Tuesday, March 29, 2005

Stanley Crouch makes the case for a Jazz Museum in Harlem

There will be those who claim that the $1 million Congress set aside in 2000 for a prospective Jazz Museum in Harlem is pure pork. Stanley Crouch disabuses them of such a notion. That money will be well spent. Besides how can you argue with a man who writes expressively about the most expressive genre.

... there is something different about jazz, which is largely a performance art based in improvisation. Its richness allows for the listener and the performer to enjoy the invention of value, which is what artistic improvisation means. It is not just pulling anything out of the air; it means pulling value out of the air.

That's the best description of improvisation I've ever read. Congress should sign up for another million.

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