John Petrucelli Post 1

Since our first class, I have been reflecting on the nature of our collective society understands and categorizes music. I see a connection between the discussion of Vladimir Horowitz and his association with the Authenticity controversy in the classical idiom and our contemporary conception of Lester Young's music in jazz.

We discussed that while Grove contends that Horowitz's performances show a lack of ability to interpret music properly, it appears that the movement itself is based on the flawed attempt to find a way to play the music based on certain aspects found aesthetically pleasing. This has unfortunately resulted in the neglect of other aspects of the music, such as improvisation and the ability to take liberties with the repetoire. Meanwhile, Dr. Porter demonstrated the intrinsic connection between Horowitz and his contemporaries to the great composer/performers such as Lizst and Chopin.

How does this connect to Lester Young? Well, in a similar way, the contemporary jazz culture has formulated a conception of Lester Young's playing which downgrades his status based on a lack of understanding and access to the recordings which made him influential to an entire generation of jazz musicians. Because his later recordings do not present interpretations and a style which we find particularly influential, there has been a trend to marginalize him. In my opinion, this results in the same kind of problems presented by the authenticity movement. As we heard in the Count Basie/Lester Young small group example, if we find the recordings that Charlie Parker and others were listening to, we can hear Prez's distinct influence on the development of bebop.