Jazz Greats

[heyjude]

Thanks for being with us. Jazz fans have lost a lot of the great, old artists in the last few years, including Ray Brown and Rosemary Clooney in 2002. Both were performing until nearly the end of their lives. How will this affect how you hire performers for the jazz club? Musicians are both reverential and referential to their mentors. Should chefs be?

[Danny Meyer]

As I mentioned on a previous post, I view jazz artists and chefs in a similar light. Each one must devote years and years to developing a high-leve virtuosity to become the best. There are some chefs who can metaphorically "bend every note" in the octive the way a great musician can "really cook." I've seen incredibly talented chefs apply too much virtuosity at the expense of pleasing people. I've seen brilliant musicians get so into their own head that they forget that they're primarily playing for YOUR pleasure -- not to show off how talented they are.

True brilliance in either field only happens when there is an intersection of risk-taking and pleasure. It occurs when true food- or music-lovers feel challenged, and at the same time, lay people feel satisfied. Think the Beatles, or Paul Simon, or Pablo Picasso. Or both of the two musicians you mentioned.

The recent deaths of so many jazz greats (Tommy Flanagan was supposed to have been our opening act last March) has made it harder to book recognizeable names, but has opened the door for us to present musicians who we think will be around for the long run. Some are well-known and others are less so. But they're all hired the same way we hire chefs -- they don't play with the attitude of "look what I can play." They play with the attidude of: "Look what I can play for you!". Please check out our website for more information on the musicians we've lined up for Jazz Standard. www.jazzstandard.com