usually someone from the PFC company will come along, too—acting as a producer, giving light feedback, at times inching the musicians in more playlist-friendly directions. The most common feedback: play simpler. “That’s definitely the thing: nothing that could be even remotely challenging or offensive, really,” the jazz musician told me that day in the park. “The goal for sure is to be as milquetoast as possible. And that’s made pretty explicit. They try to leave enough leeway for musicians to sort of not feel like they’re completely losing their minds, but the agenda is play simply and
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