Composer James Mtume Destroys Jazz Critic Stanley Crouch in a Debate about Miles Davis.mp4

"I'll play it first and tell you what it is later." -- Miles Davis

My heart is profoundly heavy right now. RIP, James Mtume (3 January 1946 - 9 January 2022) 🙌🏿🙏🏿😭

Who cares what critics say. Listen to the music and like it or not. I NEVER listen to music critics. Got my own ears.

"They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art": Charlie Parker.

11:45 "influence found in the next generation" See, Flying Lotus; See, Thundercat; See, Christian Scott; See, Kamasi Washington; See, Nujabes; See, DJ Shadow; See, Nightmares on Wax; See, Cinematic Orchestra…the list goes on and on and on. Miles Davis was a Genius, who fathered this new generation of artists who fuse jazz and electronics - their listeners, and their critics.

Loved this exchange. R.I.P. Mr. Mtume. 🙏🏾❤🖤💚🌹🌹🌹🌹

Nice to hear Mtume call BS against the Jazz police. Much more than that: fascinating new insights on a fertile period.

Mtume spoke like a musician who understood musical expression and exploration. Crouch spoke like a journalist who wanted to narrowly define jazz to match his biases. But Crouch's idea that the fusion music that Miles played a big part in creating is disappearing is completely wrong. Today we're living in a musical era that rewards cross pollenation and innovation. What Crouch thought is disappearing was really just the process of the evolution of an art form. From those early pioneers like Miles we ended up with Chick Corea and Return to Forever, Michael Brecker, The Crusaders, David Sanborn, Kirk Whalum, Larry Carlton, The Yellowjackets, Pat Metheny, Stanley Clark, Robben Ford, Roy Hargrove, and George Benson, to name a few. Sorry Mr. Crouch, you were wrong in so many ways. If I'm going to believe anyone, it's going to be the man with first hand knowledge!

❤️ you James Mtume! Thank you visiting earth and sharing your music, thinking and absolute brilliance. ‘Hope to see you again.

"Those who can't do, those who can't teach, those who wish they could become critics"

James Mtume was in touch with his musical generation, the musical generations that preceded him, and the musical generations that succeeded him. That is where his genius resonates the most in my mind, his openness to the fact, that all music has its place in time, no music is insignificant, it all has value. May the "Most High" forever bless his soul...🙏🏼...

Guys like Stanley Crouch and Wynton Marsalis practically killed Jazz by trying to turn it into classical music and building a wall around it and trying to gatekeep it. If it were up to them, the development of Jazz would have stopped somewhere in the late 50’s or early 60’s. Jazz to me has always been about innovation and bringing in new sounds and styles, mixing them into something completely new, fresh, and exciting. I’ve never got the hostility to electronic instruments - if you’re playing great shit, who cares if it’s on an electric piano or an acoustic one? Miles didn’t sell out, he was trying to reach a new audience. The worst thing that could ever happen to Jazz is to turn it into “classical” music, becoming less and less relevant as the years go on because it stops developing.

As one of my music graduate professors aptly put it, when you think about Miles's career, it can be split into two parts: from '44 - '67 (roughly), Miles played acoustic. From '68 - '91 (his death), he played electric. Equal parts. Think about that for a second. 23 years in the acoustic world, 23 years in the electric world. Miles didn't sell out. This is how he heard music, and the duration of his allegiance to the electric sound underscores his artistic motivation.

So damn glad to see Stanley Crouch get his ass handed to him by James Mtume. Thank you, James Mtume.  Say good night, Wynton Marsalis, Stanley Crouch and the rest of the downtown knitting club in Concrete National Park.

Your talent, genius and gift of enlightening and educating others will be missed. RIP, James Mtume.

Some Musicians are brilliant when they put down their instruments and tools to talk to you like an intellectual who will blow your mind away. These people are students of human nature, philosophy, psychology, music and other forms of artistic excellence.

Miles Davis is one of the greatest producers period. He created several different sounds and influenced music heavily for several decades.

Oh how I adore Mtume – he calls out Crouch's pretentiousness right at the start, and in a manner many of us wish we could.

Stanley Crouch is so conservative and rigid in his musical tastes it's ridiculous. He's actually very funny. It's almost like he's playing a role.

James Mtume was a both a musical visionary and projector of possibilities, much like his former employer Miles Davis. Mtume dared to look beyond and reach for that which seemed intangible and inhuman when other musicians were content to create small variants of what had already been done. The success he had fusing his particular brand of lyricism and composition with musical synthesizers and drum machines to create a sound that was as lively and organic as with acoustic instruments bears this out. As befitting his Swahili last name, he was truly a messenger to those with an ear to hear. Respect and RIP.