According to a 9/13/2016 commentary someone is forcing the Libertarian blogger Willis Hart to listen to music he doesn't like.
| Willis Hart: On the Fact that Both of These Performers Are Considered Musical Geniuses but as Anybody with Even a Scintilla of Gray-Matter Can Tell You, Only One of Them Is and it Isn't the Pecker-Head on the [Right]. And what a sad trajectory it's been, hey, folks (the fact that black music has gone from Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk to the cavalcade of miscreant hip-hop stars that we're presently forced to listen to)? (9/13/2016 AT 11:08pm). |
Miles Davis (1926–1991) and Kanye West (dob 1977).
I don't listen to the music of either of these individuals. Nobody has ever attempted to force me to listen to either Miles Davis or Kanye West. For the record, I used to like Kanye West - due to his truth-telling concerning former preznit bush re Katrina.
| ...the rapper's first large-scale controversy came just days following Late Registration's release, during a benefit concert for Hurricane Katrina victims. In September 2005, NBC broadcast A Concert for Hurricane Relief, and West was a featured speaker. When West was presenting alongside actor Mike Myers, he deviated from the prepared script. Myers spoke next and continued to read the script. Once it was West's turn to speak again, he said, "George Bush doesn't care about black people". West's comment reached much of the United States, leading to mixed reactions; President Bush would later call it one of the most "disgusting moments" of his presidency. |
Since then, however, he's done/said things that have changed my opinion of him. I believe I've heard some of his music - by way of him performing on Saturday Night Live. Although (as with almost every musical act that performs on SNL) I press the fast forward button on my DVR.
But Willis Hart not liking the music of Kanye West is (IMO) a typical case of someone who isn't young generally not liking newer music. But instead of admitting such is the case, the 60 year-old Hartster makes his dislike of Kanye's music a Black thing. Because he's a pecker-headed racist.
BTW, while I'm not familiar with Miles Davis, I suspect I'd prefer his music to that of Kanye West. But I wouldn't attribute this to Black music going from being good to a "cavalcade of miscreant hip-hop stars". First of all, there are White hip hop stars (something WTNPH is apparently unaware of), and secondly (and as I areadly pointed out), older generations generally don't like the music of younger generations.
Anyway, who is "forcing" him to listen to it? Black Lives Matter? Black coworkers or neighbors that Willis curses under his breath (possibly using the N-word)?
Video1: Terence Blanchard's "Levees". A cut from the 2008 album A Tale of God's Will (A Requiem for Katrina). A work by Blanchard (a BLACK artist) that came about when film director Spike Lee commissioned New Orleans native Blanchard to compose the score for his 2006 four-hour award-winning HBO documentary When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (8:09).
Video2: A track from my favorite Terence Blanchard film score, 2001's The Caveman's Valentine (3:32).
Davis was awwsome (remains awesome). The music if Blanchard is fine as well.
ReplyDeletePerhaps Will has forgotten how the selector dial or off swith works? Heard West a couple of times, not my cup of tea. BTW, age has nothing to do with my take. Davis and Monk were simply superior musicians to the trained ear.
Being a lifelong "frustrated" jazz musician, (having the desire, but never being quite good enough,) my relationship with Davis has always been one of life-changing, eye-opening and amazing sources of inspiration. I never heard any of his early 1960s successes when I was young, including Sketches of Spain or Bitch's Brew, but at a very tender age of adolescence, my best friend's mom bought a very historic double album of his called, Big Fun. The cover art was typical for early 1970s black artists, extremely hip cartoon figures. But the music inside was the real mind-blower, Miles had teamed up with the greatest names in contemporary jazz. Jack DeJohnette, John McLaughlin, Benny Maupin, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Airto Moreira, Billy Cobham, Joe Zawinul, Wayne Shorter, and a host of others, including electric sitar and tablas. It was a mind-blowing compilation of sessions that remains to this day, one of the seminal works of early fusion jazz. Absolutely incredible.
ReplyDeleteThen as a college student, I picked up an old 10" LP with two sides on Dial Records. It was Charlie Parker's greatest compilation. One side was the Charlie Parker Septet, including Dizzie Gillespie. Side two was the Charlie Parker Quintet, featuring twenty-year old Miles Davis on the trumpet. It's like I instantly understood the entire heritage. It was also a good primer on Bebop music, including such incredible songs as Yardbird Suite, Gypsy, Lover Man, A Night in Tunisia, Ornithology, Moose the Mooche and Max is Making Wax.
You do know your jazz artists Flying Junior!
ReplyDeleteWhat instrument(s) do you play?
From 11 years old on in school I was called the little All Hirt. Played a lot of classical moving into big band jazz as I matured in ability.
In my early 20's I played in the Ronnie Drum youth orchestra which performed at the Eastern States Exposition in '72' if memory serves.
For some stupid reason I stopped playing when I got married (the first time), my business career took off, and the kid came along. I miss making music but the chops are shot and the work to bring them back is too much at my age.
BTW, Maynard Ferguson was one of my favorite big band leaders and his high note horn was amazing. He inspired me to reach for the double High C. Almost made it.
Jazz is truely an American art form that spread across the globe. And jazz has its roots in classical chording.
Good stuff!
Interesting. I've got nothing to add, but both comments read. I have no talent in the musical department.
ReplyDeleteWell, truth be told, I was just a rock and roller. Although I made a fairly serious study of Herbie Hancock. I didn't get that I should have been learning jazz charts and maybe playing with the Jazz Band at school. But I was the real thing! I only retired eleven years ago after a five-year stint with Paradise LSR. (Latin Soul that Rocks.) A septet loosely based on Carlos Santana, War and other Latin Soul bands.
ReplyDeleteIn my heyday, I carried around a 1964 Farfisa mini-compact, a Fender Rhodes and a couple of speaker cabinets, including a Leslie Combo 12". More recently, I was playing an Alesis synthesizer.
My greatest concert was two Beethoven grand sonatas, back-to-back at the First Baptist Church, March of 2006. Once I played Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue to an enraptured audience of seniors. My greatest collaboration was with an Air Force Band trumpeter, a son of my local church where I still play the organ every Sunday. I still tear it apart with Bach, Pachelbel and Buxtehude!