Tunes to Spackle By
Since I wrote last night about the eerie beauty of modern composers, I found a story about the difficulty of modern jazz.
In a recent issue of Jazz Improv magazine, pianist Kenny Werner says a neighbor visited him and started naming jazz musicians he liked -- all of whom play smooth jazz. Werner sent home the neighbor with some authentic jazz CDs, including one of his own, and the neighbor reported that he liked some of it -- Miles Davis' ''Kind of Blue," in particular -- but that Werner's had been problematic. He'd been trying to build a fireplace in his living room while listening to Werner's CD, and found the music a distraction.
Kenny says wryly, ''His main complaint about it was that it was so interesting that he had to stop and listen to it. And that's where jazz musicians are all misguided: They're making CDs under the assumption that someone's going to listen to them. These people are buying something [so] they can put it on and then spackle."
Seems to me that the psalms are equally demanding. They will need to be represented by demanding music.
posted by presbybop @ 7:54 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
Very interesting, Bill. I love the post title. Especially in worship music needs to have some grit so that we aren't merely passive consumers of it. How, then, to balance the desire to have the music -- or at least some of it -- accessible to the people? It's not just a matter of making less sophisticated music, but trying to speak in a language the congregation will understand. And for all my love of jazz, and classical, and other forms of music, there are times when, as I sheepishly admit to my wife, "I don't get it." I don't have to get everything - and I like being challenged. But if every song in worship challenged me, it would be a merely wearying or disturbing experience, and not a consoling one. Worship should have both components, don't you think?
Post a Comment
<< Home