Thoughts?

It's hard for me to say this, especially at the risk of excommunicating myself from a number of musical circles, but I think I need to express myself...

Music is not as hyper-evolved in academia as its peer art forms, like visual art, literature, and others. I have long struggled to find ideological potentiality that will bring music to the same point, and hopefully create some form of lasting change that is both realized musically, socially, and ideologically. In that search, I have met a wide variety of musicians, and observed a lot of what the community of my peers is all about. However, through this study, I have found exactly the problem that I wish to solve.

While the health of this community is strong intrinsically, there are a number of stigmata that prevent us from advancing. I will draw attention to the two that are the most fundamental and foreboding. 

The first of these stigmata is the reverence of tradition in music. Tradition has been sanctified to the point of taboo in several communities, specifically jazz and classical circles, such that I have rarely heard a single word questioning the authority of the traditional in such a social context. The parallel that I can't help but draw to this is the way that cult is constructed on exclusion of the naysayer; only those who support the cult unconditionally can remain in it. Moreover, the cult never changes unless its leadership changes. As such, what it produces may be sufficient for certain purposes, but overall, empty and meaningless to society.

The second is an opposite stigma, which is characterized by unconditional rejection of the traditional. This inherently includes the conscious rejection of any structure whatsoever; however, music naturally assumes structure no matter what. In this case, such structure is either based on automatic tendency (which tends to create the same structure over and over again), corrupted fundamentally by outside influence (money, lust, etc.), or degenerates into garbage rapidly and falls apart because nobody will listen to it. 

Let me make it clear that I am NOT advocating that we throw everything out the window and start from scratch. What I AM advocating that we return the idea of respect for the traditional to its original state: that it be accepted conditionally, not accepted unconditionally or rejected unconditionally. 

For a tangible example, respect for those older than us is often taught when we are very young, but conditions for that respect are not taught. At a young age, we accept what our elders are saying without any significant filtration. Over time, we must learn methods for filtering what we hear from those older than us by using our own tools of scrutiny. In adolescence, however, often we can become carried away with the neglect of tradition to the point where we reject it unconditionally. 

In analogy, the various musical communities that I have observed over the years never really "grew up," and remain in either the stage of the "child," characterized by unconditional acceptance of traditional views, or the state of "the adolescent," which unconditionally rejects the traditional. It's time for us to grow up. 

I'm tired of living in fear that I will not be accepted into a community because I can't conform to it. Let us abolish what is already in existence and start fresh, creating an environment for new, creative music to thrive. 

This brings me to the personal aspect: I think that what people call "jazz" is amazing, formally and sonically, and I also think that there is much to be learned from it. However, in being honest with myself, I cannot say that I terminologically think in the same way that jazz has presented itself in the past. As a composer and improviser, therefore, I am a deviant from the immediate community of jazz musicians. However, this does not mean that we are incompatible... it just means that I cannot honestly continue to strive for the same goal as many others, as long as the same social structure is in place. 

So, I move to formally resign from the world of Bebop, or, in other words, to symbolically liberate myself from it. Using the terms that I have laid out here, I make the offer for others to do the same, and to recognize themselves as similarly liberated individuals.

-Aaron Podietz