Then I read this (and these lines...
When you’re truly creating you don’t have time to think about what to call it.
Who
thinks of what they’ll name the baby while they’re fucking?
&
Too
many musicians and not enough artists.
&
You
can’t practice art.
In
order for it to be true, one must live it.)
On Why Jazz Isn’t Cool
Anymore . . . .
Posted on November 27, 2011
Jazz
died in 1959.
There
maybe cool individuals who say they play Jazz, but ain’t shit cool about Jazz
as a whole.
Jazz
died when cool stopped being hip.
Jazz
was a limited idea to begin with.
Jazz is
a label that was forced upon the musicians.
The
musicians should’ve never accepted that idea.
Jazz
ain’t shit.
Jazz is
incestuous.
Jazz
separated itself from American popular music.
Big
mistake.
The
music never recovered.
Ornette
tried to save Jazz from itself by taking the music back to its New Orleanian
roots, but his efforts were too esoteric.
Jazz
died in 1959, that’s why Ornette tried to “Free Jazz” in 1960.
Jazz is
only cool if you don’t actually play it for a living.
Jazz
musicians have accepted the idea that it’s OK to be poor.
John
Coltrane is a bad cat, but Jazz stopped being cool in 1959.
The
very fact that so many people are holding on to this idea of what Jazz is
supposed to be is exactly what makes it not cool.
People
are holding on to an idea that died long ago.
Jazz,
like the Buddha, is dead.
Let it
go, people, let it go.
Paul
Whiteman was the King of Jazz and someday all kings must fall.
Jazz ain’t
cool, it’s cold, like necrophilia.
Stop
fucking the dead and embrace the living.
Jazz
worries way too much about itself for it to be cool.
Jazz
died in 1959.
The number one Jazz record is Miles Davis’ Kind Of Blue.
Dave Brubeck’s Time Out was
released in 1959.
1959
was the coolest year in Jazz.
Jazz is
haunted by its own hungry ghosts.
Let it
die.
You can
be martyrs for an idea that died over a half a century if y’all want.
Jazz
has proven itself to be limited, and therefore, not cool.
Lot’s
wife turned to a pillar of salt from looking back.
Jazz is
dead.
Miles
ahead.
Some
may say that I’m no longer the same dude who recorded the album with Doc
Cheatham.
Correct:
I’m not the same dude I was 14 years ago.
Isn’t
that the point?
Our
whole purpose on this planet is to evolve.
The
Golden Age of Jazz is gone.
Let it
go.
Too
many necrophiliacs in Jazz.
You’re
making my case for me.
Some
people may say we are defined by our limitations.
I don’t
believe in limitations, but yes, if you believe you are limited that will
define you.
Definitions
are retrospective.
And if
you find yourself getting mad, it’s probably because you know Jazz is dead.
Why get
upset if what I’m saying doesn’t ring true?
I can’t
speak for anyone else, but I don’t play Jazz.
I play
Postmodern New Orleans music.
Louis
Armstrong and Danny Barker play Traditional New Orleans Music.
Ellis
Marsalis and James Black play Modern New Orleans music.
Kidd
Jordan and Clyde Kerr play Avant-garde New Orleans music.
Donald
Harrison plays Neoclassical New Orleans music.
I play
Postmodern New Orleans music.
I am a
part of a lineage.
I am a
part of a blood line.
My
ancestors didn’t play Jazz, they played Traditional, Modern and Avant-garde New
Orleans Music.
I don’t
play Jazz.
I don’t
let others define who I am.
I am a
Postmodern New Orleans musician.
I
create music for the heart and the head, for the beauty and the booty.
The man
who lets others define him is a dead man.
With
all due respect to the masters, they were victims of a colonialist mentality.
Blacks
have been conditioned for centuries to be grateful for whatever crumbs thrown
to them.
As a
postmodern musician, it’s my duty to do better than my predecessors.
To
question, reexamine and redefine what it is that we do.
They
accepted it because they had to.
Because
my ancestors opened the door for me, I don’t have to accept it.
Louis
bowed and scraped so Miles could turn his back.
It’s
called evolution.
It’s
the colonialist mentality that glorifies being treated like a slave.
There
is nothing romantic about poor, scuffling Jazz musicians.
Fuck
that idea.
It’s
not cool.
Jazz is
a lie.
America
is a lie.
Playing
Jazz is like running on a treadmill: you may break a sweat, but ultimately you
ain’t going nowhere.
Some
people may say we are limited.
I say,
we are as limited as we think.
I am
not limited.
Jazz is
a marketing ploy that serves an elite few.
The
elite make all the money while they tell the true artists it’s cool to be
broke.
Occupy
Jazz!
I am
not speaking of so-called Jazz’s improvisational aspects.
Improvisation by its very nature can never be passé, but mindsets are invariably deadly.
Not
knowing is the most you can ever know.
It’s
only when you don’t know that “everything” is possible.
Jazz
has nothing to do with music or being cool.
It’s a
marketing idea.
A
glaring example of what’s wrong with Jazz is how people fight over it.
People
are too afraid to let go of a name that is killing the spirit of the music.
Life is
bigger than music, unless you love and/or play Jazz.
The
art, or lack thereof, is just a reflection.
Miles
Davis personified cool and he hated Jazz.
What is
Jazz anyway?
Life
isn’t linear, it’s concentric.
When
you’re truly creating you don’t have time to think about what to call it.
Who
thinks of what they’ll name the baby while they’re fucking?
Playing
Jazz is like using the rear-view mirror to drive your car on the freeway.
If you
think Jazz is a style of music, you’ll never begin to understand.
It’s
ultimately on the musicians.
People
are fickle and follow the pack.
Not enough
artists willing to soldier for their shit.
People
follow trends and brands.
So do
musicians, sadly.
Jazz is
a brand.
Jazz
ain’t music, it’s marketing, and bad marketing at that.
It has
never been, nor will it ever be, music.
Here
lies Jazz (1916 – 1959).
Too
many musicians and not enough artists.
I
believe music to be more of a medium than a brand.
Silence
is music, too.
You
can’t practice art.
In
order for it to be true, one must live it.
Existence
is not contingent upon thought.
It’s
where you choose to put silence that makes sound music.
Sound
and silence equals music.
Sometimes
when I’m soloing, I don’t play shit.
I just
move blocks of silence around.
The
notes are an afterthought.
Silence
is what makes music sexy.
Silence
is cool.
-
Nicholas Payton
