Re: [dvd-discuss] Rhapsody in Blue and the death of Jazz

[Ernest Miller <ernest.miller(at)aya.yale.edu>]

Not true.  There are plenty of versions.  There is a mechanical license 
for songs.  Anyone can record one ... you just have to pay the heirs a 
legally set fee.  If I want to do a cover of the latest from Britney 
Spears, I could ... so long as I paid the fee.  Britney couldn't stop me.

D. C. Sessions wrote:
> It's been observed that (at least according to the traditional
> forms) Jazz -- _the_ American musical form -- is dead.  It died,
> they tell us, of starvation. Jazz is at heart an improvisational
> derivative of popular music and for the last few generations
> there hasn't been any popular music available for improvisation.
> 
> What killed Jazz?  Why, for instance, aren't there any variations
> on the theme of /Rhapsody/ /in/ /Blue/, the great Gershwin tune?
> Why hasn't someone worked variations on /Appalacian/ /Spring/?
> 
> Well, in short because the heirs and assigns of Gershwin and
> Copland won't allow it.
> 
> Amazing, isn't it, that composers today still can't build on
> classic works composed before their grandparents were born?
> 
> Would someone *please* explain how this promotes science and
> the useful arts?
>