Folded thought of the day:

What's up with this term "cool jazz?"  There ain't nothing 
cool about it and very little jazz about it.  It should be 
called "completely uncool, watered-down version of some 
lame person's idea of jazz."  

Uh-oh, the Daily Editor's sounding cranky.  Well, maybe a 
little.  You see, I went up to Harlem on Saturday night 
to listen to some jazz.  And the band was okay, but they 
certainly weren't kickin' it.  And then when one of my 
friends started telling us a really interesting bar 
story he got "shh'd" by this middle-aged yuppie dude.  
And it got me thinking.  Here's this crowd, acting really 
hard like they've got to listen to every note, applauding 
at all the right times and not even smiling.  And I began 
to get that feeling that it was time to go back to Brooklyn.  
Since there are no subways that let you off in 1950, right 
in front of Birdland.  

You know, I've listened to plenty of live recordings of 
Charlie Parker and Mingus and dozens of other jazz 
"greats" and I'm telling you, the crowd in the background 
was anything but silent.  They'd be whoopin' it up, 
making plenty of noise.  And this is CHARLIE PARKER on 
the stage.  That's part of the experience.  Digging it.

What are we becoming?  When political correctness and 
the heavy burden of people's expectations silence our 
desire to dance to the music...