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Music Lane It's all about the music, dude! Sit down, relax and listen to some tunes. |
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Music Lane It's all about the music, dude! Sit down, relax and listen to some tunes. |
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In Reply to: Re: Jazz Reference posted by Dmitry on March 13, 2000 at 18:54:27:
With what must be Tens of Thousands of reviews just for jazz, there are bound to be some anomalies, Dmitry, but I'll stand by my recommendation. Any review must be taken with a grain of salt, taking into consideration that reviewers are as varied in their tastes as are general listeners. I'm sure there are some listeners out there who believe Kenny G. merits at least 4 stars for each of his albums, and couldn't listen through a Steve Lacy CD if you paid them - same with some reviewers. It's not their fault, some of us are just born that way, I guess. Anyway, as long as the guide doesn't misrepresent an artist, or a work, I have no problem with them. Looking at the first example you cited, I came away with the conclusion that the guide is pretty much on the money, as I said in my post.Comparing Kenny G. to Steve Lacy - look at some of their comments: "Kenny G has long been the musician many jazz listeners love to hate." They give an accurate and realistic representation of his style with this quote: "Kenny G is a fine player with an attractive sound influenced a bit by Grover Washington Jr., who often caresses melodies, putting a lot of emotion into his solos. Because he does not improvise much, sticking mostly to predictable melody statements, his music largely falls outside of jazz. However, because he is listed at the top of 'contemporary jazz' charts and is identified with jazz in the minds of the mass public, he belongs in this book." How more truthful could they be with that qualification, Dmitry? They're practically making excuses for including him in the book, whil trying to serve their readers by including him and describing his style.
Compare that to Steve Lacy who is described in the first sentence in his profile this way: "One of the great soprano saxaphonists of all time (ranking up there with Sidney Bechet and John Coltrane). No ambiguity there! I think they represent each artist in a fair manner. On their online guide I counted something like 57 Steve Lacy releases that were given ratings of 4 stars or greater, so again, I think they're fairly accurate and fair.
One word about ratings - they're relative. Let me make the analogy with ski trail ratings - little ski areas in New Jersey or Connecticut have what they call "black diamond", most difficult trails. Would they rate as black diamond trails at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, or Alta, Utah? Of course not - they'd be green circle bunny hills, but for their area they merit the most difficult rating. Same might be said for Kenny G's music. If that's what a listener is aiming for, the 4 or 5 star rating means it is among his best work... for that artist. Most of us who know better realize that the relative comparison to a greater artist like Steve Lacy or Sonny Rollins renders the rating invalid.
I like the book and the site and continue to find useful and entertaining info there.
Mike M
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Follow Ups
- Re: Jazz Reference - Mike M 05:42:25 03/14/00 (2)
- Re: Jazz Reference - Dmitry 08:42:54 03/14/00 (1)
- Re: Jazz Reference - Mike M 11:24:00 03/14/00 (0)
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