Talk:Modern Jazz Quartet

what's modern?
we have a subject MJQ on the hebrew wikipedia. the trouble is, a. that in hebrew we have male and female adjectives and b. "Jazz" is male, and "Quartet" is female. so we really need to know if the adj. "Modern" refers to the quartet or to the Jazz! can anybody authorize an answer for this tough question?Noki Lavie (talk) 20:54, 4 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Hi Noki. That is a very good question without an obvious answer.  One nice thing about the name is the ambiguity!  A hunch says it is more the "Jazz" that is modern.  But then, "Jazz" might be an adjective (surely that's an option in Hebrew?) in which case it is the  Jazz-Quartet which is Modern.  But in any case, why not just transcribe the English (which is what is done in all the other languages: thus the French "Modern Jazz Quartet" rather than "Quatuor du Jazz Moderne" or "Quatuor Moderne du Jazz").  Best, Eliezg (talk) 01:25, 5 February 2008 (UTC)
 * You might be looking for "post-modern." The MJQ, as with all Jazz, fits into the category of New African nativization, just as Gospel on up to Hip hop does.  (In a social context, so did the Underground Railroad.)  Modernization, to me, is the rationale of capital ("Look at this nice plastic pen made for less than pennies in China!") It begins in the West with Plato's Republic, in the East with Confucius, and the beginning of the end in the West might possibly be Christ.  Post modernism in Art is Picasso's Cubism that is derived from African Nativism; the nativism of the European that defines "Modern Art" as post-modernism (which is typically confusing because the record-keeping has fallen to modernists).  The MJQ, as Third Stream, defines further European nativization; but, amazingly, from the other direction: "up from slavery."  So, the MJQ is truly post-modern.  But we are dealing with shifting sands here, so I tend to call post-modern "contemporary."--John Bessa (talk) 16:10, 16 January 2011 (UTC)

Article Improvement
Greetings, wikipedia jazz types: I think it's an awful shame that the article dedicated to MJQ is so sparse, so I'm going to slowly improve it over the coming days. I've :Actually, I have had pretty good luck getting images for the WP. One source is ebay; if an older photographer is, say, selling original photos, there is a very good chance he will "donate" a low resolution copy. Also there is fair use of photography; I think a loophole exists that if you discuss the photo as a work of art, then it is allowable.
 * Wp is really messy wrt to pictures. It is fully entitled to fair use, but for amazing reasons, does not want to use it; instead the Wp operates as a corporation.  You can, and I strongly suggest, write and upload on the Wikiversity.org, which is a sister project.  There is the concept of transforming intellectual as a result of a Supreme Court decision regarding Google's thumbnail photos that is NOT fair use, thought is often described as such; a collage or muscial mash-up is a good example.  But beware, or use the Wv.--John Bessa (talk) 16:22, 16 January 2011 (UTC)


 * I happen to have a picture of Dave Brubeck that I took when I was very young that I want to contribute, but I am having difficulty scanning it. thrown in an infobox.

There's a great deal of previously-published information on the Quartet, including in Grove Music, etc.

I suspect that finding a 'free' image will be quite hard but I'll look about. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.

Gdickinson (talk) 04:59, 29 September 2009 (UTC)

Criticism of the MJQ
I read on the various liner notes that the world at large didn't think too much of either third stream (classical/jazz fusion) or the vibraphone. This is, of course, ignorant and biased thought, but I think in should be mentioned as an circumstance quartet had to deal with. I got into the MJQ recently when I testing an old phonograph and tube amp; my cat really got into the sound, even before the tube amp warmed up. He was enjoying their music through the needle. I played other stuff, and nothing -- MJQ or nothing for the cat.--John Bessa (talk) 16:24, 1 March 2010 (UTC)
 * I told a senior jazzman that lives near my parents in NYC, and he said that Mystery is a "hep cat."--John Bessa (talk) 16:23, 16 January 2011 (UTC)

item missing from discography
Missing from Wikipedia's MJQ discography (as I read it) is "The Modern Jazz Quartet" Savoy MR-12046. It is listed in Discogs as [a254990]. 69.118.240.121 (talk) 19:23, 29 February 2024 (UTC)
 * This thing? A slightly odd collection there ... sounds like a compilation. I've added it as such. Thanks for the note. Graham87 (talk) 04:22, 1 March 2024 (UTC)