the stunning news from the L.A. Times that this generation of classical musicians actually listens to other music!!!! Even more amazing, we actually enjoy it and (shudder!!!!!) PLAY IT! I’m SHOCKED!! SHOCKED!!
What annoys me is the fact that this article is at least 20 years late. When I was in college in the early ’80’s we spent most of our spare time sitting around listening to King Crimson, Peter Gabriel, Thomas Dolby, Indonesian Gamelan, Gagaku, Miles Davis, and anything else that struck our fancy. For my generation the Beatles were actually alive and kicking. This is what all our friends listened to before we got to college and we just continued the tradition. Many of my friends played in rock bands, many of my friends played in Jazz bands. All of us did improvisation, free or otherwise. We were exploring music for whatever it was worth and labels be damned. To this day most of the music on my iPod would most definitely NOT be categorized as “classical.”
But what really gets me going is the “gee whiz golly” approach of the writer who once again is merely reinforcing the ridiculous stereotypes of classical musicians. It comes complete with the ridiculously overstated quote from the learnéd scholar about how suddenly the next generation is completely hip when the previous generations were stuck with their collective heads where the sun doesn’t shine. It’s even more annoying because one of the particulars, Mr. Ben Hong, was a buddy of mine from the old USC days. Let me emphasize one thing: WE NEVER CONSIDERED OURSELVES IN NEED OF BEING HIP!!!!!!!! We are thinking musicians who have our ears open, just like Debussy/Ravel at the Paris Expo, or Bernstein/Gershwin in New York City, or Shostakovich watching the Keystone Kops, or Ives hearing the beauty in the “bad” musicianship of his fellow New Englanders. Can we please please PLEASE PLEASE stop with the ridiculous stereotype that classical musicians live in some parallel universe where only Mozart and Beethoven gets played and appreciated??? Hell, the day when it was announced that Frank Zappa had died I sat down with Pierre Boulez and talked about “G Spot Tornado.” After all, those two had collaborated and I wanted P.B.’s insight on the music and mind of Zappa. That was an interesting conversation.
OK, here’s the real kicker – there is a generation before me who were pioneers in understanding that music is just music!!! And who cares what idiom it’s labeled under. Many of these guys ended up doing “Rock” simply because that’s what happened, but they were all trained in the idioms of classical, rock and jazz. I’m thinking of people like Keith Emerson, Tony Levin, Brian Eno ….. all guys with “traditional” training that have starred on the world stage in decidedly “non-classical” ways. Yet when you listen to the music they’ve been involved with – it’s just music. It’s all brilliant, but it’s just music. I.e., I took a friend of mine to a concert by King Crimson some 10 years ago. This gal is a wonderful violinist. Her response upon hearing Tony and the boys do their stuff: “It’s like Stravinsky!”
So, I’m really glad this writer from the L.A. Times realizes that there are musicians who don’t live inside their own bubble. I’m just damn sorry that this obviously comes as such a shock to him. But just because one is trained to succeed in one style of music does not mean that you’re completely ignorant of all the other ones. And i’m going to go listen to On The Corner by Miles Davis now……….. if I’m allowed to do so. Hopefully I’ll calm down by tomorrow morning.