Good Music & Bad Music

It has just occurred to me that a common factor among almost all my friends & acquaintances is a love of music, & taking music seriously, thinking about it, discussing it; we all love what we each consider good music, and condemn what we regard as bad music.

Now, Louis Armstrong, in terms of the reach of his influence & the consequences of his career, is one of the best & most important musicians ever, certainly in the field of popular music. (This is the case, I accept no disagreement on this one, & if you don't know why you need to do some research.) Louis said something to the effect of:

"There is no classical & jazz music, there is only good music & bad music."

Classical or jazz or any other style, music has to swing, the musicians have to mean it; and the difference between being on the money & not when it comes to music is plain, even if hard to define in words. This applies to all genres. The kind of swing is just different in each, but always there needing to be found. I'm not in any way being facetious. I'm in deadly earnest. Anyone who has heard a Baroque orchestra play with verve & bite will understand what I mean by swing in classical music. It's about all the musicians coordinating so the piece begins to take off, & the audience with it. When playing, the musicians need to be tight but loose. This is a paradox in description, but not in action.

Charles Shaar Murray, who is a superb rock critic, author of fabulous books about Jimi Hendrix (Crosstown Traffic) & John Lee Hooker (Boogie Man), came up with a very funny idea, which once you start to think about it in practice actually makes you think very hard about music & its quality - he suggested a record shop in which everything was organised into one of only two categories: Good Music & Bad Music.

Remember: It don't mean a thing - if it ain't got that swing.