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Your Two Favorite Decades for Music


BeBop

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I'd posted this inquiry with two questions rattling around in my head:

1. How many people would pick anything post 1980s? (Steve Reynolds is always around to remind me there's still worthwhile stuff going on, even if we don't always hear ear-to-ear. Thanks for that.)

2. How many people would pick non-consecutive decades?

For myself, I'd probably choose the 1940s and 1960s. If I could fudge a bit, I'd probably say 1935-1945 and 1959-1969. Fudging even more, I'd want to tack on the mid-20s... But non-consecutive.

Reading posts around here, I suspected I wasn't alone. Jazz has had its births and rebirths/renaissances. Its golden eras. Here's hoping there's another.

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For myself, I'd probably choose the 1940s and 1960s. If I could fudge a bit, I'd probably say 1935-1945 and 1959-1969. Fudging even more, I'd want to tack on the mid-20s... But non-consecutive.

Considering your nick I am a bit surprised that in your "fudging" you excluded the heyday of bebop. ;)

For me, the greatest bebop happened in 1945 (and the preceding transition years). It may not have been at a fully-formed peak, but it was happening.

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On my end, I would say that I chose the 90s because that's when I came up (I'll be just 30 this summer). I didn't start listening to jazz until later, so I can't say I had a relationship to that music at the time. But as a young rock fan, the decade cannot be beat IMO (except for the 60s, obviously). The common wisdom seems to be that American underground music blossomed in the 80s, and while I have a great fondness for the music of REM, The Replacements, Husker Du, The Minutemen et al, I would argue that in fact American rock and roll hit its post-60s apex in the 90s. The music made by bands like Pavement, Built to Spill, Modest Mouse, Yo La Tengo, Sleater-Kinney, Low and others during the 1990s is some of the richest, most brilliant and rewarding music in all of rock. Hip-Hop was also in creative overdrive. The mainstream was, again, never better: Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Beck, Radiohead, Blur...these were all major-league, chart-topping bands making exciting, smart, forward-thinking, brilliant music. I think it's clear that everyone sees this in the time that they came of age, so I don't necessarily expect others to see it. But I look back on the 90s very fondly as a golden musical age. It may be decades more before we see music in the place it was then. I think the 2000s was, from what I could tell, something of a disappointing retrenchment in rock-based music that I don't see resolving itself any time soon.

On the jazz side of things, which, like I said, I've come to in the last 7-8 years, I find a lot to admire. The music released by Hat Hut at this time by Gerry Hemingway, Franz Koglmann, Clusone 3, Ellery Eskelin, Urs Leimgruber, Fritz Hauser, Anthony Braxton, and others is truly exceptional. The NYC downtown scene exemplified by the likes of Tim Berne, Myra Melford, Dave Douglas, Thomas Chapin, and others was in great bloom. The music from this time by older players like Bill Dixon, Cecil Taylor, Steve Lacy, and Evan Parker is some of their best. In the mainstream, people like Geri Allen, Paul Motian, Don Byron, and David Murray were doing strong stuff. I think it's an underrated chapter in the music that I hope is examined more in the future.

The 60s I needn't explain. I know there are many people who feel strongly about the music of the 70s, but I've never fully cottoned onto a lot of it.

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On my end, I would say that I chose the 90s because that's when I came up (I'll be just 30 this summer). I didn't start listening to jazz until later, so I can't say I had a relationship to that music at the time. But as a young rock fan, the decade cannot be beat IMO (except for the 60s, obviously). The common wisdom seems to be that American underground music blossomed in the 80s, and while I have a great fondness for the music of REM, The Replacements, Husker Du, The Minutemen et al, I would argue that in fact American rock and roll hit its post-60s apex in the 90s. The music made by bands like Pavement, Built to Spill, Modest Mouse, Yo La Tengo, Sleater-Kinney, Low and others during the 1990s is some of the richest, most brilliant and rewarding music in all of rock. Hip-Hop was also in creative overdrive. The mainstream was, again, never better: Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Beck, Radiohead, Blur...these were all major-league, chart-topping bands making exciting, smart, forward-thinking, brilliant music. I think it's clear that everyone sees this in the time that they came of age, so I don't necessarily expect others to see it. But I look back on the 90s very fondly as a golden musical age. It may be decades more before we see music in the place it was then. I think the 2000s was, from what I could tell, something of a disappointing retrenchment in rock-based music that I don't see resolving itself any time soon.

On the jazz side of things, which, like I said, I've come to in the last 7-8 years, I find a lot to admire. The music released by Hat Hut at this time by Gerry Hemingway, Franz Koglmann, Clusone 3, Ellery Eskelin, Urs Leimgruber, Fritz Hauser, Anthony Braxton, and others is truly exceptional. The NYC downtown scene exemplified by the likes of Tim Berne, Myra Melford, Dave Douglas, Thomas Chapin, and others was in great bloom. The music from this time by older players like Bill Dixon, Cecil Taylor, Steve Lacy, and Evan Parker is some of their best. In the mainstream, people like Geri Allen, Paul Motian, Don Byron, and David Murray were doing strong stuff. I think it's an underrated chapter in the music that I hope is examined more in the future.

The 60s I needn't explain. I know there are many people who feel strongly about the music of the 70s, but I've never fully cottoned onto a lot of it.

I guess we are the only ones. Also Joe Maneri, John Law, Jon Lloyd, Denis Charles, Brotzmann Tentet and Die Like a Dog quartet, John Lindberg's great black saint recordings, Mujician's classic recordings, etc.

But I wonder how many people here have even listened to much of the great 90's music. Not many I think.

Too busy realistening to the next issue of whatever

No Try No Fail, baby

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On my end, I would say that I chose the 90s because that's when I came up (I'll be just 30 this summer). I didn't start listening to jazz until later, so I can't say I had a relationship to that music at the time. But as a young rock fan, the decade cannot be beat IMO (except for the 60s, obviously). The common wisdom seems to be that American underground music blossomed in the 80s, and while I have a great fondness for the music of REM, The Replacements, Husker Du, The Minutemen et al, I would argue that in fact American rock and roll hit its post-60s apex in the 90s. The music made by bands like Pavement, Built to Spill, Modest Mouse, Yo La Tengo, Sleater-Kinney, Low and others during the 1990s is some of the richest, most brilliant and rewarding music in all of rock. Hip-Hop was also in creative overdrive. The mainstream was, again, never better: Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Beck, Radiohead, Blur...these were all major-league, chart-topping bands making exciting, smart, forward-thinking, brilliant music. I think it's clear that everyone sees this in the time that they came of age, so I don't necessarily expect others to see it. But I look back on the 90s very fondly as a golden musical age. It may be decades more before we see music in the place it was then. I think the 2000s was, from what I could tell, something of a disappointing retrenchment in rock-based music that I don't see resolving itself any time soon.

On the jazz side of things, which, like I said, I've come to in the last 7-8 years, I find a lot to admire. The music released by Hat Hut at this time by Gerry Hemingway, Franz Koglmann, Clusone 3, Ellery Eskelin, Urs Leimgruber, Fritz Hauser, Anthony Braxton, and others is truly exceptional. The NYC downtown scene exemplified by the likes of Tim Berne, Myra Melford, Dave Douglas, Thomas Chapin, and others was in great bloom. The music from this time by older players like Bill Dixon, Cecil Taylor, Steve Lacy, and Evan Parker is some of their best. In the mainstream, people like Geri Allen, Paul Motian, Don Byron, and David Murray were doing strong stuff. I think it's an underrated chapter in the music that I hope is examined more in the future.

The 60s I needn't explain. I know there are many people who feel strongly about the music of the 70s, but I've never fully cottoned onto a lot of it.

I guess we are the only ones. Also Joe Maneri, John Law, Jon Lloyd, Denis Charles, Brotzmann Tentet and Die Like a Dog quartet, John Lindberg's great black saint recordings, Mujician's classic recordings, etc.

But I wonder how many people here have even listened to much of the great 90's music. Not many I think.

Too busy realistening to the next issue of whatever

No Try No Fail, baby

For me i picked the 60's and 90's for rock and covered the 90's for Hip Hop... i'm a few years older than colinmce but yeah the 90's were a prime time for me, Rock (i'm pretty much including everything from Pavement to the Dillinger Escape Plan under 'Rock' FWIW) and Hip hop wise.

Now while i didn't pick the 90's as my favourite, i do still think it was an excellent decade for jazz. However, i did pick 2003 to 2013 as my favourite. I didn't really start digging in to jazz actively until 2005/2006, and for whatever reason that period of 2000 until today just resonates with me more than the 80's and 90's. Maybe on a practical level it's been more accessible to me; a lot of 80's and 90's releases are in that wierd zone where they are old enough to be out of print but not old enough to be reissued... I think also having been hooked in by that 'generation' of Eisenstadt, Hollenbeck, Wooley, Halvorson, Moran, Lehman etc etc etc my cup runneth over and i'm just really enjoying keeping up with their work in real time... I feel like i've connected to their music more than i have with Hemingway, Berne, Previte etc etc etc (although i have a lot of their records and really rate them highly, don't get it twisted!). Guys like Threadgill, Braxton, Schlippenbach etc etc etc put out brilliant work across all the decades they've been active and continue to do so.

Anyway, just noting that there are other passionate fans of stuff beyond the sixties. I dig the 80's and 90's, they're just not my number one favourite!

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The 60s-- when I was a teenager and everything was happening and one could go to theFillmore for a couple of bucks and see great shows.

Add me to the 2000s club-- there is some great music being made now; it will be somebody's golden age several decades hence.

One decade that I consider a Dead Zone is the 80s. So much bad music. So much uninspired music.

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On my end, I would say that I chose the 90s because that's when I came up (I'll be just 30 this summer). I didn't start listening to jazz until later, so I can't say I had a relationship to that music at the time. But as a young rock fan, the decade cannot be beat IMO (except for the 60s, obviously). The common wisdom seems to be that American underground music blossomed in the 80s, and while I have a great fondness for the music of REM, The Replacements, Husker Du, The Minutemen et al, I would argue that in fact American rock and roll hit its post-60s apex in the 90s. The music made by bands like Pavement, Built to Spill, Modest Mouse, Yo La Tengo, Sleater-Kinney, Low and others during the 1990s is some of the richest, most brilliant and rewarding music in all of rock. Hip-Hop was also in creative overdrive. The mainstream was, again, never better: Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Beck, Radiohead, Blur...these were all major-league, chart-topping bands making exciting, smart, forward-thinking, brilliant music. I think it's clear that everyone sees this in the time that they came of age, so I don't necessarily expect others to see it. But I look back on the 90s very fondly as a golden musical age. It may be decades more before we see music in the place it was then. I think the 2000s was, from what I could tell, something of a disappointing retrenchment in rock-based music that I don't see resolving itself any time soon.

On the jazz side of things, which, like I said, I've come to in the last 7-8 years, I find a lot to admire. The music released by Hat Hut at this time by Gerry Hemingway, Franz Koglmann, Clusone 3, Ellery Eskelin, Urs Leimgruber, Fritz Hauser, Anthony Braxton, and others is truly exceptional. The NYC downtown scene exemplified by the likes of Tim Berne, Myra Melford, Dave Douglas, Thomas Chapin, and others was in great bloom. The music from this time by older players like Bill Dixon, Cecil Taylor, Steve Lacy, and Evan Parker is some of their best. In the mainstream, people like Geri Allen, Paul Motian, Don Byron, and David Murray were doing strong stuff. I think it's an underrated chapter in the music that I hope is examined more in the future.

The 60s I needn't explain. I know there are many people who feel strongly about the music of the 70s, but I've never fully cottoned onto a lot of it.

I guess we are the only ones. Also Joe Maneri, John Law, Jon Lloyd, Denis Charles, Brotzmann Tentet and Die Like a Dog quartet, John Lindberg's great black saint recordings, Mujician's classic recordings, etc.

But I wonder how many people here have even listened to much of the great 90's music. Not many I think.

Too busy realistening to the next issue of whatever

No Try No Fail, baby

Way too snarky. you really come across as an ignorant ****. Relistening can lead you ahead some times. Listening for the first time can give you context.

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Point is many are more interested in listening to another version/remaster of the same recording. We all know revisiting and relistening is invigorating and enlightening.

I was trying not to offend those who have been focusing on the same music here for over 20 years but I guess alternate viewpoints may not be encouraged here.

I've been called worse than snarky, Chuck

Not often called ignorant though.

Paradigms are tough to break out of.

Edited by Steve Reynolds
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Point is many are more interested in listening to another version/remaster of the same recording. We all know revisiting and relistening is invigorating and enlightening.

I was trying not to offend those who have been focusing on the same music here for over 20 years but I guess alternate viewpoints may not be encouraged here.

I've been called worse than snarky, Chuck

Not often called ignorant though.

Paradigms are tough to break out of.

Not true and this is your problem. Paradigms are indeed tough to break out of if you can't ignore the remaster folks and take care of yourself and folks enjoying the same (even if they like remasters). Get rid of the chip and find some friends.

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Point is many are more interested in listening to another version/remaster of the same recording. We all know revisiting and relistening is invigorating and enlightening.

I was trying not to offend those who have been focusing on the same music here for over 20 years but I guess alternate viewpoints may not be encouraged here.

I've been called worse than snarky, Chuck

Not often called ignorant though.

Paradigms are tough to break out of.

Not true and this is your problem. Paradigms are indeed tough to break out of if you can't ignore the remaster folks and take care of yourself and folks enjoying the same (even if they like remasters). Get rid of the chip and find some friends.

I got some friends but I'll always be the guy from the other board and that's OK with me. I always looked at things a bit different probably because I came to this music after 30 and within a few years was just as interested in Paul Lovens as Tony Williams which is not the norm. And within a few years much more interested to see or hear Paul Dunmall than even the late great masters. So my viewpoint is different from the norm here or anywhere.

You are correct that I should let it all be but sometimes I revert towards the guy I used to be who had no tact which isn't the guy I am today.

Peace and blessings

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Exploring music that is newly recorded is very rewarding as you ( and everyone else) are hearing it for the first time. As the listener you can be part of history rather than following it. There has been lots of great music released this past decade but plenty that's mediocre and recycled ( across many sub-genres of the music). Time will judge whether jazz of the 00s stands up to long term scrutiny.

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