Talk:Paul Whiteman

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[edit] flaws

"Whiteman was also one of the greatest of all talent scouts. For over 30 years, he sought out and encouraged musicians, vocalists, composers, arrangers and entertainers who looked promising. It is worth repeating that Whiteman not only premiered George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" in 1924, but commissioned him to write it, much to Gershwin's surprise at the time."

why is it worth repeating that? the wiki, as it is, is very sycophantic, and the problem is that most of the claims are factually week. EVERY band-leader of the era was a talent scout, including bandleaders of later eras, every bandleader i know did at least as much as whiteman did in terms of looking for the best players and hiring them. (which is the logical obvious thing for a bandleader to do.)

there's also a kind of contradiction here that belies one of the problems with the wiki: it's stated that whiteman wasn't a big proponent of improvisation (?), preferring scoring(?), yet the wiki also states that whiteman made achievements in the domain of reducing the "repetition" of musical forms at the time. obviously, improvisation is one of the hallmarks of contemporary jazz during whiteman's time, and improvisation is one of the prime methods of variety in any musical performance. furthermore, the developments in key/rhythm(?)/etc that whiteman was supposedly responsible for were already present in contemporary music.

i'm not saying the guy didn't advance music as much as the next guy (maybe he did), but the statements in the wiki are very fluffy and need some work.

Last thing: I don't want to offend anyone, but honestly, i really have the feeling that whiteman was the "king of jazz" about as much as jack johnson's "great white hope" parade of challengers were the kings of boxing.

To which I might add: an all-white jazz band is a travesty. 86.134.217.24 23:12, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] article needs referencing - that might help solve disagreements on discussion page

Per WP:V and WP:CITE, this article needs to have its source material referenced. Thanks. Mattisse(talk) 18:19, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Possible online sources for this article

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