Saturday, May 22, 2010

Tell us how you really feel

Jazz guitarist Pat Metheny really doesn't like Kenny G and really really likes the late Louis Armstrong. So when Kenny overdubbed his music on top of Pops, Pat went mental:

"But when Kenny G decided that it was appropriate for him to defile the music of the man who is probably the greatest jazz musician that has ever lived by spewing his lame-ass, jive, pseudo bluesy, out-of-tune, noodling, wimped out, f***ed up playing all over one of the great Louis's tracks (even one of his lesser ones), he did something that I would not have imagined possible. He, in one move, through his unbelievably pretentious and calloused musical decision to embark on this most cynical of musical paths, shit all over the graves of all the musicians past and present who have risked their lives by going out there on the road for years and years developing their own music inspired by the standards of grace that Louis Armstrong brought to every single note he played over an amazing lifetime as a musician. "


The whole essay is well worth reading (find it here).

Hey Mungo, I like Pat's style. Can we get him to guest blog some this summer?


2 comments:

Unknown said...

Walter Becker expresses a similar thought part way through this little exercise. http://www.steelydan.com/blindfold.html
Perhaps Walter might be a guest blogger as well.

Anonymous said...

Mathany's Orchestrion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VymAn8QJNQ