Why Doesn't Contemporary Jazz Get Any Respect?

Frogman, very well said indeed.

Krelldog, you seem to have a strong dislike for classic Jazz. The point I take with you is that because of your tastes, howerever educated they may be? you seem to judge smooth music to be superior to Jazz. You use it's popularity to make you case, if you continue with this logic than you will find country music to be the supreme art form.. ( I'll take country over smooth anyday )

I have been very impressed with the insightful posts in this thread and find it very refreshing to be talknig about music and not gear.

Smooth jazz is like those sappy romance novels, and Jazz is literature.

Contemporary Jazz is an attitude, played by epigones and mostly, to someone who is intimately familiar with the "old stuff", its just plain stale and boring. Technical excellence is usually high, but an essential part is missing, probably disolved by political correctness, masss culture and the creative brains (usually black), going different ways these days. With Monk the anger was REAL and it gave his music a presence and a rawness which you could feel. The loneliness of Coltrane could be heard not only in his lonely woman theme, Miles'aloofness, his despair was in his music, Ellington, a musical genius, was driven by a social message, who swings like Basie these days or is funny like Carla Bley? Where is the velvet of Hodges, the clear smoothness of Bechet? Where is that deeply engrained musicality of Satchmo's...even his farts were music....etc.etc. No, Jazz was never really smooth, except when it became commercially bastardised. Was Parker smooth?
But these times are gone, what we have now is the attitude, but neither the pain, nor the cojones. Just MO.

I thought this was going to get pretty out of hand, I am not going to get involved with this any more. Enjoy the mindless bickering.
~Tim

Clueless, That "sincerely I remain" thing cracks me up every time I read it. Is that an original or some old vaudeville shtick?

Detlof, too bad the rating system isn't around. That post should be required reading.
$3500. for Lee Morgan's Candy???? Nice record, but really.
Regarding Wynton, People should listen to Standard Time Vol. 1, and then decide. No he isnt Trane, but Trane isnt Wynton either. Just my opinion.......Frank