Shelly
I’d like to tell you I had great teachers in college.
That would be a lie. Just about everything I learned at Middlebury I acquired in the dorm, bullshitting with my buddies or reading "Rolling Stone" and "Fusion" and every other rock rag I could get my hands on. The professors, and there were no T.A.’s, seemed to have a set way of thinking, a way they wanted things done, they did their best to sap all the creativity from our souls.
I remember my creative writing teacher. He finally thought something I wrote was good, but that it needed a TWIST! A TWIST? In 1972, when New Journalism was already in the rearview mirror?
I stopped writing completely. There was no place for me in the academy.
I’ve been suspicious of teachers ever since. Worse than being boring, too many have their heart in the wrong place. It’s about ego, it’s about them, when teaching should be about the STUDENTS! Not only educating them, but inspiring them.
I know this guy Shelly Berg. He’s a jazz pianist. Of some reknown. He’s also Chair of Jazz Studies at USC.
And last night, at a dinner party, I found myself at a table with him.
This was not a rock crowd, although Shelly has played with Steve Miller and worked with Bruce Fairbairn. These were composers, and jazzbos. And they were discussing the future of music, and music education.
Shelly said each and every one of his students was working. That he’d called some recent graduates to offload some of his orchestration gigs, but they were all too busy to take them on. It was fascinating that in an era of decreasing record sales, of overall music doom and gloom, JAZZMEN could work no problem.
Then again, they’re talented, they’re good.
But Shelly didn’t lock them in a box, he set them free. He told us he focused on both halves of their development, the technical and the INSPIRATIONAL! And that you had to balance the two.
Oh, you needed chops. But you didn’t want to eviscerate all the soul. The key was to give the student the skill to play what was in his head, so he could complete the journey to his personal destination.
You’d think a resident of the Ivy Tower would pooh-pooh what was popular. But this would be incorrect. Shelly said so many of those hit records had brilliant INSPIRATION! It translated, people responded to it. It’s always a delicate balance.
In other words, the systems become less important if you have a vision. It’s about digging down deep and EXPRESSING YOURSELF!
Inspiration. We do our best to beat it out of students, of AMERICANS! Conformity is king. We live in a rules-based society.
But we revere inspiration.
Bob Dylan does not have a mellifluous voice. He’s not the best guitar player. But how in the HELL did he come up with "It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)", the sound of which grabs you as much as the lyrics?
We’ve got to set our artists free.
And then Shelly said he told his students not to feel the pressure to be who the audience wanted them to be. That it was too restricting. That you had to go out there and have FUN!
Think about this. Rather than giving the people what they want, you should follow your own muse, and see if they’ll COME ALONG!
We’re not looking for inspiration in the major league music business. We don’t want something too innovative, we want something similar to what came before. If you can’t deliver this, we’ll hook you up with Diane Warren or Timbaland. We want safe, not different.
And live… It’s now about SHOW, not music. Costumes, sets. Hell, the performers aren’t stretching out, they’re synching with recordings.
This isn’t music, this is SHOW BUSINESS!
Not that show has to go, it just can’t rule, it can’t dominate.
Go to a jam band show. You don’t know exactly what to expect. You’re going not to hear the hit, but to go on an ADVENTURE! You let the music set your mind and body free.
That was the initial draw of the Dead. The vibe, the feel, the JOURNEY!
Clapton improvising. Funny that he can still tour today when the manufactured pop hit of yesterday has already been forgotten.
In an era when the institutions are crumbling, it’s time to realize it’s about music again. That technology has set creators free. Maybe some need more skill, need to work on their chops. And others’ inspiration does not merit thousands of eyeballs. But it’s about giving the people the tools and seeing what they come up with, not telling them who and what to be.
