Last night I went to hear Benny Grenimann's final recital at the Rubin Academy here in Jerusalem. Benny is a saxophone player, and he performed some of his own pieces and some standards with a rhythm section. The audience was small but very friendly, mainly Benny's fellow students in the jazz program the Academy. I went because I have known Benny's parents forever, and because I'd heard him play before and wanted to hear him again.
He was naturally a little tense. After all, faculty members were listening and would be grading the performance. But he played with aplomb, a nice, rich sound, and good solos.
It's a bit odd that young people should devote four years of intense study to mastering jazz, when there's almost no mass audience for the music. But, following the opinion of Charles Rosen in a piece I once read, I believe that what makes music survive is the interest of musicians, not necessary public interest. If musicians don't want to play some kind of music, they simply won't, and if they do like it, they'll play it and create a public for it.
He was naturally a little tense. After all, faculty members were listening and would be grading the performance. But he played with aplomb, a nice, rich sound, and good solos.
It's a bit odd that young people should devote four years of intense study to mastering jazz, when there's almost no mass audience for the music. But, following the opinion of Charles Rosen in a piece I once read, I believe that what makes music survive is the interest of musicians, not necessary public interest. If musicians don't want to play some kind of music, they simply won't, and if they do like it, they'll play it and create a public for it.
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