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I honestly don't know anything about John Zorn. My ears tell me they're similar and I've always relied on and trusted them. It's the way notes are approached, not dead on but bent, and an inexact concept of pitch that are similar and give them both personality. To me, that is. I'm not one of these egghead type musicians, always analyzing and looking for connections. Sometimes I wish I were. This was just an observation, not something I'm going to spend years studying like an ethnomusicologist. A part of me IS interested in similarities in people, and I'm sure that's part of what draws me to being a performing musician as opposed to a purely behind-the-scenes contributor such as an arranger, trying to get to something universal people can feel. And please excuse that self-reflective moment. Just trying to explain myself. Anyway my ear and intuition sorts a lot of things out and right or wrong the similarity was noticeable.

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I'm sure your ears are fine. I was just pointing out that the formal similarities will exist across most ethnic/folk musics and the Blues.

Probably lots of musicians and music scribes would be hoping in some way to reconcile their social history with their listening history.

Does the author make any big claims beyond just exploring the social connections/oral history of Jewish/Jazz networks?

Same for Zorn? How does he talk about the Blues and Jewish music - is it anything beyond just exploring musical homonym's - or does he think it's something more significant. His Post-Modernist free-play seems really old fashioned now.

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So another question might be...

Does the distinction remain as Jewish people who play Jazz

or is the claim Jewish Jazz

hmmmm.....thought so.

Here's one Jewish person's perspective. You might find this interesting Fasstrack as it echoes a lot of things you say re-music breaking down barriers,

My link

Edited by freelancer
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Well, I guess the guy has a point. Gerber wrote the book, I just read parts of it. Maybe he IS obsessed w/ethnic identity, who knows? He seemed gracious in correspondence, and willing to listen to other points of view and take well-meant criticism. Me, I'm just a musician, not hung up on this stuff at all. It's tiresome when some musician wraps him/herself in whatever ethnic identity, and usually reeks of musical shortcomings. Be proud of your roots if you feel that but don't make it a 'thing'-that's a potential music-killer. Still I thought the writer went a little far in trashing Gerber for having that type of radio show. As long as he's up-front about his views, and especially if the music's good, what's the harm?

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Well, I guess the guy has a point. Gerber wrote the book, I just read parts of it. Maybe he IS obsessed w/ethnic identity, who knows? He seemed gracious in correspondence, and willing to listen to other points of view and take well-meant criticism. Me, I'm just a musician, not hung up on this stuff at all. It's tiresome when some musician wraps him/herself in whatever ethnic identity, and usually reeks of musical shortcomings. Be proud of your roots if you feel that but don't make it a 'thing'-that's a potential music-killer. Still I thought the writer went a little far in trashing Gerber for having that type of radio show. As long as he's up-front about his views, and especially if the music's good, what's the harm?

Yeh, I don't think a radio show celebrating Jewish Jazz musicians is a necessarily fascist undertaking :g Unfortunately the insinuation is that it's connected to a wider cultural project that seems to be going beyond celebrating the Jewish participation in Jazz - re-post 28

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Isn't it time to abandon an exhausted topic for something else?

How about:

Blues Bulgarians

Swing Swedes

Ragtime Romanians

Soft jazz Senegalese

Mainstream Mexicans

Hard Bop Hawaiians

Dixieland Druids

Gavotte Gypsies

:lol:

I'm sure there is a tome or two in that lot.

Although I must warn you about the Mainstream Mexicans :D Apparently they're all hats and no substance.

Now the Dixieland Druids....they're deep.

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