[March 2002 journal entry]
While watching Ken Burns’ History of Jazz documentary, jazz legend Artie Shaw’s comments gave me a fresh way to think about the risks associated with being welcomed, being considered ‘successful’, being celebrated within societal spheres (including but not limited to the ‘religious’ sphere) --
“Glenn Miller? He had what you would call a Republican band. Very straight-laced and middle-of-the-road. And Miller was that kind of guy. He was a businessman. He was sort of the Lawrence Welk of jazz. That’s one of the reasons he was so big. People could identify with what he did. They could perceive what he was doing. But the biggest problem with his band was that it never made a mistake. And that’s one of the things that’s wrong. Because if you never make a mistake, you’re not trying. You’re not playing at the edge of your ability. You’re playing safely, within limits. You know what you can do. And after a while, it sounds extremely boring. . . . Success is a very big problem, bigger than failure. You can deal with failure. It’s tough. It’s hard. You fight like hell to get it going. But success is an opiate. And you get very confused. Things happen that you have no preparation for. Money comes in. And popularity. People throw themselves at you. I couldn’t handle it. I didn’t know what to do with it.”