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Is improvisational jazz to impressionism art as smooth jazz is to realism art?

So, I’ll acknowledge up front, I’m an engineer. Civilian and Warfighter lives can be in the balance depending on whether our company products perform as required or not. As a result, I try very hard to drive the entropic world we live in towards black and white as much as possible. I need to put order to chaos. When i look at art, impressionistic art requires a lot of mental work to make sense of. I just don't see it or get it, appreciate it or like it. I also find, as hard as i may try to enjoy improvisational jazz, that i don't get it, appreciate it, or like it. Instead, I love Realism art and instrumental smooth jazz!!
Reading from Audiogon forum pages for a couple of years now, i feel like i should feel inferior because 1. I don’t appreciate the free flow of expression that is improvisational jazz and 2. I love that there is a tune and thread in smooth jazz. I love the guitar artistry of Chuck Loeb, Chris Standring, and Acoustic Alchemy; the trumpet expressions of Rick Braun, Cindy Bradley, and Chris Botti; and the bass works of Brian Bromberg. 
I’m curious if there are many others out there that equate order (or lack there-of) in their music tastes to that of their taste in the visual arts?
Also, are there many other music lovers who would rather enjoy a good smooth jazz listening session than improvisational jazz?  If so, who do you listen to?
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stuartk
2,432 posts
 
@serjio:

"In the Soviet Union, there was a joke-saying:
today you play jazz - and tomorrow you will sell your homeland (everything sounds in rhyme).
Surprisingly, years passed and it was these people who turned out to be traitors ...

Behind abstractionism and improvisation (most often) hides anti-art, chaos, mediocrity, dehumanization - it is easier to realize there for those who do not know how to create a masterpiece, but know how to sell themselves ... a fool - you need to convince that this is cool! - to play on his vanity and pride ... he is not like everyone else! - and for this you have to pay a lot of money))))

When people discuss works of such creativity (for example, Malevich's "black square") ... it seems as if art critics gathered around a puddle of urine in an elevator - and everyone fantasized what it was like, what an artist's inner world ... what he wanted us tell this ...

There are probably exceptions, but there are very few of them, and most likely - the melody turned out to be similar to the classical one"

What a load of reeking garbage you've served up, here. 
kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,412 posts
 
@stuartk   Of course.  I love Jazz.
stuartk
2,432 posts
 
Good one, then!

I wasn't sure, given some of the other posts on this thread.
stuartk
2,432 posts
 
@marklings:

 I studied jazz piano 3 years and came to the conclusion that I just don't like it. I like order and structure and purpose and overall sense of a composition. I don't judge those who dig jazz and I understand those who dig it, I just don't.

I don't know where you studied but they seem to have managed to avoid conveying to you the whole point of Jazz improvisation, which is to SPONTANEOUSLY create something that does display "order and structure and purpose and an overall sense of composition" !  

Classical musicians do have lee-way in interpreting the pieces they play, but they are performing someone else's composition. Jazz masters operate on a whole 'nother level. 

I'm not saying what you "ought" to like or not like-- I'll leave such behavior to the resident music fascists who've posted on this thread.

But it seems a terrible shame that you've castigated Jazz for purportedly lacking what in fact lies at its very heart. 


stuartk
2,432 posts
 
@marklings:

I'd go further and assert that what I've said about the nature of Jazz improv holds true for improv in any genre.

Aimless noodling doesn't tend to be very satisfying for players or listeners.

For example, the "theme and variation" approach can be recognized in the playing of Indian classical flautists, Bluegrass banjo pickers, and Chicago Blues harmonica blowers, to name but a few. They all attempt to create "order, structure, purpose and an overall sense of composition". 

They may not all succeed every time but this is an exceedingly challenging  activity we're talking about. 

So, it seems it might be more accurate to suggest you simply don't care for improvisation, period.


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