A Letter from Bob Moses to the Boston Phoenix (2001)

[DSOP]

I love Bob Moses' playing, and his book Drum Wisdom is really, really great.

He pulls no punches in this letter. I can't say I agree entirely with what he's saying, but that's probably only because I don't fully understand it.

http://www.halgalper.com/14_grab/mosesletter.htm

[Andrew<3'sVinnie]

Woooo-eeeeeeeee that is some interesting material.

[sjj123]

For some reason I get the sense that he is irritated...


surely interesting

[Gaddabout]

At what point do you put jazz and its idols on such a high pedastal that no one's allowed to play one of its signature tunes and the genre dies from lack of interest? I get the impression, from Bob Moses' tone, that he'd rather see that heritage die than for lesser people to play those songs.

I have high respect for Moses. His drum books was perhaps the first I was ever exposed to. He's certainly earned the right to be a true jazz snob, I'm just a little lost as to why he's chosen to be one.

[DSOP]

I think he was referring more to the "tribute" thing, where lesser artists use the greats' names on posters and advertisements and imply association.

I dunno, he may be going too far with it, but I can see that he was pretty miffed.

[Clint Hopkins]

He certainly took the long way just to say he didn't like Merenda playing Mingus' music. No one made Moses attend the performance. Although I don't agree, I respect his reasons for not liking it. I thought it was quite strange that HE required an apology and thought Mingus would exact some sort of revenge in the afterlife.

Mr. Merenda, I call upon you to apologize to Mingus, you can do that in private, just talk to his spirit) and to me. Cease and desist using the man's name in connection with your music. If you don't, then know you have a powerful enemy here on earth (me) and I believe a far more powerful one waiting for you in the afterlife, that is the man who wrote "If Charlie Parker Were A Gunslinger, There'd Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats".

[YamahaPlayer]

Guy's full of himself. A letter full of philosophical contradictions and written at about a low high school level.

Talking about originality like that is absurd, as if jazz music was the first music ever, didn't have it's own roots and wasn't copying previous musical ideas.
I got two words for Mr. Mosses concerning his concept of "originality" - Classical Music.

There isn't a jazz tune in the world (by any composer) that isn't borrowing heavily from classical music, and to that effect, almost all those jazz guys studied it in depth. And if you really want to get deep into it, it's still all based on Western Music theory, which is of it's own one particular Set of theory (not sure how many here know of or have studied Set theory).
It's not like any of these jazz guys were playing micro-tonal music, or using alternative sets, etc...

A bunch of old dudes with harpsichords and lutes beat us to it 100's of years ago. Least wise if you are using any progression and melody in western music theory.

*Not to say I do not love jazz music and find it very fun to play and listen to. I've just studied music history in fairly good depth and understand that the term "originality" is very much relative. These guys (jazz composers) were/are only playing with one small niche in the world of music, and it's a niche that was carved out for them, the theory established and thoroughly explored centuries before.

If someone else wants to play another composers music, and gives them credit for it, fine by me.

[Andrew<3'sVinnie]

Guy's full of himself. A letter full of philosophical contradictions and written at about a low high school level.

Talking about originality like that is absurd, as if jazz music was the first music ever, didn't have it's own roots and wasn't copying previous musical ideas.
I got two words for Mr. Mosses concerning his concept of "originality" - Classical Music.

There isn't a jazz tune in the world (by any composer) that isn't borrowing heavily from classical music, and to that effect, almost all those jazz guys studied it in depth. And if you really want to get deep into it, it's still all based on Western Music theory, which is of it's own one particular Set of theory (not sure how many here know of or have studied Set theory).
It's not like any of these jazz guys were playing micro-tonal music, or using alternative sets, etc...

A bunch of old dudes with harpsichords and lutes beat us to it 100's of years ago. Least wise if you are using any progression and melody in western music theory.

*Not to say I do not love jazz music and find it very fun to play and listen to. I've just studied music history in fairly good depth and understand that the term "originality" is very much relative. These guys (jazz composers) were/are only playing with one small niche in the world of music, and it's a niche that was carved out for them, the theory established and thoroughly explored centuries before.

I'd like to believe your argument is more sound at the end of the day. The best musicians are brilliant at music, not necessarily reasoning and logic...

[Matus]

You know what, as much as I hate snobbism in any way, I'm with Mr Moses to a certain degree. Of course, I can't put myself in his shoes because of his unique perspective on the subject (having known Mingus and all), but I see where he's coming from because I too suffer the "tribute" disease. It's just the same with every genre.
It's one thing to play a song by someone else or even make a record of various successful songs played in a different way. Even a tribute concert is something I can see as positive, but "cover bands", so to speak, are a whole different ballpark. It's mostly people who won't get anywhere by themselves and use other more talented people's work, mostly not even near as good as the original, using their name to draw people to their concerts and making a nice profit out of it, even more than any given original band 10 times better in all aspects.
It really irritates me to see these "official" cover bands going around, filling places by playing with the audience's nostalgic feelings, so I can't imagine how it feels from Moses' point of view. More than being a jazz snob, it's about cheapening the name of a jazz giant who also was dear to him. He might have gone too far and unleashed his brutal-jazz-snob-hit-combo, but I can see the emotional background here.

[BrOliveira]

As much as I understand that he really knew the work and life of Mingus, and he's disappointed that someone does not make justice to what it is that he knows so well... it just doesn't give him the right to make such Godlike statements. Everyone sees the world differently, everyone expresses themselves differently, who is he to approve or disapprove something in ABSOLUTE terms, just because he BELIEVES it doesn't make justice to the artist that created it. He can have his opinion, just like we all do. I understand what it is he doesn't like about tribute or cover bands, but that's only his opinion. If there's a crowd for it, there will be someone exploring that path. It's not like Mr. Merenda's killing someone. He's just playing music he really loves, although I agree on not using the name of the composer to attract people. Did I read the word ENEMY?
I'm sorry, but the only word that came to my mind reading that, is Fundamentalism.