Good discussion! I guess it's all about personal beliefs and what your purpose in the music business is. The first time I heard a Buffet album, about 1976, I think, I thought there wasn't enough substance to even bother with it. I laughed at what I thought was a complete lack of substance. If there are players without the proper focus to handle it, I believe they're in big trouble.

But, if you're a generalist/entertainer, Buffet is probably required. and i can see some having fun playing it.

Not for ME, at any age! I'd get laughed off the bandstand at 90% of my jobs.

Ian, you may be right about the skills required to play country compared to jazz. Rory is a killer country player who plays jazz at least as good as me, a hard-line jazz dude. I'm not sure. All I know, is, it takes major dedication to stay on top of your game in the jazz arena, with little time for anything else. With most types of music, you just have to be adequate. In jazz, if you're not the best in the field, you don't work.

Please remember, this is my opinion and my approach only. I would never try to impose my beliefs on anyone else, and I'm not saying that jazz is a superior art form over other styles for anyone other than me.

I would feel comfortable on a country bandstand, as would many experienced jazz players. I think it involves relatively easy to pick-up structure. I can't come up with the names of many country players (other than guys like Steve Warner, Vince Gill, Glen Campbell (yes THAT Glen Campbell) and Rory who could, without major woodshedding, step up and play Foreplay tunes or heavy standards like Giant Steps and others. It's possible they wouldn't even want to bother. What I consider crossover-Asleep at the Wheel and Bob Wills style-is interesting and fun to play, from a historic prospective.

If this attitude is viewed as rigid, it's pretty common among jazz "hard liners". And it's not as much related to inflexibility due to age, but to major lifetime commitments to an unbelievably complex, beautiful true American art form. Once you make the commitment, you're hooked. You can't bring yourself to be satisfied playing Buffet or anything else. Every day is a learning experience, with limited benefits outside of respect from your peers, a limited number of fans and personal satisfaction that comes with progress. This facination/addiction is, in part why the jazz "gods" of the past were often involved with drugs, were starving, anti-social, etc.

I'm "hooked", but find comfort (and a lot more income) in the film score work we do, and other business related interests (graphics, copy, research, film production and other endeavors).

This is how I got to where I am in the music business, and I wouldn't change a thing, even though music income is less than 20% of the total and I would have loved to do it full-time.

And that's why I could play Buffet or anything else with others (I'm in heaven when I back others and make them sound good), but would never play it on one of my gigs.

If that ever means I can't work, I've done well enough for it not to matter much (man, I'd miss it, after over 50 years, though).

My reality is, I really don't hate ANY type of music or specific performer/musician, but I love and live jazz so much that I'd never be truely happy playing anything else. Man, what a "natural high"!

So there!

Everyone: Play what makes you HAPPY!


Russ the jazz "dude"



[This message has been edited by captain Russ (edited 03-13-2008).]