I think what happened was that Miles kept talking **** about free jazz and people got caught up in the very prevalent idea that you had to pick sides between free jazz and fusion. It didn’t help that Miles had made ****ty comments about Ornette, Coltrane, and even Hendrix. It seems stupid af now but you have to remember how big a presence Miles was on the jazz scene. It’s obvious now that it only makes sense to enjoy Miles and Ornette and ignore the idiosyncrasies and jealousies that inflicted Miles’ personality but at the time he had the clout to push the narrative that one had to choose from a dichotomy. Something similar happened when 20th C composers decided to abandon Schoenberg’s school of thought. Young composers now consider imprisoning yourself in a single school a form of lunacy but things had to change to get there. Even today some hip hop fans act like you’re cheating on Nas if you like Lil Yachty. But I’m here to tell you it’s ok to love Blood on the Tracks and Freewheelin’. I’m ****ing the cheerleader and the quarterback. Let’s love it all.
Sexy mother****er.
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