Article: Can Jazz Be Saved?

[ConnArtist]

I haven't read the article yet, but riffing off of what's being said...

Seems all genres of all arts "die", but then comes the REVIVAL. Think about the Blues... originated basically by poor black folks, played on porches, or perhaps in juke joints... now mostly played and listened to by college educated white folk, after it's 60s revival.

Bebop will come back, but with whatever twist of the times when it is fully revived.

I think some loss of interest by the general public can be due to rather indulgent behavior. My jazz improv instructor really made a point to us of how important it is to read/control the crowd for a successful gig... create positive feedback by picking up on the tempo, key, and mood they need to rile them up or simmer them down. If you can barely hear yourselves over their crescendo-ing conversations, or they seem glazed over... adjust accordingly.

Just a few thoughts from a lowly peon.
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[MikeyMike]

[beagle]

Many of the bebop era jazz players were very passionate about having their music recognised as a legitimate art form. No form of popular music stays popular for ever and it wouldn't be much fun if it did. Although many forms will continue to keep going long past their use date with the support of a small group of dedicated followers the only way to achieve immortality is for a form to be accepted into the art establishment and get government funding as something worth preserving. Inevitably this leads to a transformation of the music from a living vibrant thing to something of a museum piece.

Shakespeare's plays were popular entertainment for the masses back in the 1500s and Mozart was an 18th century popstar. Things change. If Charlie Parker were alive today he would be proud of the immortality and status the music he and his peers created has attained.

Jazz music will live on only by new creative minds developing their own styles influenced by what is going on around them. Perhaps there won't be as many live venues, but people will still want to listen to music and will find ways to do so. Many people will be content with listening to the meaningless pop drivel of the day, but there will always be both musicians and listeners who crave something more and they will seek each other out. Jazz is not mainstream music, but it is contemporary music. Part of the appeal of any subculture is that it is young, energetic, subversive and slightly dangerous. These elements disappear when it is taken over by the respectable and middle-aged. We can't do that to jazz and expect that it won't lose some of its spirit in the process.

The new jazz players won't call their music jazz and might not even know what jazz is but they will be carrying on the tradition regardless. They won't learn about their music at school because it will be too new. Older musicians might look at what the young kids are doing and say it is not music or even that it is killing music. That's what the swing players said about the beboppers. It's not killing music, but it is replacing the music that went before. As jazz players we need to learn to recognise that this is not a bad thing.

Rob
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[mcahynuacrkd]

Rob Said:
"Jazz music will live on only by new creative minds developing their own styles influenced by what is going on around them. "

Re:
Well stated Rob. This is certainly the approach that I take with my music, including the new CD that I am working on "TULSA" in particular.
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[Foxytrpt]

Jazz is alive and well. Overseas at least.
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[junkyt]

There is much talk of this article in the jazz blogosphere. I wrote at length about the subject on my blog and got some great comments from other musicians and bloggers. You can read it here: http://oneworkingmusician.com/jazz-a-museum-piece-or-a-living-breathing-artform-its-up-to-us

Teachout throws out a lot of numbers from that NEA study but they do not paint an accurate picture. Statistics rarely do.

Suffice to say that I think Teachout asks an irrelevant question. The only question we need to ask is what can we do as jazz musicians and fans to make jazz relevant in today's culture.

If jazz has any problem at all it's a problem of perception. But I see many young jazz fans at my and my friend's shows in Seattle. From my perspective in the trenches jazz is alive and well.
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[lmaraya]

[pied piper]

Without having read the article and instead choosing to read everybody's response, all really good btw, here's my dime's worth. I don't think jazz is dead or dying. How long has it been since Louis Armstrong died? 38 or so years and he is still discussed and loved by young and old. Or, Bird, Trane, or Miles. We still love their music. We study them. We have institutions dedicated to preserving and expanding their legacy. All this decades after their physical death. Who will really remember Britanny or Justin or (insert any pop star name here) decades after their death?

Look at the guys and gals (foxy trpt.) posting here. All fairly young.

What needs to be discussed is how to better market our music to those who love it. A lot of people love jazz. Maybe not as many as in the swing/big band era but that could change with changes in the way our music is packaged and marketed.

I just bought and have listened to Thomas Marriott's new recording and just love it. Brad Goode who also posted here is one of my heroes. I play one of his tunes (Snake Charmer) on every gig I do with my group. These are not old guys making old music. It's fresh and accessible.

Jazz isn't dead or dying...we just need to get out of our shed's and start doing what jazz musicians do. Absorb what's out there and integrate that influence in our music.

Now I will probably go read the article.

BTW...

check my group out at
www.blu7music.com

[Billy B]

[cjl]

[Billy B]

[bg]

One of the theories often propounded by jazz educators is that we are creating the new audience for jazz. This is sometimes cited as the answer to the question: "Where will all of these new players find work. " ( I've never
liked this response, as is doesn't answer the troubling question, it simply rationalizes the existence of jazz programs.)

Jazz musicians DO comprise the majority of the audience for creative jazz. I'm sorry, but this is true. I recently attended a performance by the Ben Monder Trio at a club in Brooklyn. Everyone in the audience had a gig bag.

I've seen the model for presenting jazz change drastically in the last 25 years. When I started out, the older cats led the bands. The clubs were booked by people who were themselves, jazz lovers and promoters.
Now, the clubs are booked by business people, and they are looking for
a way to get bands for free. They want the musician to do his/her own
advertising via email, facebook, TRUMPET HERALD, etc. The musician notifies his "following" (translation: friends, family, students, teachers)
and charges them a cover. The club sells these people food and drink.

It reminds me of the old Judy Garland/Mickey Rooney films where they put on a show in dad's barn and invited their neighbors. This is now the way the music business operates.

This is confusing for old farts like me. I was raised in a different tradition.
My mentors stressed that it was poor form to ask for a gig. You were supposed to live on your reputation. If you could deliver, the bandleaders
and club managers would come to you. This used to work great for me, but it's not working anymore; and it's not because I stopped being able to
deliver.

A club will hire the cats who can bring them warm bodies with no effort
on the club's part. SO: entrepreneurship is essential for today's jazzer.
The future of jazz depends upon the musicians' willingness to self promote.

I have some friends who have always been great at talking places into trying jazz. If we get more folks like this involved, jazz will continue to survive. ALSO: if more quality players felt that they could revitalize their
local scenes rather than taking off for bigger cities, we would have a healthier national scene.

I'm really struggling with this, myself. I still think I'm living in 1985, when the best player got the gig. I'm not. There's no gig to get, unless you create it yourself. I'm trying to teach my students how to be excellent musicians, at school, not on the bandstand where I learned. This is the new reality, deal with it. I'm learning, from my students, how to make a
self-promoted gig into an event. They know what's happening better than I.

bg

[junkyt]

[jadickson]

[cjl]

[tommy t.]

[bg]

Good posts, all.

I still feel that we bear the responsibility for whether or not people perceive
jazz negatively.

Everybody's trying to be hip, but very few are trying to be communicative.

[Xenoman]

[ChopsGone]

I did read the article by the WSJ's drama critic. Audiences may be dwindling and aging, but I don't believe that means that jazz is dead or even in danger of dying out. Yes, if you use a very narrow definition of jazz to mean bebop and screech showmen, maybe it's dying out. Do I look like I give a bleep?

Let's remember that jazz goes way back. Dixieland, blues, R&B, swing, ragtime, much of what's collectively known as pop, it's all jazz. Maybe I live in the wrong part of the country to see the problem as clearly, but around here, you can find good attendance at big band events, traditional jazz events, dinosaur rock (R&B, rockabilly, even country swing), and the broad category of post-1950 hodgepodge - audiences may not be as large as they were in better economic times, but they're out there, and they're enthusiastic. Look at the big traditional jazz event every summer in Sacramento - you may not have the good taste to revel in that kind of jazz, but there are certainly vast throngs of people who do.
The same goes for the period music scene - it's alive and well here. Performers, instrument makers, concerts - all alive and well.

In our local schools, while there may actually be a token concert band, the real emphasis is on jazz band. And the programs are healthy, despite the continuing assault on funding for non-football classes. The concerts are well-attended, there are lots of kids involved in the programs, and they're playing fairly adventurous stuff along with the standard dreck.
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[Billy B]