If I Were a Bell

So I'm listening to the amazing rendition of "If I Were a Bell" from the first Miles Davis quintet (Relaxin' with the Miles Davis Quintet). The tune comes from the archetypal American musical Guys and Dolls. As is the case with much straight-ahead jazz, the joy of listening comes, to a great extent, from intimate knowledge of the original, which allows one to better appreciate just how the players work with the piece.

So what happens a few years from now, when the only standards known to the broader public are the drivel belted out on American Idol? These songs have little in the way of notable melodic structure, serving merely as vehicles for oral pyrotechnics. The decline of pop music in the country does not bode well for the future appreciation of jazz, the greatest of American art forms.