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Article: THE ROCK FAN'S GUIDE TO JAZZ ; The London Jazz Festival swings into town next month - it's time to learn to love the J-word. Richard Godwin takes you from A to Z
- Article from:
- The Evening Standard (London, England)
- Article date:
- October 30, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2009 Evening Standard - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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THOSE schooled in rock tend to have one of two reactions to jazz:
either they think it's pretentious or they find it impenetrably
difficult. Both stances are silly, I have come to realise, closing
off an entire ocean of music through wilful ignorance.
It was a revelatory gig by the American clarinettist David Jean-
Baptiste at the Jazz Cafe that a more knowing schoolfriend took me
to that sold me on the rush of brushed drum, piano notes that seem
to flicker past, the intense questing of the reed. It sent me
slightly mad, in fact - I'd never heard anything like it.
However, it is only now, when I find myself lamenting the basic
incompetence and lack of imagination of most rock musicians, that ...