THE FUTURE OF JAZZ?
Terry Teachout at the Wall Street Journal has sounded the alarm over the serious decline in the popularity of jazz. Evidently the audience for jazz in America is both aging and shrinking at a staggering rate, making it resemble the folks who dutifully take their classical-music vitamins. Jazz no longer seems to speak to young people, which doesn't bode well for the future of the genre.
And it is precisely because jazz is now widely viewed as a high-culture art form that its makers must start to grapple with the same problems of presentation, marketing and audience development as do symphony orchestras, drama companies and art museums—a task that will be made all the more daunting by the fact that jazz is made for the most part by individuals, not established institutions with deep pockets.
Teachout offers no solutions, except that jazz musicians must now figure out a way to make a case for the beauty of their music. Here at More Intelligent Life we're happy to help. Start with this video of Thelonious Monk teasing at and banging out "Blue Monk" at the piano (and note the man's ability to adjust his pinky ring in time with the beat):
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Jazz ain't what it used to be
August 14, 2009 - 10:21 — Olivier Farmer (not verified)In think your clip illustrates the problem.
Jazz as a form of creative genius, a mirror of it's times accessible to the public, and perhaps the most successful illustration of African-American's as genius in their craft with no equal, but with universal appeal (and surely an important factor in the ascendency of African Americans in American society), is a think of the past, to be preciously archived and revered, and sporadically emulated, but never with the same significance and power. The times have changed. Jazz also, but it has become more inward looking, jargonized, identifying itself more as distinct from past forms rather than relevant to today's society. I am 37 years old, I rever my jazz albums, from early rags to about 1969, but have no interest in current forms, which frequently enervate me and strike no chord or sense of relevance
This is a great discussion
August 14, 2009 - 11:49 — Abel Magwitch (not verified)This is a great discussion to be having and it can, and should, go in many directions. The double-edge sword of Jazz at Lincoln Center, for instance. The "institutionalization" of this art form at Lincoln Center seems to confirm that Jazz has one foot in the grave and we are making preparations for its maintenance as a museum piece. At the same time Jazz receives wonderful publicity there, and the educational outreach is positive.
Jazz standard bearers like Down Beat struggle with the future of Jazz. They fawn over any mainstream artist who dabbles in Jazz; they rightly, or wrongly declare Bill Frisell's blue grass experiment Jazz Album of the Year in 1997(I think, rightly.)
New Jazz can still capture our attention (just look at Nora Jones) but I'm not sure how you use that success to turn the tide. One problem is that there are many Jazz fans who scoff at the success of an album like, Come Away With Me. Maybe we Jazz fans have become too hip for our own good.
Jazz is alive and kicking
August 17, 2009 - 11:43 — visitor (not verified)There is so much great jazz being made at the moment it is mad to write it off. The UK and Scandanavian jazz scenes in particular are vibrant, acknowledging the past but also looking forward. There are many great jazz trios both in Europe and the US. There is a lot of modern jazz that is hard to get a hold off but there is also a lot of great bebop, hard bop, modal jazz still being recorded by brilliant musicians young and old.
Olivier: don't write jazz off. Try Tomasz Stanko, Marcin Wasilewski, Tord Gustavsen, James Darcy Argue, Brandford Marsalis, Joshua Redman, Helge Lien Trio, Jef Neve, Enrico Rava to name just a few. If you really love your 50s and 60s jazz albums you would not be disappointed with any of them.
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