The State of So Called Jazz

     I've been thinking about this topic for a long time so I figured I'd write a little piece with my two cents on the issue. The state of so called Jazz is not a very good state, in my opinion. I've heard all kinds of theories and ideas from people like Nicolas Payton, with his idea that Jazz should be called Black American Music, listened to great newcomers like Kamasi Washington from right here in my town of LA, and listened to extensive and informative interviews with some of the guys from the AACM; people like Roscoe Mitchell, Jack Dejohnette, and Henry Threadgill. What I can say about Jazz right now is that it feels to me like Jazz is dead/and or declining, becoming either lounge and smooth jazz fusion stuff (which is pretty much what LA jazz is all about). If you aren't playing lounge, smooth, or fusion you just don't have a chance to become a well known musician or band in Jazz. I feel like straight-ahead has become drowned out by lounge musicians, who's idea of jazz is to simplify and 'pretty up' the music. People would rather play for the crowd rather than go all out, reaching out for the hidden chord, or extensive real improvisation. A big name that's come up in the media is Kamasi Washington and when I first heard of him I thought,"This is great, a great Black saxophonist from right here in LA, getting fame for playing Jazz". But when I actually heard his music and what he was doing I realized that it ain't really Jazz and he ain't really improvising too much. For one thing he released an album called The Epic that is three hours long. Doing something like that will get you tons of attention, but for him I feel like it was overkill and that the songs ended up all sounding similar-with fuzzed out wah wah bass, 70s Miles Davis era fusion keyboards, and very light-weight horn arrangements. Basically fusion. LA does a lot of fusion. I've seen a lot of it up close and personal at a club in Studio City, called the Baked Potato.
     I really dig the stuff that those musicians and bands do but I wouldn't call it Jazz, its more like rock music with a little bit of improv. I've been to some great shows at the Baked Potato. None of the guys that play there are overwhelmingly famous and its a great experience to watch a band right in front of your face in a small venue. I would say that hardly any 'real' Jazz groups ever play the Baked Potato, yet its considered one of LA's primer Jazz clubs. Now, you're probably wondering who made you the Jazz police? Well, even though I'm a youngin' I consider myself something of a connoisseur of Jazz and I feel like Jazz has to be defined in a certain way, because in today's world Jazz means something different to everybody.
     Here's what I think Jazz is. Jazz is a style of music developed back in the 1920's and earlier, that has a rhythm called swing, with harmonies based on African, modal, and European sounds. But is not limited to just this classification because Jazz had its greatest and most important evolution last in the late 1960's when musicians like John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman created the idea of just playing, sometimes with no rhythm and no set melody, instead just 'going for it'. This lead to a more extensive style that I would dub collective improvisation. The musicians were playing off of each other rather than just a head of a standard, or the changes of a tune. This is what Jazz means to me. A lot of the musicians doing traditional (straight-ahead) Jazz have become older and they've since gone to a more lounge type of playing environments. Whereas the collective improvisers (aka Free Jazz musicians) are playing really anywhere that will have them. I've seen Free Jazz musicians play everywhere from churches to one room buildings in New York to the Library of Congress..
     In an interview with a guy from the Library of Congress Henry Threadgill said it's hard for a musician to make a living and find places to play these days. I would imagine its even more difficult because Threadgill plays such a wild and non-commercial style of Jazz. He basically said that to make a living he ends up playing the same areas over and over again for a while, which for him was in Philly and around New York. You could say that people like Kamasi Washington bring more popularity to Jazz, which is a great thing! But if all the people who are turned onto Jazz think Jazz is like Washington's Jazz they will be sorely mistaken and mislead. But overall it's great to have young people in Jazz who are "spreading the gospel". That's the way I see it. If you're playing music that's related to Jazz, you're helping the cause.
     In the beginning of this rant, I made it seem gloomy and that Jazz hasn't been doing so well. Well sometimes I realize that today's current Jazz artists are just "coasting", which I don't blame them for, because they have to make a living. For example, recently I was checking out some work from guitarist Bill Frisell and he's doing tunes from movies with a young singer, but the singer is so white-bread that everything sounds like something you'd hear in a lounge. Very disappointing. And it was especially lame because they even did "Gold Finger". Not only that but today my dad said he saw the singer Buchelli on TV with some famous Jazz pianist and they were doing tunes from movies as well. It was kind of funny that he told me that. But hey, not all current Jazz is lame and disappointing. Last year around Christmas I saw Brad Meldau's Trio and the Bad Plus. That was a real eye-opening Jazz concert for me. It was probably the most 'authentic' Jazz concert I'd seen since I saw McCoy Tyner play some years before when I lived in Wisconsin. The Bad Plus is probably the best Jazz band you could introduce to your friends that say "I don't like Jazz". They will just eat that shit up. All their works are catchy, memorable, and have great improvisation, especially the latest stuff with Joshua Redman, Dewey Redman's son. They sometimes dabble in playing pop and rock songs, which is cool. In addition, I've seen some great stuff online from saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, John Coltrane's son. I even met one of Coltrane's other sons at my work! It was pretty sick. Anyways, I feel like real Jazz is something that's closer to Free Jazz, which is probably my favorite style of Jazz, other than the straight-ahead stuff of the 1950's and early 1960's. Sometimes I tend to like everything and say "It's all good". But in actuality, when it comes to Jazz, its not. You have to know what to listen for. And you have to realize that even the best of the best have bad nights. I think that with government backing and schools giving instruments out to young kids, Jazz has a bright future. Peter Brotzmann said Jazz will stay strong as long as it "stays away from the bullshit electronics". I've heard other musicians say why would a musician play Jazz if they can make more money playing another style of music? Jazz has a very iffy future. One thing that is problematic is the fact that just to see a Jazz concert in this day and age costs a lot of money, money that a lot of middle and lower income people don't have. Jazz is in some ways becoming like classical music-something of musical elitist snobbery. On the other hand Free Jazz musicians don't play their music for free, they expect to get paid. I think the government should do more to encourage Jazz education in young students and grants for musicians who are keeping the art alive. After all, Jazz is America's greatest art form.