... and while the impetus to keep posting is there, let's just establish something here. Yes, I'm writing in a near-vacuum here (and doubtless have only myself to blame for that) - although a handful of old friends have never completely forgotten me *, and some posts may still get seen from time to time by other people (or at least by bots, ahem) - but I am also writing on a subject which almost defines the epithet "minority-interest"... just to underline this point, I recently found (by accident) a video online of a solo 'cello performance of a George Lewis piece by Mariel Roberts... the sheer virtuosity on display, to say nothing of the intense focus and dedication, left me powerfully and deeply impressed. But I was quite dismayed to see that the video had been viewed less than 1500 times in four years, had only 30+ likes and had attracted precisely one comment, before I got to it. This on a platform where some pop music videos garner hundreds of millions of views... we live in a terribly shallow world, where the majority of people seem to think that reality TV and pre-cooked brainless entertainment is not only somehow "enough", but is all that is available to them, and further still, all that they could ever need or desire.
Many people have observed before now that the more talent, vision and dedication it takes to produce a work of art, the less chance it has of attracting any significant audience. Obviously this has been the case for decades with jazz, never mind the various forms of creative music which have grown out of jazz-infused soil; Frank Zappa referred to jazz as "the music of unemployment", and he wasn't so much being dismissive as just cynically summing up the harsh reality imposed on working musicians by a desperately-superficial music business.
But...
... all is not quite lost, and this is heartening. For example, I can point to this ** or to this as evidence of musicians and educators making serious efforts to unpack B's music and share their love of it, and foster a similar love in others; just this evening, I discovered the existence of this, via a brief online teaser; over the last year or so, I have allowed myself to get pretty out of touch with recent developments in creative music, and had never heard of bandleader Kobe Van Cauwenberghe - indeed of the seven musicians in that group, I have only knowingly come across one before (Teun Verbruggen) - but this sounds absolutely fantastic, and if B. is aware of this recording, he must surely be absolutely delighted with it. [I then discovered that the leader had previously released this, which must surely be an extraordinary undertaking... needless to say, I shall be making a serious effort to get hold of some of this young guitarist's stuff.]
The world is in a parlous state for sure, nor has our species taken its stewardship at all seriously; and if the earth does eventually recover by casting us off entirely, we can hardly complain too much. But I feel a lot better now than I did a few years ago, whatever the reason(s); and when I see things like the projects linked above, it reassures me that the human race is not such a shitty gang to belong to, after all. There is still hope (as B. himself is fond of saying).
As regards this guy's amazing, demanding, empowering music, I may have fucked up my own opportunity to make this blog all that it could possibly have been, and to take part in the maestro's journey (with my performance-anxiety issues, I was always destined to sabotage that in some way, it couldn't be helped); but others are more than making up for my shortcomings. That's the most important thing to remember in all this. I still have no idea what Jason G. was talking about - what led him to sever ties with B. and take down his own work - but it doesn't seem to be the case that B. has been disowned by the creative music community in general - far from it. My own interest has been well and truly renewed, and perhaps I can start making up for (some of my) lost time...
* Kai, hi again! Thanks for your recent comment(s). Hope this finds you well - until such time as I figure out how to comment on my own blog (!), this will have to do... thanks for the information you passed on, and the links, which I will be checking out in due course...
** Brian Krock and I exchanged emails briefly, after I commented on his video. And then he realised what a flake I was, and that was the end of that (at least I assume that's what happened... and if so I can't really blame him). Who knows, if I revive my work here I may be able to get him to start talking to me again ;-)
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