NOW NOW, FOLKS, LET'S NOT OVERDO IT
December 13 2009
The Pianobabbler listens. And he often hears. And he often hears people talk about music. And he often hears people talking about music talk about new music.
Not just talk about it. Focus on it. Obsess over it. New bands, new songs, new styles, new musicians, new new.
So nu? Why the new fetish?
Jazz's 100th birthday is looming. The Pianoababbler, a jazzer, springs musically from the old.
The Pianobabbler travels tonight on an Asian tour with singer Irene Atman. On his iPod? Glenn Gould playing Bach, Beethoven, Schoenberg. Old.
For many, too many, old music, as a rule, means-- pardon my thesaurus --emptied, exhausted, jaded, played out, spent, tired, unimaginative, used up, washed-up, worn out music.
As a rule, this only proves people are not listening. To favour the new over the old solely because of newness, is to favour surface over substance.
Of course, many people do favour surface over substance. Reality TV, anyone? Lady Gaga? Malcolm Gladwell?
I'm not lamenting any neglect of music's lush old growth forests. Bach and Billie Holiday thrive.
The Pianobabbler has no interest in browbeating the world into eschewing what's new. Great music continues to emerge. As good old Arnold Schoenberg said: There remains much great music to be written in the key of C major.
But please, do not throw out the granny with the bathwater.
Listen new, but listen old.
Discover and uncover.
Look forward and backward.
New is good. But good, old or new, is better.
And oh yeah. I forgot to ask: What's new?
The Pianobablber has babbled.
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