LondonJazz reader Frank Griffith (thank you!) has brought to my attention an interesting essay/blogpost/debate “In Defence of Jazz Education .

It’s by Dublin-based/ much-respected/educator/bassistRonan Guilfoyle- (the headless portrait above is from his blog..)

Guifoyle deals with these three attempted bodyblows at jazz education:

1) That jazz education turns all who partake of it into clones.

3) That there is no point of turning out jazz graduates when there are no gigs

There are a number of comments, and the conclusions (these folk write a lot more prose than I’m used to…) seem to me to be that

(a) jazz educators do an awful lot more good than harm

(b) it is MUCH harder for a musician to get his or her sh*t together when much older

(c) (my conclusion) because they are constantly looking at what the student is absorbing on a deeper/longer-term level, the jazz educators I know tend to be more than usually reflective about the effect they do have- they DON’T WANT CLONES. And that is a good thing.

If you like what Ronan Guilfoyle is saying , then be my guest, and try The Art and Science of Time…and I will give a prize for the best explanation in no more than 50 words of what it means.