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<$11.08.2005$>
JAZZ... S. O. S.
| Is jazz in trouble? That's the first of several questions I posed to a handful of music industry veterans and musicians (several of whom chose not to respond.) Is jazz 'sending out an S.O.S'? Recording artist Laylah Hathaway observes: "I think all soul music is in trouble... but then again I'm a bit of a cynic..." But will jazz survive the new music technology or will digital sequencing, downloading, CD burning, cancer stricken major labels, ravenous monopolistic corporate radio ease jazz right into oblivion like a fifth grader rubs the chalk off the blackboard with one of those cool little erasers some of you used to throw across the room when the teacher wasn't looking? Laylah continues: It is hard to predict what effect downloading has on jazz... I feel like most people who have an affinity for these records also understand how badly needed the support for the artist is." That doesn't sound so cynical after all, Laylah. More optimism: "Satellite radio seems to be one of the last places to go for music! I love my XM. Where else at 3:15 in the afternoon can you turn on the radio and hear Bud Powell uninterrupted?" "Satellite radio may be our saving grace," says songstress Alyson Williams. In just about 25 years jazz music will celebrate its centennial. It may be hard to believe but Hip Hop is in its 30's, Rock & Roll in its 50's and soon we will have enjoyed 100 years of an original American art form, first made popular by black folks in towns like New Orleans, Kansas City and St. Louis. It's been left for dead a number of times throughout its history but it survived '1-2-3 o'clock 4 o'clock Rock', Elvis and Little Richard. The Beatles couldn't silence it. It even survived Smokey's 'goin' to a go-go', Stax and the Sound of Philadelphia. Curtis Blow, Grand Master Flash and all of the Furious Five couldn't send jazz to its final resting place. The fact is, each of these other genres have at one point or another borrowed from the jazz attitude or the music itself but the question remains, will jazz survive another 25 years. The bigger question may be, is the music industry in trouble; but the deeper question is whether or not there is still a need for - or more importantly - a place for jazz or anything else in America that requires the use of perfectly good God given gray matter. "It's music that tries to make you think", says bassist Tracy Wormworth. In an effort to make our world more 'user friendly' have we inadvertently numbed down our 'culture' to a point where jazz and books and movies that have more dialogue than chase scenes are no longer desirable or marketable. One of our respondents referred to this as the 'de-evolution of mankind'. Perhaps! Is it possible that western consumerism has reached a point of gorging itself on what is 'new and easy' faster than a Bird riff over Donna Lee? At the root of the music industry dilemma is the modern ideology that anything that anyone can access electronically or digitally becomes their own personal property like 'finder's keepers'. It totally rips to shreds the notion that original ideas can be owned and protected; that the originator has a right to be compensated for the use of their work. Try visiting a nearby Blockbuster and selecting a few CD's and DVD's; then try leaving without paying and see how far you get. Do you have a right to own an idea? Can you claim a poem or a melody as yours to have and to protect by copyright laws? How can you protect copyrights in a free access environment? I chuckle at the thought of someone filing a claim for their stolen collection of burned CD's or their new iPod full of free downloads. Are all original creative works immediately public domain due to 21st century technology? How then do songwriters and lyricists get paid for their new songs? How do recording artists get paid for their recorded performances? How about publishing companies and record companies and retailers? What about agents, managers, promoters, bands, venues and on and on and on? In fact, if you can't be compensated for creative endeavors how do you justifiably pursue it as a career? Why would a talent youngster aspire to become a musician or songwriter? Why would a parent pay for their child to study music? Why teach music? Why have music programs and departments in primary schools and universities? Why manufacture new instruments in the first place? The simple fact is that every corner of the music industry from production to retail is hustling to redefine and retool for survival. Not to worry, I'm confident Clear Channel has this all worked out. No doubt jazz shares this uncertain future with other genres of music however, what makes jazz so unique is that while there are melodies to protect and recordings worthy of royalties each live jazz performance intentionally yields an entirely different take on given melodic themes. Imagine 50 Cent or Jay-Z freesyling at every show. Some of the most exciting rap I've experienced has been freestyle face-offs. That's what jazz is, freestyle around a given theme. Imagine a play or a movie with a different outcome every show. That's jazz. Even Barbra Streisand says of her recordings: 'every take is different'. In jazz if a cat were to play the same solo over the changes of a tune night after night his skills or at least his creativity would quickly come into question. Mass appeal is a sing-a-long like "We Are the World". A jazz artist would turn it on its head so you couldn't sing along. Jazz musicians search for countless ways to tell a musical story. Wynton's Lincoln Center band could take Beethoven's Fifth and twist and turn into a new work of art. The New York Philharmonic Orchestra would intentionally perform it essentially the same night after night, year after year. Both require mastery and amazing skill levels but with jazz, part of the skill set is re-inventing. You have to hear it and judge for yourself. Jazz musicians could do the same thing with "Amazing Grace", "Bridge Over Trouble Water" or "America the Beautiful". It wouldn't matter the tune or title. That's what makes it what it is. What then of jazz music where there are no solos over the changes or free interpretation of the theme beyond what was recorded and heard on FM radio. Even worse, what if record labels and radio actually continue to dictate the creative output of an entire community or 'artists' to a greater extent than they have for many years, rendering a paralyzing blow to the very freedom of expression that is the backbone of jazz. Keyboardist, Marcus Johnson notes: "It's not something to be controlled." When I asked Tracy if jazz is in trouble she says: "It depends on what you call jazz", underscoring the point that jazz is suffering from an identity crisis. It runs the risk of death by its own hands - suicide. "There has been a struggle going on between the old school players and the new school players", Marcus continued. Songstress Alyson Williams notes: radio dictates jazz versus smooth jazz. I love Marvin Gaye and Lionell Ritchie but they're not jazz and are they programmed in place of new jazz talent and product?" The struggle has gone on for many years but this is the first time the debate is not over the nature of interpretative expression but whether to express at all. Jazz, like classical music, struggles to find its audience. Alyson says: Hopefully there will always be an audience, but will it sustain new talent? She goes on to say, "As audiences mature their tastes mature." Laylah observes: "I don't expect in 100 years that jazz will be like baroque music. For those of us that this expression speaks to, we will carry and pass it on." Jazz always seeks to mine an audience with a mind and an appetite for challenge and constant change. Jazz is all about change. It thrives on change so it will survive. Marcus says: "It's up to those who love jazz in all its forms to save it. We're the only ones who can." To a large extent jazz it is defined by change, it thrives on it, so... save the S.O.S. for the less buoyant - jazz may very well be unsinkable. Article also published in Black Men's Magazine July/Aug 2005 |
