Written By Vagner Pitta
In 1983, trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, who was then 22 years, has stunned the world with his talent by being the first artist - and the only one so far - to win two Grammy statuettes in different genres: one for best soloist jazz, through their modern and stunning improvisations on the album Think of One, and one of the best soloist of classical music, see his first album as a concert next to the conductor Raymond Leppard and the National Philharmonic Orchestra - was finally the beginning of his career one of the most amazing musicians of all time, a major American composers, a personality that was primarily responsible for the phenomenon known as "Rebirth of Jazz" before the role of the new "pop culture" in the 80 and 90.
After 28 years, now in 2011 - when jazz is already very reestablished as an art form and contemporary living - the creative singer and bassist Esperanza Spalding, 26, also just to amaze the world by being the first jazz musician to win the Grammy statuette for Best New Artist (Best New Artist) - and the event was a surprise because, beyond being the first name in jazz history to win this category, despite being completely unknown in the pop world and Grammy's glamorous, it has displaced at least nobody that famed singer Justin Bieber teen who once considered the favorite single by media speculation and market, now had to be satisfied with the assurances of his fans around the world supporting him.
That is, from time to time one of these awards media surprised the world by deciding to do justice for only the talent, renewal, innovation and criavidade in music as art, leaving aside the hype, deception by the attitudes and poses exhibitionists , song for dance entertainment, and all other pastiches of pop, that these elements, especially in this genre, leaving the musical creativity in the last plan and profit in the first commercial.
But okay, guys ... admit that the art has already been standardized by the media and the market as something for a few, that is not today that entertainment is necessarily mass-produced, something that has become necessary for mankind capitalism: pop accurate, yes, cute guys and girls and hipsters - so even as Justin Bieber - boys and fashions that inspire sensuality, and the youth needs a soundtrack to sing, dance and have sex, you know it ?!
But what they never could have happened in history is exacerbated this imbalance, the fact of the music entertainment dominate 80% of space in the media and art market, while the forms of music that really value the art are the slices with the remaining 20% - and still think I am being somewhat optimistic in this my hypothetical estimate, since, if it even is, here in Brazil the percentage in favor of entertainment music reaches 90%, while others appreciate the aesthetics of music that for one song more developed, such as BPM, classical music and instrumental music, end up dividing the remaining 10% ... that is, the fact is that we are not yet a rich country and not a rich country, we are a developing country that buries our own culture and entertainment will import the music from the U.S. and Europe, which means also that we are a country even poorer when it comes to education and cultural dissemination.
Bringing therefore critical to the situation of Brazil in terms of culture, it is necessary to throw open the classical music, jazz - instrumental music as a whole - are somewhat elitist here, that's because they are own, the powerful institutions and media companies and marketing, who despise the sidelined and become elitist, while channels of media releases a massive scale American pop for the whole population, seeking only profits and trample his duty to take art and culture to people - and of course making up the national artists are compelled to copy the formulas of international pop success, since they themselves are its producers, financiers and sponsors - talented and creative artists linked to MPB and instrumental music have to be content with that tiny audience of people running behind the art on its own - and nobody needs to be a sociologist to see that this tiny audience is generally composed of a small part of the elite (class middle and upper class) who received enough education to become able to buy not just information, but to differentiate between art and entertainment to pay dearly for it:
that is, apart from the case when the government (via SESC, SESI, CCSP , and Jazz Festival Everything's etc) funds tours of jazz musicians, for example, not all Brazilian citizens can take $ 50, $ 80, $ 120 or $ 200 of their salary to the performance of a prestige Esperanza Spalding , a Diana Krall, Wynton Marsalis or a Keith Jarrett on the big stage private, read CitiBank Hall Credicard Hall and all these "halls" chiquérrimos large companies and banks settle in cities to use as marketing and merchandising.
It is one thing: the U.S., neighborhoods and streets of major cities are still home to jazz clubs and alternative spaces for musical performances where many of the greatest jazz improvisers and present themselves every day, in Brazil, the number of bars and spaces that value jazz and instrumental music is pathetic, and the Brazilian musician who wants a dedicated aprecisar has to wait one calendar year and still pay an amount that does not match their economic situation.
But back to the 2011 Grammy, the controversial award of Esperanza Spalding before the favoritism of teen singer Justin Bieber only confirmed how much media and market hypnotizes and "uninformed" youth with the view that to be an acclaimed artist he should be, necessarily famous as Justin Bieber and controversial as Amy Winehouse - no matter if he is both talented and creative, no matter if their work has artistic value, what matters is whether he is in the media every day, because that sells magazine and newspaper are picky and not the music itself! There were so many jazz musicians have already been chosen for Best New Artist award and the Esperanza was not then a surprise, much less a fact histories and controversial:
sometimes, just to measure the size of controversy here, is must remember that fans of Justin Bieber defended not only the supposed merit of his idol - as would be right - but began firing numerous insults against the jazz singer by social networks - read Twitter, Orkut, and Facebook others - and coming to invade her profile on Wikipedia to denigrate it with epithets like "Justin Bieber deserved, go die in a hole.
Who are you anyway?"In fact, it's been a while since Esperanza Spalding is not fully known - as well as so-called "divas" of jazz, such as veterans Diana Krall and Cassandra Wilson, who has considerable fame and floodlights and traffic in the columns of leading newspapers , magazines and TV channels - because it's from their second album, the eponymous "Esperanza" (Heads Up, 2008), it follows very closely related in the U.S. media, was not that "misinformation" of people - mainly youth - which is something outrageously appalling (!), this little people of teenagers who taunted him would have considered, for example, that in recent years she has been invited regularmante a shovel famous TV shows such as The Late Show (David Letterman, on CBS) and Jimmy Kimmel Live (Jimmy Kimmel on ABC), and has participated in a show celebrating the delivery of the Nobel Peace Prize to President Barack Obama being asked a second time to play in the House White in a recent conclusion that the president made the American arts.
But anyway ... although the American jazz singers have this traditional opportunity to become famous and earn more money than your friends instrumentalists, Esperanza Spalding has moved toward fame in a very sincere, authentic and original than their compatriots: unlike the mobility and eclecticism of jazz and pop that means "soft" since the style of a Diana Krall, she is a true jazz musician and composer who promotes only its own repertoire and style, ignoring the tempting possibility to include alien material, doing covers of pop songs or seasoned standards to promote themselves and / or to reach a wider audience - not to mention their songs, sprinkled with influences of soul, pop and Brazilian music, mainly jazz are acoustically well-instrumented, well-tuned with grooves, improvisation and the garb of "modern post-bop" today, this "new" jazz is happening in this new century, that is, if it does not expressly say in words, she makes it clear that the sound it makes is jazz, period.
His latest album, Chamber Music Society (Heads Up, 2010) - who curiously was not nominated in any of the Grammy categories - is even more original and daring than its predecessor: an exquisite work of composition and arrangement with vocal scats and string quartet. For all these reasons and more, thanks for showing the world Esperanza, the Grammys 2011, the value of a musician's talent and value of this true American art form "that is jazz!
Thanks for letting us rekindle Esperanza Hope: his victory was a message to the media market and adding more value to the musician's talent and, perhaps, this will not help change this mindset that only the poor and famous pop artist has the right to be acclaimed, regardless of whether he has established an education or not!
