Is Jazz drumming snobby?

[blueshadow]

Who are those jerks?

Canadian Jazz snobs

 

[blueshadow]

You just resumed my whole career in that sentence.

. I was actually confessing not bragging

 

[Lamontsdad]

Canadian Jazz snobs

Need to be careful of them Canucks!!!

 

[Steech]

Who are those jerks?

ABBA

 

[DBT]

ABBA

Now don’t go picking on ABBA

 

[Squirrel Man]

Now don’t go picking on ABBA

Huge ABBA fan. and Barry Manilow but let's focus.

Not @Houndog 's favorite artist

 

[KCJazz]

Well put. Buddy just reflected an opinion held by most of the guys who came up through the Big Bands. Mitch Miller was the head of Columbia in the 50's and absolutely despised pop music, including Be Bop Jazz. I think that a lot of the snobbishness may have come from the newspaper reviewers, (Nat Hentoff comes to mind), who wrote from an elitist point of view so the public picked up on that perspective.

Mitch Miller had a TV show where the audience sang along to popular songs as Mitch conducted and a little ball moved along with the lyrics to help the audience keep track..

"Sing Along With Mitch" was a hit show.

 

[DBT]

Huge ABBA fan. and Barry Manilow but let's focus.

Not @Houndog 's favorite artist

Alarmingly beautiful ! Full steam ahead !!!

 

[KCJazz]

Snobby degreed classical music guy here...
I suspect that Jazz became as snobby as classical music when it became a college degree.

Even Louis Armstrong could be snobbish. A lady asked him "What is jazz?" Pops replied "If you don't know by now, don't mess with it."

 

[TheDrummerFromAmsterdam]

To me it always has been (which doesn’t say I can’t enjoy it).

This mostly because of its players that I encounter and how it always seems to be regarded as the upper level of music in education.

 

[BennyK]

Some can't think outside of the box , some can't think inside of the box , some can do both , some can do neither .

 

[Lamontsdad]

Some can't think outside of the box , some can't think inside of the box .

And some live in a box.

 

[Deafmoon]

Yes this is a retort to the other thread but serious question. Snobby? Condescending, upper class?

Did Buddy look down on country and rock music because he thought he was better than it?

Is country and rock the lower class genre in the music industry?

No techno is.

 

[BennyK]

And some live in a box.

I want to fly like an eagle

 

[gwbasley]

Mitch Miller had a TV show where the audience sang along to popular songs as Mitch conducted and a little ball moved along with the lyrics to help the audience keep track..

"Sing Along With Mitch" was a hit show.

I mentioned Mitch because I knew the Millers quite well. I grew up literally across the street from them and was in the same classes as his son. The mere mention of someone like Elvis or Ricky Nelson would provoke an onslaught of negative comments from Mitch...he was dead set against "all this new stuff", he came from that generation and held on to the old ways. Our family always watched his TV show every week. His conducting style was almost robotic.

 

[AtlantaDrumGuy]

Nah, I don’t think so. I find more local player snobs. It’s kind of hilarious actually. But the real pros (Jimmy Cobb, Al Foster, Jeff Hamilton)…all people who I met are super cool in person.

 

[thenuge]

Snob historically has had to do with money.

“I won’t do x because it’s x below my class/what I can afford/what people will think of me”

Jazz does not have that problem. And never will. The music literally came from the gutter and rose above it. If a jazz player says no to your stupid gig that’s not on the player. That’s on your stupid gig which is stupid and pays nothing or worse pays amazing – so it’s a bribe – to do stupid sht. Been there. Hello

 

[DrumTransit]

Nah, I don’t think so. I find more local player snobs. It’s kind of hilarious actually. But the real pros (Jimmy Cobb, Al Foster, Jeff Hamilton)…all people who I met are super cool in person.

Agreed here. I worked for a jazz series in college that would put on concerts with well-known US and international musicians every month. Everyone I met was a class act, and the drummers were all very cool. Could easily have conversations with them.

I think it’s been said here, but any genre of music, any instrument, has its snobs. I’ve met my fair share of arrogant POS rock guitarists over the years.

 

[pwc1141]

Nah, I don’t think so. I find more local player snobs. It’s kind of hilarious actually. But the real pros (Jimmy Cobb, Al Foster, Jeff Hamilton)…all people who I met are super cool in person.

I agree. Visiting jazz players on tour here have all been very easy to talk to, accommodating in jam terms, and surprisingly humble. One from Count Basie band actually said to my buddy "I hope you don't mind me saying so but you play well" in other words, who am I to have an opinion ....classy.

 

[AtlantaDrumGuy]

I agree. Visiting jazz players on tour here have all been very easy to talk to, accommodating in jam terms, and surprisingly humble. One from Count Basie band actually said to my buddy "I hope you don't mind me saying so but you play well" in other words, who am I to have an opinion ....classy.

Good to hear. That’s been my general experience too. Most of them have been great to talk with and even encouraging. Some of my encounters were brief, but others were a little more extensive. But every one of them from Roy Haynes to Ed Thigpen have been quite cordial.