From: msaleski@tegra.com (Mark Saleski)
Subject: Re: JAZZ IS DYING:HELP!!
Organization: Tegra-Varityper, Inc. Billerica, MA
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 13:56:21 GMT

In article <14OCT199220360952@reg.triumf.ca> fwj@reg.triumf.ca (JONES,FRED_W.) writes:


  >    Well, this rather provocative "trial balloon" definitely got a few salvos
  >    fired at it, as well as some thoughtful replies.  Several people ably
  >    pointed out that jazz is certainly not dead and that there are some
  >    musicians out there who are forward-looking, albeit unknown to some of
  >    us, including me.  But what about the musicians we all _have_ heard of?
  >    A disproportionate number seem to be concerned only with traditional
  >    forms and instrumentation, as compared to the sixties and seventies
  >    when there was a tremendous sense of expansiveness in music.  Those days
  >    were an exciting period to listen to jazz, because there was so much 
  >    exploration: a departure from traditional "song" material into longer 
  >    forms, use of electronics and electric and other non-traditional instruments,
  >    incorporation of elements from rock and classical music, to name a few
  >    things that were being done -- not by mavericks but by established artists,
  >    and available on the airwaves for all to hear.
  > 
  >    Today, the jazz programming seems to be polarized: you either get 24-hour
  >    Yellowjackets/Kenny G "Happy Jazz" interspersed with New Age, or material that 
  >    seems to be mired firmly in the idiom of the 30's and 40's.  I hope those of
  >    you in the larger cities have it better, but here in Vancouver the only full-
  >    time jazz station, pulled in fuzzily from south of the border, suffers from
  >    what I call the 4-B syndrome: a steady diet of Bebop, Ballads, BigBand and
  >    Blues, giving you the impression that jazz has stayed about the same since the
  >    1950's.  I like all these types of music, but if this is really all that 
  >    listeners want to hear, and artists want to produce, them I am disappointed.

         i think that the "happy jazz" station phenomenon has more to do with the
         demographics-oriented programming style of commercial radio than with a
         lack of interesting material. it seems like college (and to a lesser
         extent, public) radio has a lot to offer here. i listen to the jazz show
         on WERS from Emerson College in Boston and am pleasantly surprized at some
         of the things i've heard. (not that this is going to help you out any ;-)  )

         unfortunately, jazz programming without a strict playlist is quite rare.
  > 
  >    This morning, a d.j. announced he was going to play a cut from a new Gary
  >    Burton c.d., and I got my hopes up, but they were dashed when I heard
  >    "My Funny Valentine" in a completely traditional and predictable rendering.  
  >    Great song, beautifully interpreted by so many others: why wear it out?
  >    This is one example of the feeling of constraint that to me seems present
  >    in the music today.  I hope I'm wrong, and that the real problem is just
  >    that the really open-minded and forward-looking musicians are just not
  >    getting exposure like they used to.

         ya, i keep telling myself that it's just a sign of the conservatism of
         the times.

-- 
 Mark Saleski                                               msaleski@tegra.com
"Unfortunately, life contains an unavoidable element of unpredictability"
        -David Lynch "The Angriest Dog in the World"