Entry 22 3.28.11

Entry 22, March 29th, 2011 2:13am (ship time)

Had kind of a rough end to my day today. We played our first jazz set tonight, which was good . . . but . . .

During set break, I was hanging out talking with the guys, and I seem to be in the distinct minority when it comes to how I feel about the music (jazz in particular). Being branded the "bebop guy" doesn't surprise me -- it is a bit flattering, actually, although I am by no means a master of bebop (Rick Roe is a master of bebop. When I get on his level, I'll take the compliment with no reservations). What bugs me is that many of the musicians don't think jazz is "cool."

Maybe jazz is cool, maybe it isn't -- whatever, that's not the issue here. The issue here is that these are musicians (some of whom are ostensibly jazz musicians) who do not have faith in the music they perform. To say that I do not understand this mindset is an understatement. If you, the musician, don't have faith that what you are doing can get to people in a way that has meaning, then how on Earth can you expect anyone else to get anything out of it? And more to the point, why the hell are you wasting your time?

Nothing like a little cruise ship jazz set to inspire me to practice. I'm not being sarcastic here -- I'm inspired to practice so I can get gigs with musicians who believe in what they're playing.

Anyways. Rant = off.

I started a new book today, a book called "The Age of Wonder," about the second scientific awakening near the end of the 18th century. This particular awakening was characterized by the influence of romanticism and the concept of scientific "wonder," both for good and for bad. It was the era that coined the term "scientist," launched the scientific education of the masses, and imagined the lone genius with his sacred moment of inspiration as a cultural phenomenon for the first time. The book starts with the story of a young botanist who goes with Captain Cook on his first voyage around the world aboard the Endeavor, an invitation that I would accept in a heartbeat, but I'll get to that more tomorrow. My new roommate and I have some drinking to do.