Reading Comprehension

PT150 · S4 · P1 · Q7 Wynton Marsalis

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This passage was adapted from an article published in 2003.

Topic

Wynton Marsalis, his influence on jazz, and the complicated impacts of focusing on jazz tradition.

Framework

Challenge Position / Problem-Solution

Main Point

While Wynton Marsalis helped bring attention to jazz’s rich history and its legends, his focus on jazz tradition has been criticized as stifling innovation and inadvertently contributing to an environment where record companies prefer reissuing old recordings over supporting new artists. (Most valuable sentence: — Paragraph 3)

P1: Marsalis’s Influence and Recent Criticism

For about 20 years, Marsalis was the top jazz musician and promoter of jazz history, highly admired and influential. More recently, he's been criticized for focusing too much on tradition, and both his and jazz’s future seem a bit shaky.

P2: Marsalis’s Career Shift and Industry Trends

Marsalis stopped releasing new music after putting out a huge batch in 1999 and lost his record contract. At the same time, major labels began losing interest in new jazz artists and started focusing more on reissuing classic albums.

P3: Critics Blame Marsalis for Jazz’s Stagnation

Some critics say Marsalis’s emphasis on tradition has made jazz too rigid, making it harder for innovation to thrive. He’s seen as someone who looks backward, turning jazz into a “museum” piece instead of a living, evolving art.

The passage provides information sufficient to answer which one of the following questions?

In the two years after
Out of Scope: compose
If we CTRL + F or scan for "1999", we'll be taken to the beginning of the 2nd paragraph. We're told that in the two years after 1999, Marsalis did not release a single collection of new music. We don't have any idea whether or not he composed any new music. Composing = writing a song Releasing = recording it / mixing it / master it / creating album art / choosing a release date / etc. Drake may have composed a new song earlier today. That doesn't mean he released a new song earlier today. He just wrote it.
18% picked this
Are Marsalis's fans drawn mainly
Out of Scope: fans
The passage never discusses Marsalis's fans, so we'd have no way to answer this comparative question about his fans' demographics.
1% picked this
Has Marsalis ever released a
Out of Scope
Out of Scope: jazz standards Too Strong: only The passage never discusses "jazz standards", so we'd have no way to know whether Marsalis has released a CD that has nothing but jazz standards.
1% picked this
Why did Marsalis have no
Speculative Answer
We're told in the middle of the 2nd paragraph that Marsalis has no record contract with any company. But we're not told why. We might speculate why -- "Record companies have decided to put their money into repackaging vintage recordings rather than into developing new talent and new recordings". However, we are told that we was signed to Columbia and that Columbia still has some roster of active jazz musicians. Why isn't Marsalis, one of the biggest brand names in active jazz musicians, one of those artists? We don't know.
4% picked this
Correct
What is a factor that
Why this is right
In the 4th paragraph, we're told how Marsalis' great emphasis on past masters ultimately influenced record companies' decision to reissue vintage jazz recordings. He told young musicians to pay attention to the music's traditions. He put emphasis on the past masters. And even though he meant "let's take traditional elements and recombine them or reinvent them to push the genre forward", record executives came away with a different message. So a factor that contributed to the shift toward reissuing vintage jazz recordings was the way Marsalis strongly promoted the past masters to younger audiences.
Skill tested: Five Questions · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.
76% picked this

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