Can Jazz Be Saved?

[Gary75]

Jazz will be fine, new generations come along, listen to the past masters and like the sounds and hopefully get educated in the direction. Actually, has any genre officially died out so that no one plays it anymore?

 

Dave what's with the real name/username issue? Even back when we had a CB radio, it would be all 'handles' and the occasional "10-4 Rubberdick!" or was that Rubberduck?

 

Surely it makes conversing easier than having 12 different Dave's on forum?

 

I'm tempted for a Smokey and the Bandit viewing tonight now.

[orangefunk]

Actually, has any genre officially died out so that no one plays it anymore?

 

 

Morris Dancing Techno... it was popular for 5 mins in 1991... only played in small towns in Cumbria now.. ;-)

[MAJUSCULE]

Well that's quite incredible, Dave...

[Phil B]

Jazz as a historical form will never disappear. But the jazz "artist" seems like it has. In my opinion (ymmv, of course), we listen to artists because they have something to say, a view of the world to share with us and that we can relate or aspire to. That is so hard with instrumental music. The jazz greats came up from nothing, from poverty and drugs. Music was their savior, their everything. They didn't just study jazz at the university of Miami or whatever. They were believable as artists.

 

There are certainly things here and there that I still find interesting in jazz, like metheny/meldou, but nothing that seems "vital" since the mid-70s. There's just no hunger in it anymore.

 

Now take this all with a grain of salt because I rarely go see live jazz. I used to when I was younger, but was disillusioned that instead of seeing all night jams with Coltrane and the others I'd listened to and read about, I was being asked to $60 (in the 80s) to see someone play the Blue Note for an hour and fifteen minutes only to be escorted out to make way for the customers who paid to see the next set. But when I see an awesome jazz combo play at a wedding or something it's still a great treat.

[RABid]

At some point in the mid to late 80s I was hearing the same thing from the good musicians I knew. You should be listening to jazz. My response was always Why? and they always countered because good musicians listen to jazz. I dont know if that was an 80s thing but I eventually relented. I went at it logically, looked up the Grammy winners for jazz over the past few years and bought a stack of CDs. After about an hour of listening I boxed the CDs and decided that jazz is not for me, even if that meant not being a credible musician.

 

A few years later while browsing in Best Buy I noticed a double memorial album of a jazz musician. I had not heard of the artist but reasoned that if he had a memorial album, especially a double memorial album then he must be good. I bought it and took it home. After my first bad experience I was in no hurry to listen to my new purchase. Plus, it was an album and I had moved to CDs. I was not even sure why I bought it. About 6 months later I was cleaning the house and decided to put the album on. It was not long before I abandoned housework and was just standing in front of the speakers, listening to the music that was speaking to me like no jazz I had heard before. The artist was Monk and I was mad that it took me so long to discover him.

 

Since then I have bought a lot of jazz and much of it has been crap. But it is worth wading through the crap to find gems like Cal Tjader or The Jazz Futures. Overall I think I favor either the older jazz greats or Latin jazz from any era. IMHO jazz has to be spontaneous and free. That seems to be hard to find and living in a small town with no jazz radio makes it even harder.

[orangefunk]

I pretty much like everything old (Bud Powell, Sonny Clark, etc.) and new, acoustic, electronic, etc

 

But jazz has something to offer everyone. Its just that it comes with negative connotations... like classical music does... or any form of arty/non pop music...

 

I spent last weekend with some self confessed jazz haters in a cottage/cabin just outside of Oslo... yet what were they playing on the CD player? Keith Jarrett "My Song" and some trumpet led nu-jazz Norwegian 4tet...

 

 

[Legatoboy]

Personally, and I play alot of other music, find jazz's musical and rhythmic refinement very satisfying. On par with classical music. Not half as much image and hype and 'high emotion' to be burdened with either..... much more human. I think it would do a lot of players good to at least spend some time with it! I don't consider myself a complete jazzer. I think there may be more jazz players out there than people might imagine but that is hard to gauge!