Letter to Joe Buccheri
One issue is the supposed "arts" scene, something I've struggled with for years. Last year, I attended a meeting by the Maryland State Arts Council. Their top priority is "excellence in the arts." If only that were true. When I had the floor, I spoke of the difficulty jazz composers that were building upon the work of people like Ellington, Monk, and Coltrane, had in getting their work appreciated by a larger audience.
This is important to me because besides my own pieces, I perform the works of other jazz composers as well. That Grammy Nomination Ballot slot was from a group I had that was a 501(c)3 Performing Arts Ensemble, whose mission was to promote the work of greater Baltimore Are Jazz composers. This is because in the early 1990s, my late wife Jane Lamar-Spicka, wrote the jazz column for Music Monthly Magazine. We received CD’s and tapes all the time. We knew of the awesome talent here.
In response, a representative from the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts, said that because it’s popular, “smooth” jazz is what they promote.
That’s the reality. In spite of all the talk about “excellence,” what gets presented is a commercial style. Thing is, tax-payer funded arts organizations aren’t supposed to support commercial ventures. I don’t know how they get around this, but they do.
Part of this is due to the ignorance of arts administrators. At a personal meeting with the former director of the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance, she told me she knew nothing about the arts, and was hired because of her administrative skills. She had no understanding of what it was like to be a real artist!
FB - August 1, 2014
This is important to me because besides my own pieces, I perform the works of other jazz composers as well. That Grammy Nomination Ballot slot was from a group I had that was a 501(c)3 Performing Arts Ensemble, whose mission was to promote the work of greater Baltimore Are Jazz composers. This is because in the early 1990s, my late wife Jane Lamar-Spicka, wrote the jazz column for Music Monthly Magazine. We received CD’s and tapes all the time. We knew of the awesome talent here.
In response, a representative from the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts, said that because it’s popular, “smooth” jazz is what they promote.
That’s the reality. In spite of all the talk about “excellence,” what gets presented is a commercial style. Thing is, tax-payer funded arts organizations aren’t supposed to support commercial ventures. I don’t know how they get around this, but they do.
Part of this is due to the ignorance of arts administrators. At a personal meeting with the former director of the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance, she told me she knew nothing about the arts, and was hired because of her administrative skills. She had no understanding of what it was like to be a real artist!
FB - August 1, 2014