Can Jazz Be saved? - Yamaha Education Friends

I've just read David Prever's excellent blog on Jazz FM's site where he refers to a blog entitled ‘Can Jazz be Saved’ written by Terry Teachout, about a decline in jazz in the USA.

My thoughts on the future of jazz, in the UK, are that maybe the 'jazz' word has become a problem, not for current jazz musicians and audiences but for those who don't know what jazz is. A bit like the 'folk' word in UK roots music. This has nothing to do with the quality of the some of the excellent music that the label, jazz, encapsulates but - to put it into marketing terms: the jazz 'brand' image has an image problem! If a successful multinational company owned the name 'jazz' I'm sure it would be pulling its hair out by now and changing it, rather as happened with the Skoda brand, for example.

We use labels as a short-hand way of describing something. The label, chair, means something that you can sit on. And while there are lots of kinds of chairs, the basic concept remains constant enough for us not to have to describe a particular chair every time we want to refer to one!

But the breadth of music that the word 'jazz' can now be used to describe, which has grown and grown for almost 100 years, is now so broad as to require further explanation in almost every situation. Because of this the public gets confused: "If I go to a jazz gig, what will I get?" And because it's so variable I believe that many decide not to risk it, especially if, like me, they've been disappointed by one or two jazz gigs where the music seemed so incommunicative and formulaic. And because of that experience, they may then miss out on the vast range of jazz performances that are truly engaging, enlightening and entertaining.

But there's also another problem: the jazz community must decide whether it wants to be primarily in 'preservation mode' or in 'development mode'. Of course both are inextricably linked and are on the same timeline but it's a matter of direction. Preservation mode looks backward; development mode looks towards the future - the journey that jazz music and musicians are on, now.

Let's not forget that the jazz language - its syntax, grammar, phrasing, dialect, etc - can be found in almost every sub-genre of popular music - rap, rock, hip-hop, trance, pop, gospel, reggae, funk, etc. But it seems to me that the most amazing thing about jazz - which inspires so many people - is improvising: the ability to seemingly to pull an endless stream of musical rabbits out of musical hats during a gig, creating something wonderful musical magic out of thin air, which can equally enthrall, captivate, anger, confuse, excite, make us want to dance, cry, laugh and sing!!

We need to help young musicians develop their skills so they can take the music on their own personal journeys. In other words, as jazz 'parents' we need to let our jazz 'offspring' go their own way! At the same time we need to be bold in ignoring and even countering the lazy kind of musical criticism which, in the absence of real understanding, finds it easier to dismiss all improvising as vacuous 'noodling' and then attempts to galvanise readers or listeners to rally behind this misinformed view. This kind of criticism says more about the author than the music being attacked and creates an obstacle for would-be musical creatives, who may feel that improvising is somehow 'uncool', just because a journalist tells them so. Instead we all need to write about and review excellent improvising and explain to the public - especially those who are interested in jazz but have no idea what to listen to or listen for - why we think it's great. In this way we can help remove some of the barriers which may prevent audiences for this music from growing. This will encourage young people to improvise and maybe explore earlier incarnations of jazz. And in so doing they'll hopefully make the their own kind of jazz and grow their own new audiences, who will then encounter music with a strong jazz DNA, whatever that music may be called in another 100 years.

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