Scott Henderson sullo stato del rock e del jazz

[Fidelcaster]

I've never let my knowledge of complex harmony get in the way of being able to enjoy simple music. I'm just kinda bored with the current rock scene and have been for a long time. I listen to Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix - I guess Van Halen was the newest band to come out that I really liked. I never got into the metal thing much, and when I hear bands like U2 it makes me wanna throw up. I'm confused as to how music like that gets popular. Oh well, to each his own.

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I just can't compare any of those bands with Led Zeppelin or Deep Purple. I guess it's the writing - they thought of it first and that whole 60's/ 70's era was such an incredibly creative time for rock music. I think most of the great tunes have already been written. Rock has evolved since then, but in my opinion it's been more about chops than songwriting. In case someone is thinking I'm a jazz snob, I see the same problem in jazz music - great new players but very few great new jazz compositions.

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they just don't make music like they used to. If that sounds like grouchy old man, it's fine with me. I don't think anyone since has created great catalogues of music like Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Beatles, Rolling Stones - I could go on but everyone knows the bands I'm talking about. Those are extremely hard acts to follow. It's like Weather Report and Tribal Tech - we were a good band but Weather Report did it first, and with a superior catalogue, at least in my opinion. That doesn't mean there isn't a place for the Tribal Tech's and Opeth's of the world, but to compare them to the masters? Nope.

To answer tribalfusion's question about the reason for me liking those old bands because I grew up with them: Maybe that's a small part of it, but I'm absolutely 100% sure that if I heard Whole Lotta Love for the first time right now, I'd like it a hell of a lot more than any clip posted on this thread.

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Throughout history there have been times where certain types of music have shined their brightest. For blues rock and R&B it was the 60's/ 70's, for metal it was the 80's, for many jazz fans it was the 50's when Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, John Coltrane and those guys were doing their thing. We shouldn't feel too bad, my wife holds a doctorate in classical piano - I haven't heard her play anything lately that wasn't written less than 100 years ago. Many music business people predicted that traditional music was done and that rap was the salvation of the industry - and look what happened, it became huge - and in time, it'll be something else.

There are too many circumstances to count which bring a band together to become a giant of music, like Led Zeppelin. Right place, right time is my only explanation - and lots of talent.

We should keep in mind that "innovative" isn't black and white - there's a lot of gray area. In a way we're all innovators if we manage to sound like us and not someone else - and even if we're not innovators it doesn't mean we can't be great musicians. Also, many musicians we call innovative were highly influenced by other musicians, so they're not as god-like as they appear. Even Zeppelin was highly influenced by blues artists like Muddy Waters, and Hendrix and SRV were extremely influenced by Albert King. Jeff Beck - Les Paul, Tommy Emmanuel - Chet Atkins, Michael Brecker - John Coltrane. They all have their own distinct voices, which were built on the influences of other musicians.

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I don't think anything is dead as long as people are playing it. Bruce Forman plays jazz in the style of Charlie Parker and Count Basie - it may not be innovative, but that doesn't mean it's dead and not relevant. Tribal Tech had a lot of fans, but we weren't doing anything new - neither were Aerosmith or AC/DC but they were still great bands. Actually I take that back - Tribal Tech had a very innovative period when we were jamming in the studio and turning those jams into compositions in post-production. To my knowledge, no other band has ever done that.

And not to brag, but I think my take on the blues is innovative, and so are my trio arrangements with distorted chord-melodies using open strings. I feel I'm way more innovative as a guitarist in this context than I ever was when I worked with keyboard players. That doesn't mean I think the style of music I play is innovative because it isn't. People have been playing fusion since the 70's. If I thought my music had to be totally innovative to be relevant, I guess I'd think it's dead and give up.

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I think jazz is just as stale as rock from a composing viewpoint. What's the weakest thing about all the clips posted on this tread? It's the writing in my opinion. The jazz musicians who could also write great music were never a large group in the first place, but now it seems like it's an art form completely overlooked by the new generation of jazz musicians. They're playing standards, Avant-garde music, or writing badly. There are exceptions but when it comes to fresh material, jazz in in the same place as rock.

Purtroppo adesso non ho tempo di tradurre e neanche di riassumere, perdonatemi.

[luvi]

Sottoscrivo e straquoto ogni parola, ogni sillaba, perfino la punteggiatura, anzi... anche gli spazi vuoti!!! 

[Max Maz]

Grande Scottuccio.

[Grand Funk]

Aspetto il riassunto....... 

[Vu-meter]

Concordo anche io , in termini generali. Non sono così chiuso però verso la musica popolare, anzi.

Mi domando se non sia che abbiamo sperimentato tutto ciò che il nostro sistema ci permetteva, ecco perchè mancano nuove idee ? Può essere ? Bho?!

So che per certo io stesso sono tra quelli che non avrebbe alcuna capacità di inventare proprio niente di nuovo, per cui, riesco a provare empatia per quelli come me.

Forse dovremmo provare altri sistemi: abbandonare il sistema temperato e creare un nuovo sistema più ampio. 

[Moreno Viola]

Magari dice anche cose condivisibili, ma io avrei già qualche difficoltà a protrarre una conversazione con qualcuno che sostiene che la prima volta che ascoltò i pinco pallino voleva vomitare. Fosse anche Bach.

[Fidelcaster]

A quanto scrive si direbbe la voglia di vomitare gli venga ogni volta che sente gli U2! 

[Elliott]

Io avrei già qualche difficoltà a protrarre una conversazione con qualcuno che sostiene che la prima volta che ascoltò i pinco pallino voleva vomitare. Fosse anche Bach.

[Max Maz]

Si Francesco, sono d'accordo