Letters: Silenced by Sound

Dear EditorAs an an occasional reader of JMI on my visits to Ireland I would like to congratulate you on setting up the magazine and trust that it will continue.I found Michael Cronin's ‘Silenced by Sound’ coincided with a lot of my views....

Dear Editor

As an an occasional reader of JMI on my visits to Ireland I would like to congratulate you on setting up the magazine and trust that it will continue.

I found Michael Cronin’s ‘Silenced by Sound’ coincided with a lot of my views. The problem really came home to me one day recently when I went for a coffee. The piped music was so loud I could hardly think. I asked for it to be turned down. I in turn was asked: ‘Don’t you like music then?’ There seems to be little or no understanding that people who really love music like to choose what they listen to, where and when they listen to it and if possible what volume they want to listen to it at.

Having agreed with one writer I am afraid I must disagree with another. In a piece on jazz (‘Gathering the Threads of Improvised Music’, Nov/Dec 2002) Declan O’Driscoll correctly points out that improvisation is an important element of all jazz performances. He then seems to imply that completely improvised performances were somehow purer and superior.

This is something I have always had a great deal of difficulty with, having over the years been able to enjoy Louis Armstrong, Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Cecil Taylor and Evan Parker. Jazz is a wonderfully broad church and, of course one always has one’s favourites, but for all, except the dyed in the wool adherents of a particular idiom, there is plenty for all from many generations.

Peter Budge
London
England

Published on 1 March 2003

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