1. Walking Bass Lines - some in the audience simply can not hear the harmony when bass players walk so get bored.
2. Ride Cymbal Swing Beat - some in the audience can't feel the beat and lose interest.
3. The Tunes - jazz musicians often play tunes they like rather than what the audience wants to hear. Some tunes called standards are anything but standard.
4. The complexity of the music - Some jazz musicians are more interested in playing clever than music that feels good.
5. Chord Scale Relationship - jazz has been too much about playing scales over chords in my opinion. Jazz education is to blame for this, but thats a different topic beyond the scope of this blog.
6. Poor Presentation - Many jazz musicians put little or no effort into their presentation. I saw a gig recently at a club and the guitar player (who was leading the band) did not say one word to the audience all night. He set up, played, the packed up. What is up with that!
7. Out There Soloists - some soloists are incredibly difficult to follow. Some play all kinds of out lines that do not relate to the melody (which the audience wasn't familiar with in the first place) and wonder why the audience is not digging the gig.
This is just the beginning of what could be a long list ...
I really believe jazz music can be fresh again. I believe that jazz music at it's best in incredibly exciting, uplifting and relevant. Sadly, the vast majority of people will never hear jazz at it's best and have already made up their mind about what the music is going to be, long before we start. Therefore, it is our responsibility as jazz (for lack of a better term) musicians to win people over and to win the audiences back to the music.
What I think is missing:
1. Fun! Music and jazz was never meant to be super serious. I am not suggesting for one second that people get up and 'take the piss' or don't play well in performances. Rather, I'm saying you have to take care of business, but have fun in doing so, and the audience will like it. They want to see you having fun.
2. Play tunes that people understand and know. The tunes that are now considered jazz standards were once the pop tunes of the day. Some standards have become museum pieces. Play the new stuff - please! However, there is nothing worse that people playing the most recent stuff in a way that is so obscure that no one will recognise the source. This achieves nothing. Some musicians think, I will play this MJ tune, reharmonise it, play it in 7/8 and modulate into a new key for the bridge - then people will love my music and think I am clever. Wrong! Those who like MJ, won't get it, and will hate it. Those who like jazz will think you are doing silly stuff for not playing something they can understand. No one wins.
3. The dance element. Jazz is not an academic sport. It was conceived as dance music. Make the music feel good and you stand a chance - 'it don't mean a thing, if it ain't got that swing'. Right?
I think The Bad Plus has it right in so many ways. What a great concept they have hit upon. I would love to see this happen more often. Oz Noy has a great saying when describing his music - 'It's jazz. It just doesn't sound like it'.
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If you have an opinion about this let me know? I am curious to know what people think of jazz and what can we all do to lift our game as jazz musicians.
Great article Nick. Jazz has only been conceived since about the 1920's, so is a young genre. I think with technology in context to the internet, that jazz can be more accessible and you mentioned more fun to play. I used to play in a guitar trio and the guitarist would only occasionally mention the tune. I think the leader in the group should mention each tune and at mention a artist and album it's from to inform the listener. It's like jazz has a mystical secret language only certain people are allowed to know about. Like jazz musicians keep the harmonic language hidden from everyone. New Zealand has a great jazz scene now and if we can have more jazz festivals and Jazz conferences with a New Zealand jazz society maybe as well to promote Jazz in schools like they do in the USA. Maybe jazz education at a school level may help more.
ReplyDeleteJazz is great fun to play. I love it. I think it has lots of room to grow so the future looks good.
Deleteall jazz is new
ReplyDeleteIf really improvising, if just regurgitating licks then maybe not so much? :)
DeleteI agree in part with many of your points Nick but the solution is less easy to resolve. There is a tension between music as entertainment and music as art and, although they needn't be mutually exclusive, nor need one conform to the requirements of the other. Jazz (fwoabt) has sat across the continuum since before WWII and will continue to. Opera has the same struggle and all these entertainment oriented classical enables are wrestling with the same stuff (now you gotta be sexy to play the violin, I fear). The discussion is not new either: Louis Armstrong struggled with the abstraction of bop and Miles was criticized for his apparent disdain for his audience. It is a good thing he didn't concern himself with those criticisms; his remarkable singularity of purpose allowed him to become one of the highest selling jazz artists and span the continuum. Yet he would have agreed with many of your other points! Greg Osby has some interesting ideas about these problems and there is a very intereting radio interview online as a podcast where he explains the ideas behind his new directions group. He talks about reframing the music by taking it out of the club and into surprising venues. Jason Orme, Eamon Edmundson-Wells and myself have done a number of gigs in supermarkets where we have played in the middle of the soft drink aisle, playing standards with uncompromised energy and love. Regular folk really dig it. I am not sure that people actually hate jazz at all; I think they just don't know how to engage. Same as other art forms. Shakespeare, contemporary art etc. People fear that they don't understand it enough but the truth is you don't need to be a scholar to "get" romeo and Juliet. It just needs to be presented in a way that is authentic energetic and nonthreatening. In short I think we need to stop despising our audience. Make like Ellington and share the love.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I think most of the problem is in the presentation. Many musicians could benefit from thinking about this more. The prime example is Pat Metheny who always presents well (everything but his hair! HA). Pat always has amazing sound, lights, show, band, everything really and he's done well because of it. I think he transcends that term jazz in many ways.
DeleteI'll concede that the term hate I used was a little too harsh to describe, but I have had people tell me they hate Jazz. I'm sure they don't even know what jazz is and have hardly given it a chance, but thats just my take.
Cheers
Hey Nick, sometimes I get really really discouraged when it comes to learning how to play jazz, not just cause it's difficult, but because most non-musicians I know don't even like the "greats" in their most famous original recordings.
ReplyDeleteIf it doesn't have words, I'd venture to guess that 90% of your average listeners will be turned off. As others have mentioned, it comes across as either dated or pompous. There's no winning over some people, and a performer's personality or image or politic seems primary and the music secondary. And, it's a hell of an undertaking in terms of time, stress and resources, when there's no money and appreciation on the other side. Breaking outside the confines of the genera opens a lot of doors, if you can live with whatever compromise. And if you wanna make money I presume there's a downward pressure to play what the layman wants to hear. "FREEBIRD!!!"
I've come to believe that the best reason to learn how to play "jazz" is for one's self. Only problem I have is in making that monumental sacrifice and enduring all that pain for only my own amusement. I'll regret on my deathbed not achieving this goal, but I don't want to live in squalor either.
The only way I've found around this is possibly thinking of it as a means to personal development, as a Buddhist monk hones skills in concentration, focus and insight for no reason other than probing the limits of one's potential.
I agree Darren. Thats exactly why I do this music, cause i love it and it is who I am. Luckily for me I was raised on lots of music so I incorporate those influences. If I didn't I would't be being honest to who I am and that doesn't work either.
DeleteI think there is a lot jazz musicians / promoters etc can do to raise the awareness of this music. Look at the recent Wellington Jazz Festival. It was very well attended. I imagine a lot of that has to do with the power of marketing - so there in lies the secret. I think jazz needs to be marketed better. I think a lot more people would like Jazz if they even heard it or had a chance to experience, especially if in a way they can come to grips with. Someone once said to me ' Whats the point in having the cure for cancer if you can't tell anyone'.