Zeek wrote:
Jimmy left because he doesn't care to defend
statements he doesn't recall making,
Do you defend comments you didn't make? Why should he?
He may not have made them. Have you ever been
misquoted? It has happened to me, so I am less
surprised to see it happen to others. From what little
I know about Bruno, my sense is that if he had said
it, he would say so.
doesn't read
his interviews, and doesn't have time to monitor
what "his people" release about him, etc.
I can easily see how he could get to the point where
he would rather play or be with his family than
monitor all that stuff. After all, there is a lot of
press on Bruno out there. As much as I like his
playing, I don't think I would want to search out
every mention of him. You you put "his people" in
quotes. Don't you think he has hired people to work on
the business end so he can concentrate more on the
music?
If he
truly doesn't practice anymore, he's either stopped
growing or is fast becoming bored.
Well, it certainly doesn't show in his playing. It may
be the case that once a person has practiced a million
hours, things just occur and execution just happens.
(Buddy Rich stopped practicing at one point and still
sounded great. I have also heard advanced classical
guys say the same thing)I don't think his technique
needs any more work--and if you can fault it, you have
better ears than I have. And his last two cds (the Joe
Beck and Midnight Blue cds) seem to be departures from
his previous work, so he hasn't stopped growing. On
his boredom, I don't care if he keeps putting out
excellent music.
I find that
boring, and from cats like that, if you've heard 'em
play one tune, you've heard 'em all.
Well that's a cliche. THe question is whether it
applies to Bruno. I find all kinds of new ideas in
Bruno's work, and he continues to surprise me. That's
why I will buy everything he produces. But let's say
he was doing the same thing. What about classical
players who play the exact same music w/o improv? If
he does it extremely well, there would be value in
that. I think we are seeing a fairly weak aesthetic
flying around this list. I have said other things
about aesthetic theory that people have failed to pick
up on. It looks like people like to judge merely by
the seat of their pants and utter cliches rather than
engage in aesthetic argument. (I will try again in a
future post to get the aesthetic argument rolling.)
Harsh? You betcha. That's life on Earth... I
would have liked, even expected a little more
humility from Mr. Jimmy Bruno.
I didn't notice any arrogance from him. Indeed, if I
were him, I would have been tempted to let loose with
rather more than he did. What ever happened to
deference to great artists?
Had he said
something like, "I never meant to imply Metheny
can't play jazz, I just don't care for his kind of
music." End of discussion.
Didn't he? He said he didn't say it and then said he
liked a lot of what Metheney has done. Isn't that good
enough?
Good job, you managed to alienate a great artist, and
you were wrong on pretty much every point.
Randy Groves
=====
J. Randall Groves, Ph.D. ("Rando")
Professor of Humanities
Ferris State University
groves@...
bebopguitar@...
