other people's children are killing jazz

[vickibonet]

Driving past Wesley college... there is a big billboard with an image of students dressed in 1940s ish gear for their groovy "Jazz" review/cabaret thingy.

This kind of ghastly event is what puts the paying public off real jazz. The perps should be jailed. As if their purple school uniforms and vile teenage manners aren't offensive enough. Je blâme la bourgeoisie.

[mim]

As a teenager that was the thing I noticed that made the difference so obvious between my school and the nearest co-ed private school (which most of my friends attended): The money that clearly went in to advertising the school's accomplishments/activities on banners, flags and posters, displayed out the front of the school.

I wouldn't go so far as to blame wealthy families for the unpopularity of jazz, but I appreciate your observation, Vicki.

[andgar]

Yeah, but if some of these kids start listening to Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman, then Count Basie and Duke Ellington because they're better, then probably Bird and Dizzy because they look cooler in photos, then Miles and Coltrane because everyone's heard of them then that's not so bad, is it? Maybe they'll even try and check out some local players...

I know I certainly got into jazz because of some pretty cliched and superficial notions of the music, but I think most people naturally develop an interest in a wider range of music as their listening continues and they learn that jazz isn't really the commercialised rubbish that is heard on TV (and in jazz review/cabaret thingies...).

[shaggaz]

yeah that's a tough one, because a lot of wesley kids do check out local musicians, know that for a fact cos i teach one of them. they also have a great staff! but i do see your other points...

[vickibonet]

You wonderful people are so kind! Crikey, isn't anyone here as grumpy and horrible as me?

[paulgrab]

I happen to be one of those 'other people'. Your ignorant faux Marxism is almost beyond belief. For my fifteen-year-old, it is the first step into what she hopes will be a career on the stage. My first experience of playing jazz occurred within the same class enemy fortress on Punt Rd during the mid 70's. Maybe you should see it before spraying it with venom. You might be surprised, and even see fit to reprieve one or two who meet your refined standards of what jazz is in your morally pure world before the rest of them are shipped off to the killing fields.

[ironguts]

Ouch! I love this place.

[jamie]

Good to see you're feeling better ;-)

[captain]

Oehlers and Grabowsky, Jazz forum stalkers. Who else is watching I wonder?

[ironguts]

not me.

[alimcg]

You gotta admit though paul, that purple is a shocker.

[paulgrab]

Imperial purple. The colour of the ruling elite. Hail caesar........

[jeremy]

it's better than the grey, blue and yellow i had to wear...
It was like a stylised pool of vomit

[mim]

I haven't seen the billboard you are referring to, but it just made me think of the Adelaide Youth Orchestra (AdYO) who uses a very similar campaign for their concerts. The kids wear the cutesy costumes appropriate to the era to advertise whichever works they will play (and yes, I think they do put the most attractive kids on the posters). It pulls in crowds and money, and AdYO can continue to give the kids the opportunity to play this extraordinary music.

I know it's probably a bit different at Wesley, as funding is less of a problem than at AdYO or other community organisation. Yes it's cheesy, but my problem with it is not so much that schools like Wesley have it, it is that not everybody has it. I wish we had more stuff like that at our school, though I could do without the costumes. Andgar makes a good point, an environment like that isn't a bad place to start.

[isaacs]

mim said:

Andgar makes a good point, an environment like that isn't a bad place to start.

With all respect Mim, I think Paul Grabowsky - as living proof - made that point far more tellingly than Andgar's hypothetical, since the school is his alma mater and the place where his deeply profound engagement with jazz was fomented. "Killing jazz"? Hardly! Try succesfully nurturing jazz in one of this country's greatest artists. The school should be a shrine mate!