No Wonder People Hate Jazz Geeks

So, I've been moving forward with the jazz studies and I am pleased to say that I have gotten some nice rewards from it already.  I'm not actually a tremendous fan of jazz, but I really like the complex harmonic explorations and I've been enjoying learning some of the extremely creative ways that jazz composers and improvisers have spiced up simple diatonic chords over the years. 

Having reached a point where I feel like I am starting to "get it" as far as improvisation and chord soloing, I decided to backfill a bit by reading a book called "The Jazz Theory Book" by Mark Levine.  A lot of the early sections cover areas (scales, modes, chord construction) I've known about for years, but it's been interesting to hear the way jazz musicians took us from I-vi-ii-V to I-VI-ii-V.  What has been especially entertaining, however, has been reading about the ludicrously self-righteous debates that went on over theory during the bebop era.  A sample of the silliness:

Before the bebop era, most jazz musicians played the 4th of the major chord as a passing note only.  Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Thelonius Monk, and other pioneers of bebop often raised the 4th...in their improvising, chord voicings,  and original tunes.  It's hard to believe now, but the raised 4th was a very controversial note during the 1940s.  People actually wrote letters to Down Beat magazine about it, saying things like "the beboppers are ruining our music" and "jazz is dead."

That's right.  People were arguing whether or not it was okay to play, for example, an F# over a Cmaj7 chord.  This is the kind of preciousness that spurs three-state killing sprees.

I have now seen the intellectual grandfathers of the current crop of sanctimonious "indie-hipster-music-geeks."

In their honor, I am going to play #11 all night over every major chord.

Fuckers.