Careers in Jazz
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Jazz Classes, in Detail

Epiphytes

Named after “air plants,” which live without need for soil, these are the true heroes of the jazz world.  They eat only out of necessity, seemingly nourished by the music they play, including their hours of daily practicing.  Most varieties of Epiphytes thrive in subterranean environments, such as dank basement apartments, with little apparent need for sunlight.  They move frequently from hovel to hovel after seemingly exhausting the available air that sustains them.  Their skin is wan, and they blink uncomfortably in daylight, preferring to wear sunglasses around the clock. 

Epiphytes are the trendsetters in the jazz community, admired and emulated by their peers.  Their speech is heavily peppered with cutting-edge jazz lingo, and they are often innovators in jazz vocabulary.  Although they are the elite class of the working musicians (short of Chosen Ones, who live in a separate musical universe), they are the least likely to reproduce, finding economic advantage in a more streamlined lifestyle.  In this sense, an adverse Darwinian effect works against the forward movement of jazz, as natural selection favors gene propagation from the less talented, more whorish players.

Caucasian Epiphytes often live their lives as modern-day extensions of the Beat Generation.  African-American Epiphytes are frequently motivated by a mandate to explore and perpetuate the roots of contemporary black culture and identity.  Regardless of race, Epiphytes can be highly temperamental, and many are gifted with a special ability to make the other musicians on the bandstand hate one another.

The relationship between Epiphytes and Gig Whores is particularly intriguing:  Epiphytes live on the fringes of mainstream society in order to stake their place in jazz music; Gig Whores work on the fringes of the jazz world in order to stake their place in mainstream society.  Yet between them is a quiet understanding, a shared realization that there is no perfect solution to the Jazz Problem.  Both are driven by a Buddhist sensibility:  Epiphytes believe that material objects are impermanent and of no value; Gig Whores embrace the notion that life is suffering.

Identifying Signs
  • Low body mass
  • Self-cut hair
  • Unmatched shoes
Survival Techniques
  • Migratory movement among communities and countries that are briefly tolerant of jazz
  • Supplementary income earned from plasma banks and focus groups
  • Narcotics addiction
 
 

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