Tuesday, January 24, 2006

you don't like bread and butter, you don't like to eat

says Wynton Marsalis. Well, it depends on the bread and butter in question. Chunky, dark, whole-wheat, multi-cereal bread (maybe with some nuts, maybe flavoured with olive oil or honey) and some good butter, okay. Gummy pre-sliced white bread and margarine, no thanks.

I don't know what kind of bread they're serving at J@LC, but it is, to me, patently ridiculous to compare what "the 50-seat 55 Bar in Greenwich Village" offers to J@LC's programming. If J@LC can make money by finding enough people to pay $110.50 for "Music of the Masters: Stanley Turrentine," why would they do anything else? I hear you saying "What about promoting the art in a broader way?" I respond: the key word in the article is "overhead," as in "The challenge facing Jazz at Lincoln Center - taking chances while paying the bills - is the common conundrum facing arts organizations as they expand. Indeed, with their new overhead, its trustees must work harder than ever to keep donations coming."

I'm on the other side of the Atlantic and none of this matters to me, but it doesn't seem to matter much to New Yorkers, either: "The clubs that offer more experimental fare say that Jazz at Lincoln Center has not made a dent in their business."

Finally, is it just me, or do the pink, behind-and-above-the-band boxes look... silly?