La Generación Perdida. El caso Bob Mover

Dos generaciones de Mover posan ante la cámara del autor de este blog.
Gramercy Park, NY. Mayo 2007

Cuento con la amistad de Bob Mover desde hace algunos años; un músico excepcional, saxofonista y compositor, y un ser humano entrañable. Bob pertenece a lo que algunos han denominado como "La Generación Perdida", los nacidos a comienzos-mediados de la década de los cincuenta.

Durante décadas, los miembros de la "Generación Perdida" han esperado su oportunidad sin conseguirlo, salvo en casos muy excepcionales. Su "pecado": pretender tocar jazz.

Como tantos otros de sus contemporáneos, Mover está dedicado a la docencia. Aún así, sigue tocando, donde puede y cuando puede, y grabando discos. "En Nueva York, ya puedes llamarte Bob Mover como George Coleman o incluso Lee Konitz que, cuando se trata de un "bolo" de los que realmente valen la pena, ten por seguro que van a llamar a un chico jovencito antes que a tí".

Lo que sigue es la transcripción literal de 2 correos electrónicos remitidos a Mover por 2 de sus alumnos en los cuales se expresa la situación de muchos músicos de jazz en la Gran Manzana y alrededores.


Hi Bob,

Got your note. I'm afraid I have to put the brakes on your worthy ambition. Our school is simply not in an expansion mode at the moment--indeed we may be facing some extremely painful contraction in the coming year. So adding new courses is just not on the agenda.

There are other factors as well, beyond the simple economics. Our existing faculty is overwhelmingly boomer generation or older (3/4 over 45), and nearly all of that group (and some of the younger ones as well) are standards-oriented musicians. But interest in "repertoire" among our students is receding--more and more of our students are quite alienated from the mid-20th century aesthetic, and want to do original music, odd meters, modal/non-functional harmony, electric instrumentation, and so on. And while we are a conservatory, we are the least conservative of the NY conservatories (compare Manhattan, for example, or Juillard Jazz), and we depend heavily on the new-music types for our existence. So standards/repertoire oriented courses, of which we already have many, are not what we are adding when we do have opportunities to add courses.

Please don't take this personally--I'm in the unfortunate position of having to say "sorry" to quite a number of perfectly good course ideas offered by terrific, fully qualified NY musician/educators. [This is especially ironic for me since I railed for years against what I called the "gatekeepers" of the jazz opportunities in Seattle, left their in disgust largely because of them, only to get a job in NY which involves an overdose of gatekeeping.] Hope you can understand.

Thanks.

XXX

Mr Mover,

This is XXX. I don't know if you remember me but I took a lesson with you in New York in January at the Hilton during the IAJE convention. I have a question pertaining to the state of jazz today. In your opinion, what happened to bop? Why is the state of jazz today so buried in crap? Do you think that John Coltrane and the three tonic system was the beginning of the end for jazz?

It seems to me that jazz has lost its romance, beauty and soul. This is very discouraging as a musician. I don't want to sound like all of the young nu jazz musicians. I have no interest in electronic music nor do I have any interest in modern jazz. How can I succeed musically and financially as a bop player? I'm only asking you this because of my great respect and admiration of your playing.

Sincerely,

XXX


(Ambos mensajes fueron remitidos por el propio Bob Mover al autor de este blog)