Don't get me wrong because I'm not here to criticize the vast musical spectrum which is Jazz but simply come up with a single reason on the demise of Jazz, especially after 1970s.
I think, Jazz stopped 'speaking' to the people. Jazz didn’t address the social issues in a time of great social upheaval which was 1960s. Jazz turned into an elitist music, played in posh night clubs with mostly well-off attendance. Jazz also being an essentially African American music made no contribution to Civil Rights movement or echo their concerns, except some personal attempts on the parts of musicians, like Louis Armstrong but nothing musically (the song “Strange fruit” by Billy Holiday” is a small excption). There were a few attempts by some Jazz musicians who tried to fuse in African music with Jazz, but most people could not associate with that sort of music for its 'black power premise'. On the other hand other music genres like rock, heavy metal and R&B stepped in – while Pop became the music of masses. These other music genres, rock in particular addressed social issues, the psychedelic crowd of 1960 and 70s and most importantly focused on the young people, the most important demographic since 1960.
Great Jazz musicians like Miles Davis mistook the rock phenomena as simply a good way to make money. Hence Jazz fusion was created. Bitches Brew, more conspicuously with its cover is an overt attempt by Miles Davis to attract the psychedelic crowd, but musically I feel Bitches Brew is pretensions, hollow and lacks the magic which was the acoustic works of Miles Davis. It is also not surprising that not only Miles Davis failed to gain popular acceptance for his fusion attempts, but he was also branded quite correctly as ‘sold out’.
Then, there was the Latin Jazz forms like Bossa Nova which to put it simply is a 'happy' and 'relaxed' sub genre of jazz; however, totally out of tune with the masses of Latin American people, and their poverty and brutal existence with many dictators and social injustice abound at the time and still in Latin American countries. How come those great musical geniuses like Antonio Carlos Jobim failed to connect with Latin American masses is beyond me
Perhaps an art form dies when it stops speaking to people. That is exactly what happened to Jazz.
These days Jazz is the music of Audiophiles and ‘baby boomer’ men (once head bangers of heavy metal concerts, quite ironic). Diana Krall and Nora Jones are ‘hot’ among the above mentioned crowd, and dare I say Kenny G is also very popular among most people. Diana Krall is talented but then again is she truly the inheritor of the Jazz legacy, unfortunately not. Nora Jones is a carefully marketed product to the middle aged baby boomer men (with all due respect to her fans).
The main reason for writing this long and boring post is my frustration with lack of quality contemporary Jazz musicians and the music itself. It’s all good and dandy to listen to old classics, and their rebirths in different forms (Kind of Blue in 5.1, I can never get over that), but like the digitally created Dinosaurs of Discovery Channel, they might amaze and look real; nevertheless, it is not hard to know that they’re dead – for a long time now, and you will never see one in real life again (clumsy analogy but that’s the best I could come up with it).
Don’t flame me, reassure me and let me know what you think. If you love Jazz, I’m sure you’re quite opinionated about it like I’m.
I think, Jazz stopped 'speaking' to the people. Jazz didn’t address the social issues in a time of great social upheaval which was 1960s. Jazz turned into an elitist music, played in posh night clubs with mostly well-off attendance. Jazz also being an essentially African American music made no contribution to Civil Rights movement or echo their concerns, except some personal attempts on the parts of musicians, like Louis Armstrong but nothing musically (the song “Strange fruit” by Billy Holiday” is a small excption). There were a few attempts by some Jazz musicians who tried to fuse in African music with Jazz, but most people could not associate with that sort of music for its 'black power premise'. On the other hand other music genres like rock, heavy metal and R&B stepped in – while Pop became the music of masses. These other music genres, rock in particular addressed social issues, the psychedelic crowd of 1960 and 70s and most importantly focused on the young people, the most important demographic since 1960.
Great Jazz musicians like Miles Davis mistook the rock phenomena as simply a good way to make money. Hence Jazz fusion was created. Bitches Brew, more conspicuously with its cover is an overt attempt by Miles Davis to attract the psychedelic crowd, but musically I feel Bitches Brew is pretensions, hollow and lacks the magic which was the acoustic works of Miles Davis. It is also not surprising that not only Miles Davis failed to gain popular acceptance for his fusion attempts, but he was also branded quite correctly as ‘sold out’.
Then, there was the Latin Jazz forms like Bossa Nova which to put it simply is a 'happy' and 'relaxed' sub genre of jazz; however, totally out of tune with the masses of Latin American people, and their poverty and brutal existence with many dictators and social injustice abound at the time and still in Latin American countries. How come those great musical geniuses like Antonio Carlos Jobim failed to connect with Latin American masses is beyond me
Perhaps an art form dies when it stops speaking to people. That is exactly what happened to Jazz.
These days Jazz is the music of Audiophiles and ‘baby boomer’ men (once head bangers of heavy metal concerts, quite ironic). Diana Krall and Nora Jones are ‘hot’ among the above mentioned crowd, and dare I say Kenny G is also very popular among most people. Diana Krall is talented but then again is she truly the inheritor of the Jazz legacy, unfortunately not. Nora Jones is a carefully marketed product to the middle aged baby boomer men (with all due respect to her fans).
The main reason for writing this long and boring post is my frustration with lack of quality contemporary Jazz musicians and the music itself. It’s all good and dandy to listen to old classics, and their rebirths in different forms (Kind of Blue in 5.1, I can never get over that), but like the digitally created Dinosaurs of Discovery Channel, they might amaze and look real; nevertheless, it is not hard to know that they’re dead – for a long time now, and you will never see one in real life again (clumsy analogy but that’s the best I could come up with it).
Don’t flame me, reassure me and let me know what you think. If you love Jazz, I’m sure you’re quite opinionated about it like I’m.
