[78-L] The Future of Jazz?

[Steven C. Barr]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve Ramm" <steveramm78l at hotmail.com>
> I thought the jazz collectors would enjoy this editorial column in today's 
> Wall St. Journal.
>
The problem facing "jazz" is, in fact, simple! The term "jazz" has been 
expanded to include
MANY unrelated forms of music...everything from commercial "Dixieland," 
through "New
Orleans Revival" (still played in Toronto!?), through "Be-Bop" (available on 
reissue
records, at least?!) to "Avant Garde" (free of conventions like using a 
single time
signature, or playing in one pre-defined "key"...?!)

In the nineteen-teens, "jazz" was an improvised-around-a-structure form of 
music,
generally played by Black bands! During the ensuing decade, "jazz" referred 
to
ANY up-tempo music...even if NOT improvised "on the spot!" This was the
"jazz age"...so everything but waltzes (still in demand?!) was 
called/considered
"jazz"...and Paul Whiteman's ponderous arranged efforts netted him the 
dubious
title of "King Of Jazz!" By the forties, "swing" had become the "genre du 
jour,"
and a few artists/bands were still trying to promote "Old original New 
Orleans
jazz" (still being played in and around that city then...?!). The next step 
was
"Be-Bop"...a (theoretical) reply to the standardization inherent in "Swing!"

Then we got post-modern jazz...loosely based on the idea that once one had
dispensed with things like "following a specific melody line" (on the sheet
music?!)...other "boring" concepts like 4/4 or 3/4 time...or playing in the
same key...could also be discarded!! The result asks for establishing a
musical "dividing line" between a bunch of players (or monkeys?!) playing
"avant garde" jazz...as opposed to a random bunch of parties playing
instruments totally at random...?!

Comment ca va?!

Steven C. Barr