BACHELOR OF JAZZ

Mr. Olson, he of George Olson and His Music, speaks more truth than he imagines when he says that "university courses should be lengthened to eight years for the increasing number of students who want to matriculate in jazz". With no satirical intention he has bequeathed his innocent journalistic palaver with an ironic note. His plea is for more vital trombonists: but he incidentally lays bare the anatomy of jazz.

If, as he avers, seven years of honest toil and study were required before he mastered the art of swinging the drum major's baton then Mr. Olson is justified in demanding eight for the greater complexities of the saxaphone and the other apparatus which compose modern music. But just where in this welter of the arts is there room for what is quaintly termed a liberal education? Neither Mr. Olson nor Mr. Whiteman would tolerate illiterate and uninformed artists in his troupe. And if eight years are necessary for the technical perfection desired in a jazz band, then at least two and perhaps four more are required to cultivate the delicate social graces which should accompany the deft xylophonist. No xylophonist can hope to get away merely on the strength of his ability at his instrument: he must possess savoir-faire elan and also some gift for intelligent repartee.

As Mr. Olson notes, jazz calls for more than a dilatory attention. There is the foundation to be laid--apparently eight long years--and then there is the super-structure which makes the building so attractive. The completed product is the triumph of instinct over intelligence. But a twelve year course, even with a maestra's baton in view, is rather long and arduous. Aborigines accomplished similar ends with much less difficulty.