Friday, March 5, 2010

Why I Post Remixes

Somebody, I want call any names, said that they did not like remixes of old Jazz standards. It kind of jarred me, because not only have I been posting a lot of them in real time, I have several scheduled to be posted on this very blog. So if anyone else feels this way, please let me know.

Of course I want to know what the readers of my blog think and what kind of music they like. That way I can find the good stuff and maybe turn on more people to what I think is good music.

As for as remixes of Jazz Standards go, I post them because sadly, some kids would never listen to a Nina Simone or Billie Holiday song. But if a DJ plays it in a club or they come to a blog like mine and hear it, that might lead them to Billie Holiday or Nina Simone's music.

But I also want to say that I think that many remixes are wonderful pieces of music in and of themselves. And I enjoy the creative work that goes in to making them. And I'll even go farther and say that I've even come away from some remixes with a better appreciation of the original song.

And finally I detect a bit of protectionist leanings on those who don't like remixes. They want to protect Nina Simone, Billie Holiday and other Jazz greats. I'm not sure what they are protecting them from, their music has withstood the test of time, and I have no doubt will even outlast most of the remixes of their music.

1 comment:

Ron Moorby said...

Of course I am bound to agree - our tastes and approaches to music are almost perfectly congruent (I think that word suits!).

I enjoy contributing to these blogs because it is a disciple - makes me investigate and research. The variety of music accessible now is incredible. I love Nina, Ella, etc and their recordings are preserved for posterity. All the 'greats' experimented in their life times. I am sure they would treat re-interpretation and mixes as a great compliment.

It is of course a delight in learning from our other contributors.

Ron