I’m a bit of a hipster (of the 2000s variety, as much as I’d like to be of the 1940s variety), I’ll admit. I’ll admit! I shall reclaim the term!
I’ve got the chunky glasses, the cowlicked haircut, the obscure record collection, the cheap clothes, the pretentious attitude, all the good stuff. And the zoot suit.
However, I think that when it comes down to it, I really love jazz. I could quote Bill Cosby by way of Dr. Dre and say that jazz is like Jell-O pudding, no, actually it’s more like Kodak film, no, actually it’s more like the New Coke, it’ll be around forever. (hehehe)
Or I could just say that I actually really love jazz. I particularly like swing and some of the older Vaudeville. As much as I love Billie Holiday and all those gorgeous blues songstresses, I don’t think that I could pull off the cool.
But I don’t think I really want to be “cool”. I’m rather more of the “RAAAARRGHH!!” type, and I think that there needs to be more music like that, particularly jazz music. As I said, I’m really into swing and Vaudeville,
I have no idea where to start with this, or exactly what it’d look like. I have had absolutely no formal vocal training (and I don’t know if you could count my friends in choirs constantly telling me that I’m “way off pitch” whenever I sing, which is rarely in public), and if I actually sang in public, what would count as jazz? One of the old moldy standards? A jazzed-up cover of a completely not jazz song? A song I wrote myself? How many people? Where would I get a venue?
What kinda freaks would be willing to engage in a project designed to “ADVANCE THE JAZZ THROUGHOUT THE AGES!!!” run by a slightly crazy-eyed high school chick who listens to too much Sun Ra and reads too much Allen Ginsberg and William Gibson? Which means that I will be singing about cyborgs.
But man. These kids don’t know what the jazz is all about!
