What's the Matter With Kids Today?
Date:
03/14/2012 Contributor:
I was a guest lecturer on jazz for two music appreciation classes at a private New England liberal arts college yesterday. You might say I had my work cut out for me. None of the 42 students in these classes had ever heard of Wynton Marsalis, Diana Krall, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, or Duke Ellington. That's right, DUKE ELLINGTON. I double-checked, tried to encourage even a wink or raised eyebrow from anyone who might have felt shy about acknowledging their sophistication, but it was to no avail. What added to my shock and dismay over this revelation of American cultural illiteracy was learning that a couple of the kids had played in high school jazz ensembles.
What's going on? We hear of cuts to arts and music programs everyday, but how can a kid play in a school-based jazz ensemble and learn nothing of Duke Ellington? Does it even matter? I believe wholeheartedly that it does, that Duke Ellington's music and life are central to what we should know about ourselves as a nation. That's why I call attention to the paucity of jazz artists recognized by institutions like the Kennedy Center, and the manner in which they're honored. Still, based on my daily Google Alert for Ellington, his music seems to come out of the shadows every February for Black History Month presentations by schools, symphony orchestras, and community arts centers, but something's not resonating with kids, and perhaps teachers too.
I learned on good authority several years ago of an interview that Cab Calloway was giving a reporter on a big city daily. When Cab was asked how he came to prominence and answered that he'd succeeded Ellington at the Cotton Club, the reporter asked, "Who's Duke Ellington." As I understand it, Cab did not take kindly to the reporter's ignorance.
I took a more lenient approach to these future leaders yesterday and made an attempt to connect the music created by Ellington and Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday to some of what they are familiar with, namely Amy Winehouse and hip-hop, so I included a couple of selections from Robert Glasper's new Blue Note release, Black Radio, which NPR Music reported on last week. I'm not sure it mattered, but at least I tried to meet them on common ground.
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Comments
Kids
I was incredulous when you spoke of the students on last night's broadcast. I don't understand how one could reach adulthood without at least tangentialy bumping into Duke Ellington or Charlie Parker. Maybe it has something to do with our consumer culture and it's focus on the latest thing, which makes all that came before it obsolete. If they weren't college students I would blame the anti-intellectual aspect of life in the the U.S.
Imagine if Grace Kelly, Jeremy Pelt, Terrance Blanchard, the Marsalis brothers, etc., had never been exposed to jazz. I wonder if the students have heard of Quincy Jones, the man who mentored and produced the recordings of artists they surely know well.
Jazz is many things to me, not the least of which is that it enriches my soul. How sad that anyone should be deprived of a uniquely American art form.
history
Tom, very well said. I am teaching drums, and it is amazing how one decade out, younger aspiring musicians don't know the important musicians from the previous decades. I teach about the lineage of drummers, from Baby Dodds on up to the present. A wonderful DVD, "Legends of Jazz Drummers," narrated by Louie Bellson, Roy Haynes and Jack de Johnette tells the stories, gives historical context, shows musical footage. It's crucial for young people to know the history, the important composers, musicians, etc., and how the music is deeply connected to racial,, economic and many other social issues. Thank you for pointing this important need out...
read this - I wonder if
Don't Despair
Tom, caught the Tierney Sutton show at the Horse a few weeks ago. The crowd was good and even contained solo kids and some families. There 's still hope. Keep shining your light each night and some will find there way through the dark.
Rick Smith in Whately
The Duke, et al
Tom, your news is, I'm afraid, more disturbing than it is surprising. You may remember that about 14 years ago I wrote lyrics for a composition by Larry Willis that he hoped to persuade Tony Bennett to record. Bennett eventually demurred, but while the prospect was still alive - in my imagination, anyway - I mentioned it to a knowledgeable, culturally enlivened young friend of mine. You see this coming, of course -- he said, "Who's Tony Bennett?"
Bless your heart for your lenient approach. I take it for granted that there were at least a few among those 42 students who will carry the seeds of your exposition with them, to their great good fortune in terms of personal enrichment, both musically, and in their sense of cultural coherence and continuity. I will always treasure my experience of your jazz workshop - what was it? - well over twenty years ago. Glad you're still out there, spreading the joy.
Roget Lockard
It matters, Tom
You give us a fascinating, upsetting reflection, Tom.
The other day my first child, whose first child is now 16, was sharing with me her cherished Ben Webster solos on her iPad (so beautifully shot! ... and that sound!). And she was remembering that her musical awakening came in her teens with my gift of the 2-CD Verve set of Ella Fitzgerald singing Duke Ellington -- which introduced her to Hodges and Carney, Gonzalves and Ben Webster, also to "Chelsea Bridge" and "I've Got it Bad" So Sarah was ready to fall madly in love with Illinois Jacquet when she saw him rehearsing with the Harvard Jazz Band sometime in the 80s. Years after that, Illinois asked me urgently: "I want to know how your daughter knows what she knows." Well, she knows many things, but all of them touched by a considerable grasp of Duke, Billie Holiday, the Basie band, Miles Davis, the pillars of our culture. Sarah's daughter has grown up hearing and respecting the music -- not sure she loves it. My younger girls are less in touch with the jazz canon than Sarah. But they've been listening all their lives! It is hard for me to imagine growing up in this country and not being exposed to Duke Ellington -- it's heartbreaking to think about. Imagine not recognizing the name of Jackie Robinson or Thomas Edison, Babe Ruth or Thomas Jefferson -- or, seriously, Melville or William James, Bill Russell or Ted Williams. What's wrong with us?
Thanks for everything you do -- and write!
Chris Lydon in Boston
kids
Tragic.
what's wrong with kids
Well even sadder is the fact history in general is seen by most young folks as irrelevant to their lives. Schools do a great job of making history classes boring . This is based on my experience as a social studies teacher in public schools. Music can be used as a tool to teach history in a fun and hopefully creative way. All we can do is raise our youth to appreciate all the creative arts, and show them that valuing and understanding what came before is very important to navigating this increasingly global society. Carol Abbe Smith