The know-it-more

OK ok, so I pissed a bunch of people off with this post! Aw, who knew that there were a bunch of people reading this blog - I thought it was mostly just my mom and dad, and my friend Katie; and Katie told me last month she'd stopped reading it.

I keep this log as my own journal (it helps me practice if I keep a journal of what I am practicing and how often). I post it only because if I write a private journal, it gets too depressing. Making it slightly public keeps it more focused and readable and upbeat. I sure don't mind if other people read it - otherwise I wouldn't post it, of course - but it always takes me by surprise if they do!

Anyway, this was the post with me going into my red-hot flaming Elitist Know-It-All Snob, trashing my local musicians for allegedly having a limited viewpoint on samba.

it doesn't matter in the least as far as the music goes. I mean - so what if you use different vocabulary for instruments, for breaks, whatever; so what if you don't know the precise historic origin of this or that break, or of the technique you're playing; so what if you stumble onto the same funk pattern that another group uses; or which escola a certain caixa hold came from. SO WHAT? As long as you PLAY well. As long as you SWING. As long as the pattern ROCKS.

So what if you have had only 1 teacher - especially if that teacher is the best in the world?

This music here is awesome. If it weren't, I wouldn't be in this city.

It's just disorienting for me, is all. Because I'm a scientist. I work in a field where everybody collaborates worldwide; where the philosophical mindset is to cast your net as widely as possible, seek out as many different teachers as possible, go into the field and do your own fieldwork, and in the end, TRUST YOUR DATA. I have to repeat it again, because it is the most fundamental thing about me: I'm a scientist. Science is a way of life. And I treat samba exactly like science, and for me that has to mean: Do your fieldwork and see for yourself.

As for whether I'm an elitist - that one made me laugh, because YES, I'm definitely an elitist! I should probably make myself a t-shirt that "ELITIST SNOB" in gigantic glow-in-the-dark letters, just so that people can be forewarned. I'm probably the original card-carrying elitist. I can't help it; it's my upbringing - remember I'm the East Coast kid, the kid who grew up playing on the Princeton campus, and a Bostonian for years after that! If you've ever heard of the brassy arrogant East Coast mentality, this is it. I don't have a very strong streak of it, but it does come out from time to time. And (maybe this is the most East Coast thing of all) I even like it! It helps push me to do my best; it helps make me strong.