tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1713397068832099475.post7399018958134241454..comments2023-12-21T03:13:11.317-08:00Comments on jazztruth: The Mike LeDonne Interview Part 2George Colliganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11277569607502834278noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1713397068832099475.post-46906421148707200622012-03-27T19:55:47.061-07:002012-03-27T19:55:47.061-07:00George - thanks for posting this. Can Mike hook me...George - thanks for posting this. Can Mike hook me up with whatever that BB3 software is so I don't have to shell out $2k for a Nord? :)<br /><br />On the subject of "students who think they know everything," let me clear my throat with a couple of things:<br /><br />-*Some* students are definitely dicks that way. Obviously, it is hard to get many self-absorbed 19-year-olds to take a step back and really think about how they are learning and what they do and don't need to be working on.<br />-*Some* teachers are open-minded enough to give their students instruction in improvisation, etc. while keeping an inclusive view of the music without introducing too many of their own stylistic biases.<br /><br />The problem as I see it (as a student) is that most "jazz educators" don't have that. Sure, there are a handful of teachers out there who really are open to being challenged and who have an appreciation of the whole spectrum of the music. And then there are the 99% who operate along the UNT/Aebersold/Marsalis axis where everything starts with bebop...and mostly ends with it, too. They consider saxophone mastery to go from Bird to Brecker and barely know what to do with Ornette, let alone late Trane or Ayler or (gasp) Brotzmann. They don't have enough of a handle on clave or anything else to really engage their students rhythmically beyond swing. And they don't listen enough to what younger, influential players (Kurt Rosenwinkel, etc) are doing with the music to treat that music with respect.<br /><br />Then when their students challenge them along all of these lines they'll say stuff like "yeah, well I'm a jazz professor and THAT AIN'T REALLY JAZZ. You want to learn jazz here, or that other shit?" It's a two-way street. Students need a healthy respect for "the tradition" and the authority of their teachers, but they also need to feel like their teachers really are engaging their desire to search for sources of influence that they find interesting, and not just present an ossified, warmed-over version of bebop as The Way Jazz Improvising Ought To Be.Adamhttp://hazardousmorals.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.com