Self-study
This passage was adapted from an article published in 2003.
P1
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Intro to Topic ·
Wynton Marsalis, important jazz musician
Great musician and promoter of jazz.
Phenomenon ·
Marsalis and jazz face uncertain future
Critics are unhappy with "neotraditionalism." Not sure what that means but passage will probably explain later.
P2
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Phenomenon Details ·
Marsalis and jazz's decline
Marsalis stopped releasing CDs; no active contract with record companies; Columbia Records no longer investing in jazz musicians.
P3
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Critics Hypothesis ·
Marsalis' neotraditionalism is to blame for decline
Marsalis was looking backwards to jazz orthodoxy and inhibited innovation which resulted in stagnation. This is what was meant by "neotraditionalism."
P4
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Author’s Concession ·
Marsalis did emphasize past masters
Author’s Rebuttal ·
But Marsalis recombined traditional elements to push jazz forward
So it wasn't just neotraditionalism, as the critics claim.
Author's Hypothesis ·
Record labels are to blame
If past artists are so great, then just repackage their music and stop investing so much money in new talent.
P5
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Author’s Hypothesis ·
Record labels' profit motives are to blame
Marsalis and young talent saw past masters as role models. Critics thought they were idolizing past master. Record labels saw past masters as profit.
Passage Style
Critique or debate
Phenomenon-hypothesis (RC)
6.
The author would be most ██████ ██ █████ ████ █████ ███ ██ ███ ██████████
a
Ironically, record companies ████ ████████ █ ████ ██ ██████████ ████ ██ ████ █████ ████ ████ ██████████ ██ ████████ ██ ████████
Supported. Critics argue that Marsalis has “stifled” jazz and inhibited innovation due to a focus on the jazz classics. The author disagrees with this view in P4 and notes that Marsalis still attempts to push the genre of jazz forward. On the other hand, the author points out in P4 and P5 that record companies have begun to republish old classics and fail to develop new artists. This behavior is something that actually does inhibit innovation.
b
Contrary to what ███████ ████████ ████████ █████████████ ████████ ███ ████████
The author never suggests that Marsalis “energetically promoted new artists.” Although he encourages young jazz musicians, this doesn’t imply that he energetically promotes their music.
c
Understandably, Marsalis's fellow █████████ ████ ████ ████ █████ ██ █████ ███████████ ████ ███ █████ ████ ████ █████ ████████
The author never suggests that Marsalis or other musicians have been “more vocal” about their displeasure. We never get a comparison between how strongly or openly Marsalis and the critics express their views.
d
Surprisingly, most of ███████ █████ ███████ ████ █████ ████ ████████ ████████████ ████████ █████ ██ ██████████ ██████████████████
The author never indicates the opinion of “most” young artists toward the critics’ view about Marsalis.
e
In saturating the ██████ ████ ███████ ███ ███████████ ██ █████ ██ █████ ████████ ████ ███████ ██████████ ██████████ ██ ██████████
The author does not suggest that Marsalis’s release of 15 new CDs in 1999 made him vulnerable to criticism. The author comments on the number of CDs he released to show that the fact he didn’t publish anything in the two years that followed demonstrates a steep decline. We have no reason to think critics viewed the 15 new CDs in 1999 as something particularly vulnerable to criticism. What critics took issue with is not the amount of music Marsalis released, but the emphasis on traditional elements in that music.