] IN AMERICA:
 

WHO’S LISTENING
 

~cott DeVeaux 

Research Division Report #31 
Jazz in America: 

Who "s Listening?
 
Jazz in America:
 

Who’s Listening?
 

Scott DeVeaux 

Research Division Report #31 

National Endowment for the Arts
 

Seven Locks Press
 

Carson, California
 
 

 

Jazz in America: Who’s Listening? is Report #31 in a series on matters of interest to the 

arts community commissioned by the Research Division of the National Endowment 

for the Arts. 

Cover: Wynton Marsalis and Betty Carter in a performance at Lincoln Center. 

Photo by Jack Vartoogian. 

First printed 1995 

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data 

DeVeaux, Scott Knowles. 

Jazz in America: who’s listening? / Scott DeVeaux. 

p. cm. -- (Research Division report / National Endowment for the 

Arts; #31) 

Based on data from the 1992 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts sponsored 

by the National Endowment for the Arts. 

ISBN 0-929765-40-0 (paperback) 

1. Jazz audiences--United States--Statistics. I. National Endowment for the Arts. 

II. Title. III. Series: Research Division report (National Endowment for the Arts. 

Research Division); 31. 

ML3508.D48 1995 

781.65’0973--dc20 95-4463 

CIP 

MN 

Manufactured in the United States of America 

Seven Locks Press
 

Carson, California
 

1-800-354-5348
 
Table of Contents 

List of Figures 

List of Tables 

Introduction/Executive Summary 

PART I: 

PART I1: 

PART II1: 

The Potential Jazz Audience
 

Size of the Jazz Audience
 

Demographic Characteristics of the Jazz Audience
 

Other Findings
 

The Jazz Audience: How Big Is It and 

How Does It Participate? 

Issues and Problems 

Attendance 

Recordings 

Radio 

Television/Video 

Cross-tabulations 

Demographic Characteristics of the Jazz Audience 

Education 

Income 

Age 

Race 

Gender 

Geography 

Demographic Profiles by Frequency of Attendance 

Frequency of attendance and race and gender 

Frequency of attendance and age 

Frequency of attendance and education 

Frequency of attendance and income 

Demographic Profile of Subscribers to Jazz Magazines 

Musical Preferences 

Those Who "Like Jazz"
 

Those Who Like Jazz "Best of All"
 

Preferences for Jazz in Relation to Other Musical Genres
 

vi
 

vii
 

1
 

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9
 

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V
 
vi I Jazz in America 

Education 

Income 

Race 

Gender 

Cross-tabulations 

PART IV: Performers 

PART V: Music Education 

PART VI: Leisure Activities 

PART VII:
 

Appendix:
 

Notes 

Conclusions 

Survey of Public Participation in the Arts
 

Questionnaire, 1992
 

About the Author 

Other Reports on the 1992 SPPA 

Figures 

Figure 1. 

Figure 2. 

Figure 3. 

Figure 4. 

Figure 5. 

Figure 6. 

Figure 7a. 

Figure 7b. 

Figure 8. 

Figure 9. 

1992 Frequencies of Attendance for Benchmark 

Arts Activities
 

Jazz Attendance and Education in 1982 and 1992
 

1992 Education Distributions of Jazz Audiences
 

College Graduate Component of 1992 Audiences for
 

Benchmark Arts Activities (Percent of Total Audience)
 

1992 Racial Distributions of Jazz Audiences 

1992 Media Participation in Jazz by Geographic Region 

1992 Frequency of Attendance and Age 

1992 Frequency of Attendance and Age (Alternative 

Presentation) 

Musical Taste and Education, 1992 (Percentages Who 

Reported "Liking" Various Genres) 

Musical Taste and Age, 1992 (Percentages Who 

Reported "Liking" Various Genres) 

37
 

38
 

39
 

39
 

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4O 
Table of Contents I vii
 

Tables 

Table 1.
 

Table 2.
 

Table 3. 

Table 4. 

Table 5.
 

Table 6.
 

Table 7.
 

Table 8.
 

Table 9.
 

Table 10.
 

Table 11.
 

Table 12.
 

Table 13.
 

Table 14. 

Table 15. 

Table 16. 

Table 17. 

Table 18. 

Table 19. 

Table 20. 

Jazz Venues in 1982 and 1992 

Frequency of Attendance, Gender, and Race 

(Unweighted) 

Age Distribution of Respondents Who Liked Jazz 

in 1982 and 1992 

Percentages of Respondents Who Liked the 

10 Most Popular Musical Genres 

Percentages of Respondents Who Liked 

a Musical Genre Best of All 

Musical Genres Liked by Black Americans 

Musical Genres Liked by White Americans 

Musical Genres Liked Best by Black Americans 

Musical Genres Liked Best by White Americans 

Black Audiences for Musical Genres 

Gender Preferences for Male-Dominated Musical Genres 

Gender Preferences for Female-Dominated Musical Genres 

Percentage of Those Who Like Jazz Who Also Like 

Other Musical Genres, Including Comparison with 

Population as a Whole 

Musical Genre Preferences of Jazz Performance 

Attenders, Compared with Population as a Whole 

Musical Genre Preferences of Listeners to Jazz Radio, 

Compared with Population as a Whole 

Musical Genre Preferences of Listeners to Jazz 

Recordings, Compared with Population as a Whole 

Jazz Performance Attendance in Order of Genre Preference 

Listeners to Jazz Radio in Order of Genre Preference 

Listeners to Jazz Recordings in Order of Genre Preference 

Jazz Performance Attenders’ Participation in Other 

Leisure Activities, Compared with Population as a Whole 

11
 

29
 

34
 

36
 

37
 

41
 

41
 

42
 

43
 

43
 

44
 

44
 

45
 

46
 

46
 

47
 

48
 

49
 

5O
 

55
 
Introduction/Executive Summary 

i

n 1992, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) funded a broad-based 

statistical investigation into the audiences for various art forms in the United 

States. The Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA) for 1992 was the 

third such survey over the past decade.1 As in the two earlier surveys (conducted 

in 1982 and 1985), the 1992 survey listed jazz as one of seven "benchmark" arts 

activities. It gathered detailed information on the size and demographic characteristics of the jazz audience: those adult Americans who attend jazz events, 

participate in jazz through the media, perform jazz, or simply say they like the 

idiom. 

This monograph examines the data from the 1992 survey and provides a 

context for interpretation. Many items are compared with the findings from the 

1982 SPPA.2 The information provided by the SPPAs, it must be emphasized, 

does not distinguish between potentially conflicting definitions of jazz--between, for example, the conventional definition of the "jazz tradition" favored 

by educators, critics, and the arts establishment, and the recent pop-oriented 

styles often referred to as "contemporary jazz." (Traditional jazz is nothing if 

not contemporary, with artists creating new music and charting new territory 

every year.) The SPPA figures should be understood as reliable data regarding 

the aggregate audience for jazz in all of its current manifestations. The respondents defined jazz as they saw fit. 

The Potential Jazz Audience 

The potential audience for jazz has grown significantly. About one-third of 

American adults (up from 26 percent in 1982) reported that they "liked jazz," 

and about 5 percent (up from 3 percent in 1982) reported that they liked jazz 

"best of all" musical genres. In 1992, 25 percent of adult Americans expressed 

a desire to attend jazz performances more often than they do now, compared 

with 18 percent in 1982. 

Only half of those who preferred jazz to any other musical form attended a 

jazz event during the previous year. Supply may have been a limitation, but 

there are few data on changes in the number of opportunities to participate in 

jazz. Anecdotal evidence indicates a gradual shift from private commercial 

venues, such as night clubs, to public sites, such as civic auditoriums and 

colleges. Record companies have greatly expanded their jazz output, focusing, 
2 I Jazz in America 

surprisingly, on the "authentic" kind of jazz as well as on its easily marketed 

"accessible" counterpart. Commercial and public radio have expanded jazz 

programming, and there are a few all-jazz stations. A jazz cable channel may be 

established in 1995. 

Size of the Jazz Audience 

In 1992, approximately 10 percent of adult Americans (19.7 million) 

attended a jazz performance during the previous year, and 20 percent listened 

to a jazz recording. These figures are approximately the same as those reported 

for 1982. But 22 percent watched jazz on television in some form (broadcast or 

videotape), up from 18 percent in 1982; and 28 percent listened to jazz radio, 

a dramatic increase over the 18 percent a decade earlier. The growth in jazz radio 

is attributable in part to the spread of new pop-jazz formats (e.g., New Adult 

Contemporary) on commercial radio and to the increased popularity of more 

traditional forms of jazz on public broadcasting. 

Cross-tabulations of the 1992 SPPA data show that most of those who 

attend jazz performances also participate in jazz through the media at a rate three 

times that of the population as a whole. Of those who attend jazz performances, 

76 percent listen to jazz on the radio, 67 percent listen to jazz recordings, and 

61 percent watch jazz on some form of television. About a third of those who 

listen to jazz recordings also attend concerts. 

The 1992 survey provides, for the first time, data on the frequency of 

attendance. Those who attended a jazz performance during the previous year 

did so an average of 2.9 times--higher than comparable rates for any of the 

other benchmark performing arts. But a large majority of those attending jazz 

events did so less frequently than this average: 44 percent attended only once, 

while an additional 26 percent attended only twice. Thus, a small percentage 

of the jazz audience forms a disproportionately large share of the total number 

of attendees. Even so, the total number of attendances at jazz events was nearly 

as large as that for classical music. 

Demographic Characteristics of the Jazz Audience 

The overall profile reveals an audience base that is affluent, well educated, 

youthful, and ethnically diverse. The frequency-of-attendance data show that 

the audience that frequently participates in jazz is strikingly male, well educated, 

well off, and black, in comparison with the general adult population. These 

findings are consistent with readership surveys by jazz magazines. 
Introduction/Executive Summary I 3 

Participation in jazz correlates strongly with education and income. Nearly 

half of those attending jazz performances, for example, are college graduates; 

over three-quarters have had some college education. Those earning more than 

$50,000 a year are more than twice as likely to attend performances as those 

earning less than $25,000. In this respect, the audience profile for jazz resembles 

that of the other benchmark arts activities, for which the highest rates of 

participation are found among the most affluent and highly educated. 

The jazz audience is predominantly youthful, especially when compared 

with the audiences for the other benchmark arts activities. Over two-thirds of 

those attending jazz performances are under 45, with a peak in the age group 

of 25 to 34. But comparison with the 1982 figures shows a distinct greying 

trend, with decreases in nearly all forms of jazz participation or preference in 

the 18-to-24 age group compensated by increases in groups over age 34. The 

1992 SPPA data show a striking increase in the participation in jazz through 

the media by respondents 75 and older. A possible explanation is that by 1992 

this group had long been exposed to jazz during the years when musical tastes 

are likely to be formed. 

The demographic profile of the audience with respect to gender and race 

reveals other qualities unique to jazz. Participation rates are consistently higher 

for men than for women; although men make up only 48 percent of the adult 

population in the United States, the audience for most forms of participation 

in jazz is 52 to 54 percent male. In contrast, in allother benchmark arts activities, 

participation rates are higher for women than for men. Similarly, participation 

rates for African Americans are consistently higher than for white Americans; 

although blacks make up 11 percent of the adult population, between 16 and 

20 percent of the audience for various forms of participation in jazz is black. 

Jazz is unique among the benchmark activities in being derived from African 

American traditions. 

The statistics on frequency of attendance and on those who prefer jazz to 

all other musical genres provide a way of focusing on the characteristics of the 

most loyal and intense sector of the jazz audience. Within this small but 

influential group, the findings with regard to race and gender, noted above for 

the jazz audience as a whole, become sharper, with males and African Americans 

showing strikingly high rates of involvement. Nearly a quarter of those who 

attend as many as nine jazz performances per year are black, and three-fifths are 

male. Approximately a third of those who report liking jazz "best of all" are 

black, and two-thirds are male. These findings are corroborated by demographic 

surveys conducted by major jazz specialty magazines, which find men and 

African Americans disproportionately represented among their readership. 
4 I Jazz in America 

Other Findings 

 ̄ In 1992, approximately 1.7 percent of adult Americans reported "performing or rehearsing" jazz over the previous year. Less than half this number 

(0.8 percent) performed jazz in public--roughly the same percentage 

reported in the 1982 SPPA. Performers are predominantly male, white 

(although blacks and Asians are somewhat more likely to perform jazz than 

whites), and youthful (71 percent under the age of 45). Ninety-three percent 

of the jazz performers have had some formal musical education. 

 ̄ Although jazz retains a multiracial audience, it enjoys particular support in 

the black community. More than half (54 percent) of the adult African 

American population reports liking jazz, compared with only a third (32 

percent) of whites. Roughly 16 percent of African Americans like jazz "best 

of all"--only religious music captured a larger percentage--compared with 

4 percent of whites. 

 ̄ The audiences for jazz and classical music overlap to a considerable extent: 

roughly a third of those who attend performances of one genre also attend 

performances of the other. 

 ̄ Those who attend jazz performances are more likely than the population as 

a whole to participate in a wide range of leisure activities, such as movies, 

exercise, sports, or charity work. 
The Jazz Audience: How Big Is It 

and How Does It Participate? 

Issues and Problems 

The figures in the SPPA report the participation of adult Americans in jazz 

through several different means: attendance at live events, listening to radio 

and recordings, watching performances on TV (via broadcasts or videotape), 

and performing. The sheer numbers of those who participated in jazz in some 

form are both impressive and encouraging. But such aggregate figures must be 

treated with caution because they mask important distinctions within the jazz 

audience that anyone attempting to interpret these data should bear in mind. 

The first is a consideration shared by other arts surveyed: the distinction 

between the casual consumer and the dedicated supporter of the arts. The 

aggregate jazz audience represents the broadest possible interpretation of "arts 

participation"--including casual, passive, or even unintentional listening to jazz 

through any medium. Out of the broadest possible audience of approximately 

185 million adult Americans, about a third (34 percent), or roughly 63 million, 

say they "like jazz." Of these, no more than one in seven (5 percent of the 

broadest possible audience, or 9.5 million) reports liking jazz "best of all." And 

of those who preferred jazz to all other musical genres, less than half(44 percent) 

actually attended a jazz event over the past year. In other words, the more 

purposeful supporters of an art form--the regular concert goers, record buyers, 

and radio listeners that one ordinarily associates with the concept of "audience"--undoubtedly constitute a fraction of the total reported jazz audience, 

and probably a small fraction at that. 

Consider, for example, the statistics on frequency of attendance. The aggregate figure for the average number of attendances per attender for jazz is 

encouraging. It is, in fact, higher for jazz than for any other performing art 

sampled in the SPPA: 2.9 (as opposed to 2.6 for classical music, 2.4 for theater, 

2.3 for musicals, 1.7 for opera and ballet). This brings the "total number of 

attendances" for jazz very close to the total attendances at classical music 

performances (57.1 million for jazz, 60.3 million for classical music). And yet, 

for all art forms surveyed, the overwhelming majority of attendances were 

casual--only once or twice a year. Because the numbers attending decline sharply 

with frequency, average attendance rates can be misleading. Figure 1 shows the 

number of times participants attended for all benchmark arts activities. 
 

6 I Jazz in America 

FIGURE 1. 1992 Frequencies of Attendance for 

Benchmark Arts Activities 

80­

70­

60­

50-


Jazz Classical Opera Musicals Plays Ballet Dance 

Music 

The distinction between the casual and dedicated participant is significant 

insofar as the demographic profile changes. Generalizations that one might 

make on the basis of aggregate figures may not accurately reflect the characteristics of those who do the most to support an art form. Data on frequency of 

attendance and the portion of the SPPA in which respondents are invited to say 

which genre of music they like "best of all" provide a limited means of assessing 

the nature and extent of the dedicated jazz audience. 

A second consideration has to do with the divergent and potentially 

conflicting definitions that lurk within the broad label "jazz." This consideration 

unfortunately has no easy solution. As with the earlier SPPAs, the 1992 SPPA 

avoids entangling itself in the possibly murky question of what "jazz" might 

mean. Rather than guiding participants toward a particular interpretation, the 

SPPA relies entirely on the technique of "respondent identification," allowing 

each individual to apply his or her own definition of jazz to the question. 

Respondents are simply asked whether they have attended a jazz event, listened 

to jazz on the radio, watched jazz on television or video, and so forth. Not until 

the end of the survey, in the section on music preferences, is any clue given that 

jazz is a genre distinct from, say, "blues/rhythm and blues," "soul," "big band," 

or "rock." 
The Jazz Audience: How Big Is It and How Does It Participate? I 7 

This all-inclusive definition is useful as a gross indicator of the relationship 

of American audiences with jazz. And yet, as the marketplace shows, consumer 

taste may be much more finely differentiated. Audiences may identify less with 

jazz as a whole than with one or more of its subgroupings. The sheer number 

and variety of genres can be bewildering. "In jazz, qualifiers rule," reports 

Billboard in a 1992 article on the state of jazz: "traditional, mainstream, 

electric, contemporary, straight-ahead, fusion, avant-garde.’’3 

How to sort through this morass of conflicting definitions? Rather than 

examine the musical characteristics that might separate these categories, I 

propose to draw upon a useful distinction made recently by Richard Crawford 

that focuses instead on attitudes toward music by both musicians and their 

audiences. According to Crawford, these fall into two broad categories. The 

first, accessibility, is "a statement of priorities. Accessibility seeks out the center 

of the marketplace .... And it invests ultimate authority in the present-day audience 

[emphasis in original]. Performers driven by accessibility seek most of all to find 

and please audiences." In contrast, the second category, authenticity, invests its 

authority in traditions of creativity. Musicians who are guided by the "ideal of 

authenticity" feel that music at the time of its creation is guided by a "certain 

original spirit" (emphasis in original), and that the role of the present-day 

performer or creator is to remain faithful to that spirit--in short, to uphold the 

tradition.4 

One normally assumes that these conflicting principles will result in sharply 

divergent music, with accessibility being the reigning paradigm of popular 

culture and authenticity the hallmark of art traditions. But they do not 

necessarily diverge. In jazz, they have coexisted, sometimes uneasily, for more 

than half a century. The Swing Era of the 1930s and 1940s is the high-water 

mark of jazz as an accessible species of popular music, an authentic form 

intimately connected with contemporary fashions in dance, popular song, and 

the intangible symbols of the youth subculture. But one need only look to the 

"funky" hard bop of the 1950s, the bossa nova craze of the early 1960s, jazz/rock 

and jazz/funk fusion in the 1970s, and the nascent jazz/hip-hop movement of 

the 1990s to see how persistent is the impulse to shadow the tastes and 

enthusiasms of the mass public. 

Meanwhile the ideal of authenticity has a long history as well. As early as the 

1930s, aficionados were distinguishing the "real" forms of jazz from the impure, 

commercial derivations and arguing loudly for the recognition and support due 

a fine art. Over time, the effort to define jazz as an authentic artistic tradition has 

gathered nearly irresistible momentum. Jazz is now a staple of university music 

departments and such granting agencies as the NEA. It is increasingly at home 

in the concert hall and on public television and radio. It is music that one 

approaches through experts and critics, to gain "cultural capital." It is widely, if 
8 I Jazz in America 

not universally, recognized as part of the cultural establishment; it is, in Billy 

Taylor’s oft-quoted phrase, "America’s classical music." 

All of this is not merely a passive appreciation of jazz’s virtues. It presumes 

an implicit responsibility on the part of the establishment to preserve the 

tradition it has inherited and to ensure its continuing survival in an indifferent 

or even hostile cultural environment. The listing of jazz as one of seven 

benchmark arts activities in the SPPA is both confirmation of its newly official 

status and a sign of concern by the arts community about its future. Why gather 

detailed information about the audience for jazz if not from a desire to increase 

that audience? 

I make these obvious points to contrast the characteristic concerns of 

"authentic" jazz advocates with the market-driven concerns of "accessible" jazz. 

The paradigm of authenticity presupposes a rich tradition for which one wishes 

to build a wider audience. The hope is to modify the consumer, through 

education and exposure, to accept and support a relatively stable body of artistic 

practices. The countervailing paradigm of accessibility, on the other hand, 

presupposes an audience for which one hopes to supply a product. The aim is 

to satisfy shifting consumer taste by creating new genres or by modifying existing 

ones through shrewd guessing and market research. The two aims can certainly 

overlap. For instance, during his heyday, Duke Ellington was simultaneously a 

popular celebrity and a touchstone of jazz authenticity. The two aims can also 

be at cross-purposes. 

In early 1987, Billboard changed the way it tracked the sales of jazz albums. 

Previously, it had published a single chart for Jazz. Now there would be two 

charts: one still called Jazz, devoted to recordings "in the traditional genre"; and 

a new chart, Contemporary Jazz, covering "jazz fusion, new age, and other new 

developments in jazz music.’’5 

The phrase "traditional jazz" used to refer to revivals of the New Orleans 

jazz style popular since the 1940s. It now encompasses everything from New 

Orleans jazz to post-bop and the avant garde--the entire spectrum covered by 

the phrase "the jazz tradition." Even to be aware of these genres--to say nothing 

of understanding the complex and manifold ways in which they interrelate 

stylistically and historically--presupposes a considerable degree of education 

and sophistication. Its counterpoise, "contemporary jazz," carries no such 

intellectual baggage. It is a genre of pop music, distinguished from the rock 

mainstream by the absence of vocals and prominent use of traditional jazz 

instruments, such as the saxophone, and continually adjusted to suit the 

perceived tastes of its targeted audience. 

The opposition implied by these terms is to some extent illusory. Traditional 

jazz is nothing if not contemporary, with artists creating new music and charting 

new territory every year. And the fluid interaction with popular culture repre­
The Jazz Audience: How Big Is It and How Does It Participate? I 9 

sented by contemporary jazz has, as I have indicated, a long history, now 

thoroughly absorbed into the official jazz tradition. 

Semantic confusion aside, the distinction is real and not to be lightly 

dismissed. Traditional jazz requires a commitment from its listeners. Its potential audience must be carefully nurtured through such educational outreach 

efforts as college courses, CD reissues with painstakingly researched liner notes, 

public radio and television documentaries, or trade books aimed at the aficionado. Contemporary jazz welcomes the casual listener--anyone inclined to 

consider as "jazz" pop music that is obviously not rock. The potential audience 

for contemporary jazz is changeable but vast, and the boundary lines separating 

it from mainstream pop are fluid. Saxophonist Kenny G, considered by many 

the embodiment of contemporary jazz but deliberately marketed as a pop 

musician, has alone sold a reported 17 million records since the late 1980s. 

"People who don’t know anything about jazz know Kenny G," says one critic. 

"He’s theirjaz~’(emphasis in original)) 

None of these considerations is directly ascertainable from the SPPA. The 

figures reported in this monograph are simply the aggregate of responses to the 

term "jazz" by the American public. Those who consider the likes of Kenny G 

to be unauthentic will have to make their own rough calculations or educated 

guesses to determine what percentage of the reported audience is listening to 

"authentic" jazz. Yet this larger, undifferentiated figure represents an upper 

boundary for that segment of the audience that is willing to identify itself with 

the umbrella term "jazz" and is therefore presumably more susceptible to 

educational efforts designed to bring them into the jazz tradition. 

Attendance 

The overall rate for those reporting attendance at a jazz event over the past 

year has remained essentially stable over the past 10 years. The surveys show a 

slight increase (from 9.6 percent in 1982 and 9.5 percent in 1985 to 10.6 

percent in 1992), but one that proves to be statistically insignificant. It is more 

realistic to say that the rate has remained stable at about 10 percent. Of course, 

this is a rate, not an absolute number. The size of the estimated audience has 

grown along with the growth in population, from 15.7 million in 1982 to 19.7 

million in 1992. 

This rate of attendance places jazz somewhere in the middle of the benchmark arts activities. Fewer people attend jazz performances than go to art 

museums (26.7 percent), musicals (17.4 percent), the theater (13.5 percent), 

and performances of classical music (12.5 percent); but more attend jazz events 

than attend performances of opera (3.3 percent), ballet (4.7 percent), and "other 
10 I Jazz in America 

dance" (7.1 percent). The audiences for jazz and classical music are not only 

similar in size, but also overlap to a considerable extent: 39 percent of those who 

attend jazz events also attend classical events, while 33 percent of those attending 

classical events also attend jazz events. 

Has there been any change in the supply of concerts over the past decade-­

either in quantity or in the kinds of venues in which jazz performances are 

offered to the public? Such information lies beyond the scope of the SPPA. 

However, anecdotal evidence, though sketchy and inconclusive, suggests a 

broad historical shift away from the private toward the public sector: from the 

traditional smoky nightclub operated on a commercial basis, to civic auditoriums and performing arts centers funded by colleges and local nonprofit arts 

organizations. 

One explanatory factor, certainly, is the emergence of new sources of 

funding for local jazz organizations, which for years have struggled to provide 

sponsorship and alternative venues for a music that cannot always reach its 

audience through commercial means. The most dramatic effort in this direction 

was the creation in 1990 of the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest National Jazz 

Network, a program administered by the New England Foundation for the Arts 

and the National Jazz Service Organization that provides financial and technical 

assistance to 20 local presenting organizations and 6 regional arts organizations.7 

The funding provided by the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund for this 

network (supplemented by the NEA and local sources) has accelerated growth 

in nonprofit, public sector support of jazz. Nearly all of these organizations 

concentrate on sponsoring performances by the wide spectrum of traditional 

acoustic jazz artists--presumably under the assumption that the more commercially oriented contemporary jazz will thrive in the open market. 

In spite of the anecdotal evidence, existing data suggest that where people 

attend jazz concerts has not changed over the past decade. A direct comparison 

with earlier figures on this issue is not possible, since the questions on venues 

that were part of the 1982 SPPA were not included in the 1992 survey. But 

such questions were asked in the 12 Local Surveys of Public Participation in the 

Arts. The weighted percentages for the 12 sites combined show little change 

from the 1982 SPPA results. Table 1 shows the jazz venues in 1982 and 1992. 

Is there a potential for growth in the audience for live jazz performance? 

One encouraging sign is the increase in the number who expressed an interest 

in attending more jazz performances than they currently do. In the 1982 SPPA, 

18 percent expressed such a desire; in 1992, this number had risen to a quarter 

of the adult population, or some 46.5 million people. Jazz was not alone in this 

regard: comparable increases were reported for virtually all of the other benchmark activities.8 
The Jazz Audience: How Big Is It and How Does It Participate? I 11 

TABLE 1. Jazz Venues in 1982 and 1992 (%) 

Venue 1982* 1992 (12 cities) 

Concert hall/auditorium 29 30 

College facility 12 7 

Night club/coffee house 23 26 

Dinner theater 10 7 

Park/open-air facility 20 20 

Other facilities 7 10 

*Figures for 1982 do not add up to 100 because of rounding. 

Recordings 

The percentage of adult Americans reporting that they listened to jazz 

recordings over the past year has remained stable at about 20 percent (20.2 

percent in 1982, 20.6 percent in 1992). And yet, industry observers are 

unanimous in proclaiming that jazz now enjoys a higher profile in the marketplace than it did just a decade ago. The latter half of the 1980s saw nearly all 

the major labels establish a strong presence in the jazz market. By 1990, such 

corporate giants as PolyGram (on the Verve label), Capitol (Blue Note), RCA 

(Novus), Sony (Columbia), MCA (GRP), and Warner Brothers had "simultaneously undertaken aggressive jazz programs that encompass[ed] virtually unprecedented artist development and marketing efforts. ,,9 

The most striking aspect of this activity is that it focused not on the easily 

marketed "accessible" kind of jazz, but its "authentic" counterpart. The bellwether was the emergence ofWynton Marsalis. Marsalis’s youth, virtuosity, and 

outspoken criticism of commercially oriented jazz/rock fusion ("I just don’t like 

it when people call it jazz when it’s not’’1°) attracted a great deal of media 

attention. The success of his early albums for Columbia emboldened other 

record companies to promote a whole generation of youthful jazz musicians, 

dubbed "the young lions" by the jazz press. Some, like Marsalis, continued to 

act as spokespersons for a purist vision of jazz. Others--including Bobby 

McFerrin, Harry Connick Jr., and Wynton’s brother, Branford--were widely 

recognized as "jazz artists" but managed, in various ways, to reach a much 

broader audience. Of Connick’s success as pianist, singer, and icon of big-band 

era nostalgia, Columbia’s George Butler has said, "We didn’t see him as, say, a 

jazz artist with a limited marketplace. We focused very broadly. We didn’t go 
12 I Jazz in America 

to just certain radio formats and publications with his story. We treated him 

,,11 like a pop artist and pulled out all the stops. 

By the early 1990s, the young lions were joined by veteran musicians, 

proving that the new commercial viability of "authentic" jazz recordings was 

independent of youthful fashion and sex appeal. Recent recordings for Verve 

by Joe Henderson, Shirley Horn, and Abbey Lincoln have provided those artists 

with something like mainstream commercial success for perhaps the first time 

in their careers. The willingness of major record companies to devote their 

resources and attention to jazz artists (and, of course, the persistent championing 

of various subgenres of jazz by independent labels) has been at the heart of a 

resurgence of interest in jazz that has the potential to stimulate demand in all 

areas. As one booking agent put it, "The perception of jazz as a viable and hip 

art form makes the record companies happy, and then the people believe it.’’12 

Nor is the activity in recordings limited to new artists. The major labels have 

enormous stockpiles of recordings covering the entire spectrum of jazz history. 

The industrywide conversion of recorded music to the CD format has meant 

that these recordings can be reissued, in effect, as "new" products: remastered 

in digital sound and presented either in their original packaging or with new 

cover art, new liner notes, previously unissued alternate takes, and extensive 

discographical information. Such recycled material keeps the idea of tradition 

alive in the marketplace and helps make jazz profitable for record companies: 

some 40 to 50 percent of total jazz sales for major labels are estimated to come 

from reissues. 13 

Meanwhile, the more frankly commercial varieties of jazz continue to thrive, 

exploiting the fluid boundary lines between jazz and mainstream pop entertainment.14 Whether much of this music ought to be considered jazz, with due 

respect to Wynton Marsalis, is an open question and one of potentially great 

interest for musicians, critics, and scholars. But for the purposes of interpreting 

the SPPA data, it is important to bear in mind that recordings by the Rippingtons, Bob James, Earl Klugh, Dave Grusin, and other "contemporary jazz" 

artists may be the kind of music that a significant portion of the listening public 

most closely associates with the word "jazz." 

Radio 

Participation in jazz by listening to the radio provides the most striking 

contrast between the 1992 and previous surveys. In 1982 and again in 1985, 

radio had a participation rate roughly equivalent to other media (recordings and 

TV): about 18 percent. In 1992, that figure jumped sharply to 28 percent. 

When the increase in population during this period is taken into account, this 
The Jazz Audience: How Big Is It and How Does It Participate? I 13 

means that the audience for jazz via radio grew from just over 30 million 

Americans to 52 million--an increase of over 70 percent.15 (Similar dramatic 

increases were also reported for classical music and opera.) 

Why this should be so and what implications it has for the jazz audience 

can only be matters for speculation. Unlike the recording industry, where jazz 

has long been established as a distinct and viable specialty market carefully 

nurtured by divisions of major labels and independent companies, radio has 

provided no firm institutional base for jazz. Even in major urban areas, there 

are only a handful of full-time radio stations devoted to jazz. 

One factor, perhaps, has been the emergence of a new mixture of jazz/pop 

instrumental and vocal music, strategically situated on the shifting border 

between more traditional jazz and out-and-out pop styles. As early as 1981, one 

industry observer noted that radio programmers were already scrambling to 

devise formats to appeal to aging baby boomers who would, inevitably, lose their 

taste for youth-oriented pop. The key to tapping into this audience, he argued, 

was a new genre of jazz-derived pop instrumental music, which he called "jazzz" 

to distinguish it from the jazz of the purists. "Unhip jazz for unhip people," as 

he unkindly put it, would become "the ’soft rock,’ ’beautiful music,’ and ’adult 

contemporary of the eighties. ,,,16 

By the decade’s end, this prophecy had become reality. New radio formats, 

variously called "New Adult Contemporary" (NAC), "Adult Alternative," 

"Smooth Jazz," or "Lite Jazz," have brought some styles of jazz instrumental 

music to a wider radio audience. The targeted demographic audience consists 

of young adults, aged 25 to 44--not coincidentally, the peak age group for jazz 

activity reported in the SPPA. "I want the people burned out on rock," said one 

producer of several syndicated NAC programs. "They’re the ones who give me 

the ratings.’’17 

And yet, traditional jazz has continued to maintain a presence in commercial radio. It crops up in special program blocks during the day (a "Sunday 

Brunch," for example) and as "’spice’ elements in regular playlists" in established formats, such as Adult Contemporary.18 Although it is unlikely that new 

stations entirely devoted to jazz will spring up, programmers are learning that 

the music has a market with demographic characteristics that can be very 

attractive to advertisers. KJAZ, the California radio station that is one of the 

few 24-hour jazz outlets, has recently started syndicating programs to be sold 

to other stations nationwide. 

Meanwhile, jazz is well established on noncommercial radio, especially 

National Public Radio (NPR). Whether locally generated or broadcast in such 

syndicated programs as Marian McPartland’s Piana.Jaz:~, jazz has found a place 

alongside classical music in NPR programming. An estimated 80 percent of 

NPR stations in 1992 regularly included jazz programming. "Jazz has become 
14 I Jazz in America 

a force on these stations," notes one industry observer. "It’s got listener viability, 

and the classical music audience is continuing to age.’’19 

Television/Video 

The fraction of adult Americans who have watched jazz performances on 

television has increased slightly over the past decade, from 18 percent in 1982 

to 21 percent in the latest SPPA. Added to this is a new category of participation 

via television--watching videotaped performances on a VCR. Although only 4 

percent of adult Americans report watching jazz video, most of them also watch 

jazz on both television and VCR, and the total audience is 22 percent.2° 

The growth of the audience for jazz on television is probably attributable at 

least in part to the cable revolution. The proliferation of cable channels over the 

past decade has inevitably led to a greater diversity in programming. Such new 

channels as Bravo and A&E have provided broadcast time for jazz performances 

that otherwise would not have existed. 

Although jazz’s foothold on television continues to be tenuous, there are a 

few striking exceptions: Branford Marsalis upholding the tradition of live jazz 

performance on The Tonight Show, the indefatigable Billy Taylor on morning 

television, documentaries on the PBS series American Masters. But the revolution in music video that has transformed popular music--in particular, the 

interrelation between music-video cable channels and record promotion--has 

yet to affect jazz. The market for jazz recordings has been too small and the 

expense of producing music videos too great. Such jazz videos as have been 

produced tend to be of a more documentary nature and marketed to a relatively 

small group of dedicated jazz enthusiasts. This accounts for the tiny percentage 

(4 percent) of people that have watched any jazz video over the past year. 

Corresponding percentages for popular musical genres are not available in the 

SPPA, but given the popularity of MTV, VH-1, and country music video 

channels, it is a safe assumption that they are substantially higher. 

Yet the continued expansion of cable will very likely pull more specialized 

music, such as jazz, into its wake. Black Entertainment Television has announced plans to establish a 24-hour jazz cable channel by the end of 1995. 

Whether this ambitious project will become a reality is, as of this writing, 

impossible to say. But, should it come to fruition, the demand for material to 

fill programming slots would create an explosive demand for jazz video that 

would, more likely than not, have to come largely from videotapes of live 

performances. One nonprofit jazz presenting organization, the Manchester 

Craftmen’s Guild of Pittsburgh, is preparing for the future by adding multicamera video recording capability to its performing facility. It has already 
The Jazz Audience: How Big Is It and How Does It Participate? I 15 

syndicated audio recordings of its concert series through NPR and is looking to 

similar possibilities on cable television.21 

Obviously, the potential to build new audiences for jazz via television is 

incalculable. Veteran vocalist Betty Carter, who has seen her name recognition 

soar more as a result of a few appearances on The Bill Cosby Show than in her 

previous four decades in the music business, has recently said, "The big wave of 

change will be jazz on television. This is something I’ve been working on for 

years. You see, I can hire young musicians and encourage young players for the 

rest of my life and it won’t develop an audience. This will. ,,22 

Cross-tabulations 

Some sense of the interrelation among the various types of participation in 

jazz--especially between attendance at live performances and media participation-can be gained through cross-tabulation of the data in the SPPA. Although 

the tables of statistics are difficult to interpret, the following picture emerges. 

Most of those who attend jazz performances are also exposed to jazz through 

the media. Over three-quarters (76 percent) listen to jazz on the radio. Twothirds (67 percent) listen to jazz on recordings. Fifty-eight percent watch jazz 

on broadcast television; 16 percent watch jazz on VCR; taking into account the 

13 percent who say they do both activities, the aggregate audience for watching 

jazz on television in some form accounts for 61 percent of the jazz attenders. 

All of these figures, not surprisingly, exceed the national norm for participation 

in jazz via the media by approximately a factor of three. 

Of the three main media, listening to jazz on recordings is the strongest 

predictor of jazz attendance: more than a third (35 percent) of those who listen 

to jazz recordings report attending a jazz performance. This is more than three 

times the national average. Somewhat smaller percentages of those who consume jazz through the free broadcast media (radio, 28 percent; TV, 26 percent) 

attend jazz performances. The new medium of videotape also shows a strong 

correlation with jazz attendance: 30 percent of those who watch jazz only via 

VCR attend jazz performances, and 45 percent of those who watch both 

broadcast television and VCR attend. 
Demographic Characteristics 

of the Jazz Audience 

Education 

Socioeconomic background remains the strongest predictor of participation 

in the arts generally, and jazz is no exception. Participation in jazz through 

live attendance and the media rises steeply and steadily with socioeconomic 

attainment as measured through increases in education and income levels. 

The rates for participation through attendance at live performances clearly 

exemplify this principle. Jazz events attract insignificant numbers of those with 

only a grade school education (fewer than 1 percent) and those with some high 

school education but no diploma (3 percent). At the other end of the scale, 

nearly a quarter of those with graduate education attend jazz events. Figure 2 

shows the correlation between 1982 and 1992 jazz attendance and educational 

levels. 

Since educational attainment is unevenly distributed in the population, 

another way of expressing this disparity is to consider what percentage of the 

total projected jazz audience is attributable to the various educational levels. 

Figure 3 shows the education distributions of the 1992 jazz audience for all 

kinds of participation. Although those with some college education amount to 

about 45 percent of the total population (i.e., combining the categories of 

"Some College," "College Graduate," and "Graduate School"), they account 

for over three-fourths (78 percent) of those attending jazz events. Only 24 

percent of adult Americans are college graduates (combining the categories of 

"College Graduate" and "Graduate School"), but 49 percent of jazz attenders 

are. Figure 4 shows the percentage of the total audience who are college 

graduates for all benchmark arts activities. 

Of course, similar disparities are reported for all of the other benchmark arts 

activities. If anything, the upward curves for classical music and opera are 

steeper, showing slightly more pronounced increases in the participation rates 

of college graduates and those with graduate education. While 49 percent of 

jazz attenders are college graduates, the corresponding rate is higher for attenders 

of classical music (54 percent) and opera (58 percent). 

A comparison with the earlier SPPA shows jazz may be gradually attracting 

more adherents from this most highly educated group. In 1982, the attendance 

rates for college graduates and those with graduate education were essentially 

]6 
 

Demographic Characteristics of the Jazz Audience I 17 

FIGURE 2. Jazz Attendance and Education in 1982 and 1992 

 ̄ 1982 [] 1992 

Grade Some High Some College Graduate 

School High School School College Graduate School 

Graduate 

FIGURE 3. 1992 Education Distributions of Jazz Audiences 

[] U.S. Population [] TV [] Recordings 

 ̄ Live Attendance [] Radio 

40­

35­

30­

25­

15­

10­

5­

0-

Grade 

School 

Some 

High 

School 

High 

School 

Graduate 

Some 

College 

College 

Graduate 

Graduate 

School 
18 I Jazz in America 

FIGURE 4.	 College Graduate Component of 1992 Audiences 

for Benchmark Arts Activities 

(Percent of Total Audience) 

50 I 

Jazz Classical Opera Musicals Plays Ballet 

Music 

equivalent. By 1992, the attendance rates for the latter group had jumped 5 

percentage points. (This increase was offset by slight decreases for all educational 

groups below college level.) This shift toward a more educated audience was 

heightened by the general tendency over the 1982-1992 period for the population as a whole to become more highly educated. 

For media participation, rates also rise steadily with educational attainment. 

Only 9 percent of those with a grade school education listen to jazz radio, but 

nearly half(49 percent) of those with graduate education do. However, the curve 

is far less steep than that for attendance. Television and radio--those media 

most accessible to people with modest incomes--show the greatest participation 

by groups with low educational attainment, with distribution for recordings 

closest to the distribution found for attendance. Those with a high school 

diploma or less (i.e., combining the categories of "High School Graduate," 

"Some High School," and "Grade School") account for only 22 percent of the 

jazz attenders, but they comprise 30 percent of those listening to recordings, 36 

percent of those listening to jazz radio, and 37 percent of those watching jazz 

on television. Similarly, 47 percent of jazz attenders are college graduates, 

compared with 42 percent for recordings, 38 percent for radio, and 37 percent 

for television. 
Demographic Characteristics of the Jazz Audience I 19 

I ncome 

As with educational level, participation in jazz through attendance at 

performances rises with income--with one exception: the participation rate for 

the lowest income group (below $5,000) was slightly higher than that reported 

for the next two income levels. This discrepancy is probably attributable to the 

fact that the lowest income level is something of an anomaly, combining the 

poorest members of society with relatively privileged college students who have 

yet to enter the monetary economy. 

Not surprisingly, those earning $50,000 or more are disproportionately 

represented. Although people in this category represent only 19 percent of the 

total adult population, they make up 32 percent of those attending jazz events. 

Looked at another way, 18 percent of the people in this income group attend 

jazz events--the only income group to substantially exceed the national average. 

Those earning between $25,000 and $50,000--by far the largest group in the 

adult population as a whole (37 percent)--attend jazz events at only a slightly 

higher rate than the total population. 

A similar pattern can be found for the benchmark arts activities as a whole: 

underrepresentation by lower income groups, overrepresentation by the 

$50,000-and-above group, and the large $25,000-to-$50,000 group attending 

at a rate nearly identical with the national average. Similar patterns were also 

found in the 1982 SPPA, although inflation over the intervening decade makes 

a direct comparison impractical (those earning $25,000 in 1982 were considerably more prosperous than their counterparts in 1992). 

As with education, participation rates through the media also rise steadily 

with income, but less steeply. 

Age 

The audience for jazz in live performance is predominantly youthful, 

especially when compared with the audience for most of the other benchmark 

arts activities. Participation rates for jazz peak with the 25-to-34 age group, with 

only slightly lower rates for the 35-to-44 group. They then decline rapidly with 

advancing age. By contrast, theater, musicals, opera, and classical music all peak 

with the 45-to-54 age group, with the next highest participation rate in the 

55-to-64 age group. 

Because the 25-to-34 and 35-to-44 age groups also happen to be the largest 

in the adult population as a whole (23 percent and 21 percent, respectively, or 

a combined 44 percent of the adult population), they are particularly well 

represented in jazz. Fifty-four percent of attenders at jazz performances fall 
20 I Jazz in America 

between 25 and 44, compared with 44 percent for musicals, 43 percent for 

theater, 40 percent for classical music, and 43 percent for opera. Extending this 

comparison to include 18-to-24-year-olds, over two-thirds (68 percent) of the 

jazz attenders are younger than 45, compared with 56 percent of the audience 

for musicals, 55 percent for theater, 50 percent for classical music, and 53 

percent for opera. 

For media participation, the rates for radio and recordings peak with the 

25-to-34 age group, while the rates for television peak with those aged 35 to 

44. This corresponds with the general perception by industry observers that the 

audience for recordings in particular is to be found primarily among younger 

Americans.23 In general, the audiences for the free broadcast media (television 

and radio) are older than those attending performances: 23 percent of those who 

watch jazz on television and 19 percent of those who listen to jazz radio are over 

age 55, compared with 16 percent of jazz attenders. The age distribution of the 

audience for jazz recordings corresponds almost exactly with that of the audience 

for live performance. 

Analysis of trends over time for the demographic information on age is more 

complicated than for other factors because two different broad approaches may 

be taken. One may consider the behavior of any one age group--25-to-34-yearolds, for example--at different times. Or one can take into account the fact that 

the 25-to-34-year-olds of 1982 will inexorably become the 35-to-44-year-olds 

of 1992, and compare the behavior of that age "cohort" (i.e., those born within 

a given 10-year span over time). "Cohort analysis" adds an invaluable dimension 

to the interpretation of age data because it begins to show how arts participation 

may evolve with age and how different generations, or "cohorts," may differ 

from one another. 

A direct comparison with statistics from the 1982 SPPA shows a significant 

"greying" trend. In 1982, the highest participation rate (18 percent) came from 

the youngest age group--those 18 to 24. The rate declined slightly (to 15 

percent) for the 25-to-34 group and dropped off more sharply thereafter. A 

direct comparison of participation rates across age groups shows a sharp decline 

between 1982 and 1992 for the 18-to-24 group, compensated by increases for 

the age groups above 34. 

Because the population as a whole was younger in 1982 (18-to-24-year-olds 

then accounted for 17.4 percent of the population, as opposed to 13.0 percent 

in 1992), the youthfulness of the jazz audience in 1982 is particularly notable. 

Two-thirds of jazz attenders in 1982 (67 percent) were under age 35; four-fifths 

(81 percent) were under age 45. 

One striking finding concerns the behavior of the oldest age group. In 1982, 

participation rates by those over 75 were insignificant. This is not surprising for 

jazz attendance, since advanced age inhibits the ability to attend live perform­
Demographic Characteristics of the Jazz Audience I 21 

ances across the board. But the figures for media participation were also very 

low: only 4 percent watched jazz on television, only 2 percent listened to jazz 

radio, only 1 percent listened to jazz recordings. The corresponding figures for 

the over-75 group for 1992 were much higher: 12 percent for television and 

radio, 7 percent for recordings. 

One logical explanation for this phenomenon is that the over-75 group in 

1982 consisted of those Americans born before 1907, who became young adults 

in the years before 1925. The bulk of this group came of age before the 

emergence of jazz in the 1920s or overlapped with the earliest jazz styles that 

have largely passed from favor with mainstream audiences today. If musical 

tastes are formed in youth, it is not surprising to find this age cohort indifferent 

to jazz. 

For many within the over-75 group in 1992, however, jazz was part of their 

youthful experience. They came of age in the years from 1915 to 1935--thus 

overlapping not only with early jazz, but with the swing dance band styles that 

were part of the musical landscape in the early 1930s and that found widespread 

acceptance by the end of the decade (the Swing Era). This suggests that the 

"greying" trend for jazz in the future may not be limited to a shift of the core 

audience from the youngest adults to the 25-to-44 group, but may involve 

increasing participation in jazz by older Americans. 

Cohort analysis shows that members of the baby boom generation (which 

roughly corresponds to the 25-to-44 age groups in the SPPA and includes those 

born between 1948 and 1967) are declining in their rate of attendance at live 

jazz performances, while the participation rates for older cohorts have increased. 

The NEA monograph on age gives more detailed information on cohort 

analysis.24 

Race 

One of the most intriguing--and controversial--areas for demographic 

analysis is race. Any discussion of the racial makeup of the jazz audience 

inevitably raises the contentious social issue of ethnic cultural identity. 

Ethnicity is a potentially divisive issue in the arts and often not directly 

addressed. In the spirit of pluralism and democracy, one may prefer to gloss over 

the ways in which art articulates ethnic difference, celebrating instead its 

capacity to transcend racial, national, and religious divisions. Mozart is not 

thought of as a Viennese composer but as an artist with "universal" appeal. To 

the extent that race surfaces at all in classical music, it is with reference to an 

imperfectly realized ideal of inclusion. Once African Americans were barred 

from the concert hall, both as performers and audience. Today, arts adminis­
22 I Jazz in America 

trators worry over perennially low rates of participation by minorities and plan 

strategies to include and involve them. 

Why, then, should the question ofethnicity be so contentious for jazz? The 

answer is that alone among the art forms surveyed by the SPPA, jazz has historic 

roots in African American culture. Given the tangled and tragic history of race 

relations in this country, it is hardly surprising to find conflicting interpretations 

of the place of jazz in American culture and its ultimate political significance. 

Is jazz best understood as the music of black Americans--an art form shaped 

by, and uniquely expressive of, the struggle of an embattled minority for cultural 

autonomy? Or is it a music that demonstrates through its widespread appeal the 

irrelevance of race in a pluralistic society? 

These are not questions that an appeal to the historical record can easily 

resolve. On the one hand, the distinctive musical language of jazz clearly derives 

from African American (and ultimately African) folk traditions. Many of the 

most important creators and innovators within the jazz tradition--Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, John 

Coltrane--have been black. On the other hand, jazz has from its inception 

depended upon white audiences for support and has been shaped by the 

contributions of white musicians. Nearly all serious treatments of jazz have 

emphasized its ethnic character; and yet many (if not all) underscore the 

complex interactions between black and white that have given the lie to the 

myth of unbridgeable racial division. 

The broader philosophical and political implications of these arguments are 

obviously beyond the boundaries of this monograph. I have broached them here 

not only because they must be borne in mind when interpreting the data, but 

because statistics from the 1982 SPPA have already been drawn into the debate. 

In his 1993 book, Jazz: The American Theme Sang, James Lincoln Collier argues 

forcefully against the interpretation that would situate jazz unambiguously 

within black culture: 

There are thousands of white jazz fans who have devoted lifetimes to the music, 

and bitterly resent being told that jazz is not theirs. Nonetheless, the official 

position, which obtains in college and university programs, granting organizations, and scholarly institutions like Lincoln Center, is that jazz is black 

music.25 

To reinforce his argument, Collier draws on the summary by Harold 

Horowitz of the data on the jazz audience drawn from the 1982 SPPA, 

emphasizing both the modest size of the total audience for jazz and the overall 

predominance of whites. While noting that "fifteen percent of blacks, as against 

nine percent of whites, attended a jazz performance in the surveyed year," Collier 

argues, 
Demographic Characteristics of the Jazz Audience I 23 

The black audience for jazz is relatively [emphasis in original] larger than the 

white audience; but it is also clear, given that a lot of the respondents had only 

listened to jazz a few times in the course of a year, that jazz is of serious interest 

only to a small percentage of blacks--probably not more than ten percent. It 

can hardly be said, therefore, that jazz today somehow reflects anything that 

can be called a "black ethos." And it is also clear that the bulk of the audience 

for jazz is white.26 

Statistics alone cannot resolve this complex and emotionally charged debate. 

But the figures from the 1992 SPPA provide at least an updated empirical 

foundation upon which to attempt a reconsideration of the issue. 

As with other aspects of jazz participation, there are different ways of 

assessing the quantitative differences between black and white participation. 

One is to point out that the audience remains predominantly white. White 

Americans make up 81 percent of the jazz attenders, 78 percent of those 

watching jazz on television or listening to jazz recordings, and 79 percent of 

those listening to jazz on the radio. This simply reflects the numerical predominance of whites in the population. African Americans, who account for 11 

percent of the population as a whole, make up 17 percent of jazz attenders, 18 

percent of the radio audience, 19 percent of the television audience, and nearly 

20 percent of those who listen to jazz recordings. The remainder (2 to 3 percent) 

is accounted for by the category "other" (Asians, Native Americans). 

Another approach is to underscore the difference in participation rates. 

African Americans consistently participate in jazz at a higher rate than white 

Americans: they are one and a half times as likely to attend jazz performances 

and even more likely to participate in jazz through the media. Figure 5 shows 

the 1992 racial distribution of jazz audiences for all forms of participation. The 

data, comparing as they do the relatively expensive activity of live attendance 

with the free media of radio and TV and the easily shared medium of recordings, 

suggest that economic factors have limited the ability of black Americans to 

attend jazz performances. It is also possible that black Americans feel less 

comfortable attending public events in which they are likely to be a decided 

minority and more comfortable with the relative flexibility and privacy of media 

participation.27 

The contrast with other benchmark arts activities is striking. Jazz is the 

only art form in which African Americans are more likely to participate than 

white Americans. Moreover, this disparity has been consistent over time. 

Figures from 1982 show the same pattern: blacks participating in jazz at 

significantly higher rates than whites, while participating in other art forms at 

significantly lower rates. If one is looking for evidence of a cultural divide--a 

polarization in patterns of arts consumption along ethnic lines--one need look 

no further than jazz. 
24 I Jazz in America 

FIGURE 5. 1992 Racial Distributions of Jazz Audiences 

[] U.S. Population  ̄ TV [] Recordings 

[] Live Attendance [] Radio 

90­

80-­

70-­

60-­

50-­

40-­

30­

2.0-~1 

10-

OWhite Black Other 

The data on those who express a desire to attend more concerts suggest that 

the black audience for jazz performance could easily be considerably larger. 

Overall, 25.2 percent of the population expressed a desire to attend more jazz 

concerts. Breaking this figure down by race shows that while less than a quarter 

(22 percent) of whites expressed such a desire, nearly half (49 percent) of African 

Americans did. Granted, expressing the desire to attend is not the same thing 

as attending; but this figure exceeds the percentage of any ethnic group 

expressing an interest in attending more ofanyart form. The projected potential 

audience for jazz of 46.5 million would still be predominantly white, but black 

involvement would be 22 percent--double the percentage of African Americans 

in the population as a whole. 

The NEA monograph on race gives more information, including the use of 

Multiple Classification Analysis to separate education as a factor.28 

The polarity of the data for black Americans and white Americans in jazz 

participation makes it easy to overlook the additional miscellaneous ethnic 

grouping of "other" in the survey. For the most part, those identifying themselves as "other" participated in jazz at roughly the same rates as white Americans. The only noticeable difference came with attendance, where the rates for 

"other" were significantly lower (5.5 percent, as opposed to 10.1 percent of 

whites and 16.2 percent of blacks). This does not correspond with the 1982 
Demographic Characteristics of the Jazz Audience I 25 

figures, where the reported attendance behavior for the category "other" was 

indistinguishable from that of white Americans. 

Additional information on racial polarization in musical taste appears in the 

sections on frequency of attendance and musical preferences. 

Gender 

The racial politics of jazz has understandably overshadowed consideration 

of its sexual politics. And yet the audience for jazz shows an unmistakable tilt 

toward males that is anomalous among the benchmark arts activities surveyed 

by the SPPA. 

The participation rates for attending jazz performances were 11.9 percent 

for men and 9.4 percent for women. Were men and women evenly distributed 

in the population, the audience would consist of 56 percent men, 44 percent 

women. But since women outnumber men by a ratio of approximately 13:12, 

the actual disparity in the audience is somewhat less: 54 percent men, 46 percent 

women. 

These figures are striking, however, in the context of the other benchmark 

arts activities. For art museums and opera, women are as likely as men to 

participate; for the remaining genres (classical music, musicals, theater, and 

ballet) women are significantly more likely to participate. Jazz thus stands out 

as an arts discipline in which men predominate. Compare, for example, the 

figures for jazz with the participation rates for attendance at classical music 

concerts. For men, the rates are essentially equivalent to those for jazz: 11.5 

percent for classical, 11.9 percent for jazz. The rates for women, on the other 

hand, diverge sharply: 13.4 percent for classical, 9.4 percent for jazz. The result 

is that for classical music, the gender disparity runs in the opposite direction: 

44 percent men, 56 percent women. 

Among those who express a desire to attend more jazz performances, the 

gender disparity widens slightly. Twenty-nine percent of men, as opposed to 22 

percent of women, express such a desire, resulting in a potential audience for 

jazz that is 55 percent male, 45 percent female. 

A slightly less pronounced gender disparity is found in participation in jazz 

through the media. For TV and recordings, 23 percent of men and 19 percent 

of women report participation, resulting in a projected audience that is 53 

percent male, 47 percent female. The figures for radio (participation rates of 31 

percent for men, 26 percent for women) result in an audience that is 52 percent 

male, 48 percent female. (The sense of many in the music industry is that the 

audience for jazz radio and recordings is even more heavily male, especially for 

those above age 35.29 But it must be emphasized that the figures make no 
26 I Jazz in America 

distinction between casual and dedicated consumers.) As with attendance, the 

gender disparity runs counter to the data for other benchmark arts activities, in 

which women are at least as likely, and often more likely, to participate through 

the media. 

A cross-tabulation of sex and race for jazz attendance shows a slightly greater 

gender disparity among African Americans. Fifty-six percent of the black 

audience is male, compared with 53 percent of the white audience. 

Additional information on gender disparity can be found in the sections on 

frequency of attendance and musical preference. 

Geography 

Geographic measures derived from the SPPA are relatively coarse. The data 

distinguish among populations in areas of various densities: those living in the 

central city of a metropolitan area (or SMSA), those living within an SMSA but 

not in the central city (i.e., in suburbs), and those living in rural areas. The data 

are also broken down into four broad regions: West, Midwest, South, and 

Northeast. Figure 6 shows the geographic distribution of the 1992 participants 

in jazz through the media. 

Of the four geographic regions, the West shows significantly higher levels 

of participation in all forms of media. This disparity is most pronounced in jazz 

radio: 35 percent of those in the West report listening to jazz radio, compared 

with the national average of 28 percent. But figures for recordings (24 percent 

in the West, 21 percent nationwide) and TV (25 percent in the k~Test, 21 percent 

nationwide) confirm a broad-based trend. 

Other regions are somewhat less easy to characterize. The Northeast is close 

to the national average in all three categories, the South slightly below (especially 

in radio). The Midwest is more noticeably below the national average in all three 

categories. 

Demographic Profiles by Frequency of Attendance 

The new questions in the 1992 SPPA concerning the frequency of attendance at live performances over a 12-month period make it possible to explore 

new aspects of audience participation. For one thing, the data clearly show that 

the majority of those reporting jazz attendance are what one might call "casual" 

consumers. Of the roughly 10 percent of the adult population who have 

attended a jazz performance, nearly half (44 percent) did so only once. Another 

quarter (26 percent) attended only twice. This means that adults who attended 
Demographic Characteristics of the Jazz Audience I 27 

FIGURE 6. 1992 Media Participation in Jazz by
 

Geographic Region
 

[] West [] Midwest [] South [] Northeast 

35 

3O 

25 

20-m 

15--­

10--­

5---­

0 

TV Radio Recordings 

jazz as little as once every four months make up about 3 percent of the total 

adult population. 

And yet that 3 percent attended often enough to pull the average number 

of attendances up to 2.9 per year. (This figure is based on the average number 

of attendances for those who reported attendance, not the population as a 

whole.) This figure is higher than those reported for classical music (2.6), plays 

(2.4), musicals (2.3), opera (1.7), and ballet (1.7). The dedicated jazz audience 

may be relatively small (relative to popular music genres, not other art forms), 

but it is loyal and intense. 

What are the demographic characteristics of this more dedicated group? 

There are two trends that clearly emerge from the data and reinforce earlier 

findings in this monograph: as the audience becomes more dedicated, it 

becomes more male and more African American. 

Frequency of attendance and race and gender 

The relatively casual consumers who attended only one jazz event show few 

of the distinctive characteristics of the jazz audience. First of all, 54.4 percent 
28 I Jazz in America 

are female--much closer to the population as a whole (52.1 percent) than to 

the figure for all attenders (46.2 percent). The racial mix also more nearly 

corresponds to the population as a whole. Whites account for 85.8 percent of 

those who attended only once (and they account for 85.3 percent of the 

population as a whole, 81.2 percent of jazz attenders), while blacks account for 

12.3 percent of those who attended only once (and 11.4 percent of population 

as a whole, 17.3 percent of jazz attenders). 

As the frequency of attendance increases, the gender and racial disparities 

characteristic of the jazz-attending audience as a whole steadily emerge. The 

characteristics of those attending at least three times a year (the average for the 

group as a whole) correspond roughly to the characteristics for the group as a 

whole: the percentage of males rises to 54.7, of African Americans to 17.9. By 

the time one reaches the relatively tiny numbers that attend nine or more times 

a year (0.6 percent of the total population), nearly 60 percent are male and 

nearly 25 percent are black. While it is risky to place much weight on precise 

numbers for samples as small as these (74 people out of the 12,739 interviewed 

for the SPPA), the overall trend is unmistakable. 

Of course, these figures do not take into account the disproportions in the 

population at large. In other words, there are more females than males and 

significantly more white Americans than African Americans. As frequency of 

attendance increases, the participation rates for males and African Americans 

become much higher than corresponding rates for females and white Americans. 

Male participation rates run roughly 60 percent higher; black participation rates 

more than double. Table 2 shows the distribution of frequency of attendance 

at jazz performances by race and gender. 

Frequency of attendance and age 

Figures 7a and 7b present two illustrations of the distributions of frequency 

of attendance and age at jazz events. The age distribution of those who attended 

only one event in the last year corresponds closely to the age distribution of 

jazz attenders as a whole--with one significant exception: the age groups 55 

years and older are disproportionately represented. This is hardly surprising, 

since the older age groups (especially the 75-and-older group) can hardly be 

expected to share the stamina for late-night music shown by the younger 

groups. As frequency increases, the participation by older age groups (including, in this instance, the 45-to-54 group) begins to decrease noticeably. But 

interestingly, so does participation by the 18-to-24 group, which peaks at "at 

least two" attendances (13.4 percent) and drops offthereafter. The group that 

absorbs the slack is the 25-to-34 group, which accounts for more than 40 
 

Demographic Characteristics of the Jazz Audience I 29 

TABLE 2. Frequency of Attendance, Gender, and Race 

(Unweighted)* 

Times attended % Male % Female % White % Black 

Once only 45.6 54.4 85.8 12.3 

At least 2 51.2 48.8 81.7 16.7 

At least 3 54.7 45.3 80.1 1 7.9 

At least 4 56.1 43.9 78.8 19.6 

At least 5 54.9 45.1 78.3 20.1 

At least 6 57.7 42.3 78.8 20.4 

At least 7 58.2 41.8 76.9 22.0 

At least 8 59.6 40.4 76.4 22.5 

At least 9 59.5 40.5 74.3 24.3 

*The term "unweighted" means that the percentages have not been adjusted for the 

fraction of the adult American population each group composes. 

NOTE: The percentages for race do not add up to 100 because they do not include the 

category "Other." 

FIGURE 7a. 1992 Frequency of Attendance and Age 

Frequency 

45 

40 

~ 35 

~ 3o 

~ 25 

~ 2o 

~ ~o5­

0 

18-24 25-34 3544 45-54 55-64 65-74 75+ 

Age Groups 
30 I Jazz in America 

FIGURE 7b. 1992 Frequency of Attendance and Age 

(Alternative Presentation) 

Age 

[] 75+ 

45
 

40
 

35
 

30
 

3 4 6+ 

Frequency of Attendance 

percent of all of those who attended at least six times (i.e., an average of every 

two months). 

Frequency of attendance and education 

No clear trend emerges to describe frequency of attendance and education, 

except a confirmation of the general finding that lower educational levels (grade 

school, some high school) are significantly underrepresented in the jazz audience, while higher levels are overrepresented. 

Frequency of attendance and income 

As with education, frequency of attendance shows no dramatic correlation 

with income. The demographic profile for income of those who attended only 

one jazz concert in the previous year corresponds closely to the profile for jazz 

attenders as a whole. The absence of change is striking, for one might expect 
Demographic Characteristics of the Jazz Audience I 31 

the more frequent attenders to be more affluent. But in fact, the percentage of 

frequent attenders who earn more than $50,000 actually declines with frequency, from just over 30 percent of one-time-only attenders to about 20 

percent of those attending at least seven times. The percentage of those earning 

between $25,000 and $50,000 rises slightly, from 33 percent of one-time-only 

attenders to just under 40 percent of those attending at least seven times. Again, 

because the samples are so small at these levels, one should not place any weight 

on these findings. But they do suggest that one need not enjoy a high income 

to find a place in the inner circle of jazz aficionados. 

Demographic Profile of Subscribers to Jazz Magazines 

Another way of obtaining a more detailed profile of the most dedicated jazz 

audience is to examine the readership profiles of national jazz magazines. Two 

such magazines, Jazz Times and Jazziz, have cooperated by releasing the results 

of their current demographic research.3° The audiences of these magazines are 

small; Jazziz, for example, has a paid circulation of 93,600 and an estimated 

readership of approximately 250,000 (or slightly more than 0.1 percent of the 

adult population). But this self-selected group is intensely involved in jazz. 

Approximately 50 percent of the readership of Jazziz attend a jazz performance 

at least 12 times a year (i.e., once a month). About a third of the readers of Jazz 

Times report that they attend jazz performances more than once a month. 

Because the groupings for age, income, and education used by Jazziz and 

Jazz Times do not correspond to the categories used in the SPPA (or with each 

other), direct comparisons are not easy to make. The majority of readers of both 

magazines fall between the ages of 25 and 44: approximately 44 percent of Jazziz 

readers and 32 percent of Jazz Times readers fall into the 25-to-34 age group, 

while 34 percent of both Jazziz and Jazz Times readers fall into the 35-to-44 

group. (The figures forJazziz are actually for ages 26 to 35 and 36 to 45.) This 

indicates a somewhat greater concentration of the audience in these age groupings than that reported for the jazz audience as a whole, corresponding roughly 

to the findings from increased frequency of attendance. Of those who reported 

attending at least six jazz events, for example, about 64 percent fell between 25 

and 44, compared with 53 percent of those who attended only once. 

Jazz magazine readers are on the whole more educated than the jazz audience 

in general. Eighty-two percent of Jazz Times readers and 92 percent of Jazziz 

readers report at least attending college, compared with 78 percent of the jazz 

audience as a whole (and 45 percent of the total adult population). And they 

are considerably more affluent--not surprisingly, since subscription to a specialty magazine is a good indicator of economic stability. AmongJazziz readers, 
32 I Jazz in America 

62.2 percent had a household income of at least $50,000, with a median 

household income of $71,000. Ninety percent of Jazz Times readers had a 

household income of at least $40,000, with an average household income of 

$67,000. The affluence of the readership of these specialty magazines can be 

measured through consumption as well. Seventy percent of Jazz Times readers 

purchase jazz videos (an average of nine per year), and 77 percent purchase jazz 

books (an average of four per year). They purchase an average of nine compact 

discs per month. Sixty-six percent attended jazz festivals in the United States, 

and an additional 11 percent attended festivals overseas. AmongJazziz readers, 

28 percent own more than 300 compact discs, 78 percent attend jazz festivals, 

and 64 percent purchase jazz videos. 

The most distinguishing demographic characteristics, however, are gender 

and race. Both Jazziz and Jazz Times report a surprisingly high (and surprisingly 

identical) figure for the percentage of their readers that is male: 89.4. While this 

corresponds to the general trend toward an increasingly male audience noted in 

the frequency statistics, the extreme disparity merits additional consideration. 

Perhaps some magazines are read by a married couple, but the subscription is 

held in the husband’s name. But it is certainly possible that the desire to augment 

the passion for jazz with such ancillary patterns of consumption as magazine 

subscriptions and the purchase of jazz videos is a distinctively male trait (or, to 

put it in the vernacular, a "guy thing"). 

Both magazines also show a disproportionately high percentage of African 

American readers. For Jazz Times, the reported black readership is 24 percent; 

for Jazziz, 29.9 percent. (Bear in mind that African Americans make up 11.4 

percent of the total adult population.) Given that these magazines draw upon 

a readership that is disproportionately affluent and well educated---sectors of 

the population in which African Americans are underrepresented---the exceptionally high participation of African Americans suggests a strong link between 

ethnicity and intense dedication to jazz. 
Musical Preferences
 

One of the most revealing sections of the SPPA is the portion that assesses 

musical preferences, for here, jazz is not simply one of several officially 

sanctioned arts but must be situated against the complex and shifting background of popular musical taste. The survey asked respondents to identify which 

of 20 musical genres they "liked" and subsequently which of these genres they 

preferred above all others ("liked best of all"). Thus, respondents were invited 

to distinguish between jazz and other related genres, such as blues, soul, big 

band, or new age, as well as to compare their feelings about jazz with their 

feelings about such diverse genres as country, bluegrass, reggae, and parade 

music. The list also included hymns/gospel, choral/glee club, mood/easy listening, contemporary folk, ethnic (national tradition), rock, Latin/Spanish/Salsa, 

rap, operetta/musical comedy, opera, and classical/chamber music. 

Those Who "Like Jazz" 

The overall demographic profile for those who express a liking for jazz 

corresponds closely to the demographic profiles for the various forms of 

participation in jazz. The rates climb steadily with income and education 

(although, as before, the percentage of the income group "under $5,000" is 

anomalously high). The highest rates are found in the 25-to-34 age group, 

declining steadily thereafter. Blacks and males show higher rates of preference 

than whites and females. 

The numbers, however, are considerably higher than those for participation. 

More than a third (34 percent) of adult Americans, or approximately 63 million 

people, express a liking for jazz. Moreover, these numbers show a sharp increase 

from 1982, when the comparable figures were 26 percent, or 43 million. 

Table 3 shows the age distribution of those who "liked jazz" in 1982 and 

1992. The comparison shows a significant change in age distribution over the 

decade. 

There are several ways of examining these data. The first is to look at the 

percentages within each age group who report liking jazz (the number not in 

parentheses). By this measure, only the 18-to-24 age group has remained stable. 

All the remaining groups show a sharp increase, with the largest increases coming 
 

 

34 I Jazz in America 

TABLE 3. Age Distribution of Respondents Who Liked Jazz in 

1982 and 1992 

1982 1992 

Age 

% who report % of total 

liking jazz "jazz likers" 

% who report % 

liking jazz "jazz

of total 

 likers" 

18-24 

25-34 

35-44 

45-54 

55-64 

65-74 

75+ 

32 

33 

23 

27 

23 

17 

8 

(21.5) 

(29.7) 

(14.7) 

(14.0) 

(11.9) 

(6.3) 

(1.9) 

30 

40 

38 

32 

29 

26 

21 

(11.8) 

(27.4) 

(24.5) 

(14.4) 

(9.9) 

(7.7) 

(4.3) 

in the 35-to-44 and 75-and-over age groups. This reflects the overall increase 

in the numbers of those who like jazz. The overall distribution in both surveys 

is the same--a peak in both rate and sheer numbers at 25 to 34--but the rise 

to this peak is more steep in 1992 than in 1982, and the falloff much more 

gradual. 

Another way of examining the data is to consider what percentage of the 

total is attributable to each age group (the number in parentheses)--to see, in 

other words, how the uneven patterns of growth have redistributed the relative 

sizes of the various age groups that report liking jazz. This measure shows a sharp 

decline by the 18-to-24 group, and sharp increases by the 35-to-44 and 

75-and-over groups. 

Finally, one may examine the tastes of age cohorts. This suggests that the 

relatively high enthusiasm for jazz by 18-to-24-year-olds and 25-to-34-year-olds 

in 1982 has translated into correspondingly high enthusiasm for jazz by 

25-to-34-year-olds and 35-to-44-year-olds in 1992 (even if the enthusiasm has 

not necessarily been translated into greater participation through attendance or 

the media). Similarly, one can connect the preference for jazz of the 65-to-74 

group in 1982 with the higher rates for those 75 and older in 1992. 

Not surprisingly, the third of all adult Americans who "like jazz" participate 

in jazz at much higher rates than the population as a whole: 49 percent watch 

jazz on television in some form, 50 percent listen to jazz recordings, and 67 

percent listen to jazz radio. Even higher percentages of those who participate 

say that they like jazz: 77 percent of those who watch jazz on television, 81 

percent of those who listen to jazz radio, and 86 percent of those who listen to 
Musical Preferences I 35 

jazz recordings. This still means, however, that sizeable percentages of those who 

participated in some way in jazz do not report that they like the music. These 

percentages are higher for the free broadcast media (19 percent for radio, 23 

percent for television) than for recordings. 

Those Who Like Jazz "Best of All" 

The percentage of the adult population who say they like jazz "best of all" 

musical genres is considerably smaller than those who simply say they "like jazz": 

5 percent as opposed to 34 percent. But this still translates into approximately 

9.5 million Americans for whom jazz is preferred above all musical genres, and 

it represents a substantial increase over the comparable figures (3 percent, or 5 

million) reported for 1982. 

The demographic profile of this more dedicated audience reveals the same 

tendency toward disproportionate representation by males and African Americans already noted among those who attend jazz performances more frequently. 

Slightly more men (54 percent) than women "like jazz"; among those who like 

jazz "best of all," the ratio of men to women widens to nearly 7:3 (68 percent 

to 32 percent). African Americans constitute 18 percent of those who "like jazz," 

but 33 percent of those who like jazz "best of all." The percentage of African 

Americans who belong to this latter category (i 6 percent) is four times as great 

as that for white Americans (4 percent). 

Shifts in age and education between those who "like jazz" and those who 

like it "best of all" are more subtle. Those who like jazz "best of all" are slightly 

less likely than those who "like jazz" to be either very young or very old: the 

highest rates are found in the 35-to-44 age group (6.4 percent). They are also 

slightly more likely to be more highly educated. Income figures, on the other 

hand, are essentially identical for the two categories. 

Quite logically, those who "like jazz best" are much more inclined to 

participate in jazz. Forty-four percent attend jazz performances; 74 percent 

watch jazz in some form on television; 79 percent listen to jazz recordings; and 

89 percent listen to jazz radio--indicating that radio is a medium for dissemination of the music to nearly all serious jazz fans. 

Nevertheless, the broad audience for jazz radio shows the lowest proportion 

of dedicated jazz fans--albeit by a narrow margin: 16 percent of those who listen 

to jazz radio report liking jazz best, compared with 18 percent of those who 

watch jazz on television in some form, 20 percent of those who attend jazz 

performances, and 21 percent of those who listen to jazz recordings. 
36 I Jazz in America 

Preference for Jazz in Relation to Other Musical Genres 

The detailed demographic information on those expressing preference for 

the other 19 musical genres surveyed in the SPPA provides an intriguing and 

highly useful way of situating the taste for jazz in a broader social context. 

Where does jazz fall in this broad spectrum of musical taste? All 20 musical 

genres are included in the discussions of music liked "best of all." Unfortunately 

the data are flawed for those who "like" the four categories of new age, mood/easy, 

choral/glee, and gospel/hymns. These genres are therefore omitted from the 

following discussions of music "liked." Of the 16 other genres, jazz ranks fifth, 

between big bands and classical/chamber music. Country and western is the most 

popular genre, as it was in 1982 and 1985. It is the only musical genre that more 

than half of adult Americans say they like, while jazz and classical music are liked 

by about one-third of them. Table 4 shows the percentages of respondents who 

said they "liked" the 10 genres that were most popular. 

The position of jazz is approximately the same when the question is which 

genre is preferred above all others. Several genres--blues, bluegrass, and show 

tunes--prove to have wide but shallow appeal and drop in rank. Others, such 

as jazz and classical, have a more dedicated following and rise in the standings, 

which now include mood and gospel. Country and rock, the dominant genres 

of popular music, lead the list (followed by the 13 percent who declined to name 

a favorite genre). Religious and mood music follow, with the two dominant "art 

music" genres, jazz and classical, not far behind. (Opera reports a much smaller 

audience.) Table 5 shows the percentages of respondents who reported liking 1 

of 10 musical genres "best of all." 

TABLE 4.	 Percentages of Respondents Who Liked the 10
 

Most Popular Musical Genres
 

Genre	 Percentage 

1. Country/western	 52 

2. Rock	 44 

3. Blues/R&B	 40 

4. Big band	 35 

5. Jazz	 34 

6. Classical/chamber	 33 

7. Bluegrass	 29 

8. Show tunes/operettas 28 

9. Soul	 24 

0. Folk	 23 
Musical Preferences I 37 

TABLE 5.	 Percentages of Respondents Who Liked a Musical
 

Genre Best of All*
 

Genre	 Percentage 

1. Country	 21 

2. Rock 14 

3. Hymns/gospel	 9 

4. Mood/easy	 9 

5. Classical 6 

6. Jazz	 5 

7. Big band	 4 

8. Ethnic	 3 

9. Latin	 3 

10. Blues	 3 

"1 3% of the respondents indicated they preferred "no one type." 

Where does the distinctive demographic profile of the jazz audience fall in 

relation to those of other genres? To answer the question, each demographic 

factor must be considered separately. 

Education 

The rates for liking a given musical genre tend to rise steadily with 

educational level (the exceptions are country and rock). Jazz rises more steeply 

than most, from 10 percent of those with a grade school education to nearly 

half of college graduates, but it does not show the substantial increase for 

graduate school that classical, opera, and musicals show. Among those with 

some college education, rock (54 percent), country (50 percent), and blues (50 

percent) show a broader appeal than jazz (42 percent). Among college graduates, 

rock (54 percent) and classical music (51 percent) are liked by more respondents 

than jazz (50 percent) and blues (50 percent). Among those with graduate 

degrees, the number expressing a liking for jazz (54 percent) trails classical music 

(65 percent) and blues (59 percent). Figure 8 shows the percentages of each 

educational group that liked some selected genres in 1992. 

The percentage of people in each education category who "like jazz best" 

increases steadily with increasing education. Rock and country attract sizeable 

percentages for all groups (although country steadily declines), while classical 

music shows the strongest gains. Those with graduate education are the most 

likely to report preferring no one genre (17 percent), followed by preferences 
38 I Jazz in America 

FIGURE 8. Musical Taste and Education, 1992 (Percentages 

Who Reported "Liking" Various Genres) 

Jazz + Musicals ~ Folk ~ Rock 

Classical ~ Blues ~ Country ~ Mood/ 

Easy 

Opera --~-- Big Band 

70­

60­

10-


Grade Some High Some College Graduate 

School High School College Graduate School 

School Graduate 

for classical (15 percent), rock (12 percent), country (9 percent), and jazz (8 

percent). 

Income 

The patterns for income are similar to those for education: steady rises with 

income for most genres, including jazz. (The exceptions are rap, soul, Latin, 

and country.) For jazz, this ascent is preceded by a relatively high rate for the 

income group under $5,000 noted earlier--a pattern shared by reggae and blues. 

In this lowest income group, substantially higher percentages express a liking 
MusicaIPreferences I 39 

for country (43 percent), rock (36 percent), and blues (35 percent) than for jazz 

(27 percent). More people in the highest income group ($50,000 and above) 

like rock (55 percent), blues (52 percent), and country (48 percent) than jazz 

and classical (47 percent each). 

The rates of those who "like jazz best" similarly rise with income, although 

far less steeply. Those in the $25,000-to-$50,000 and the $50,000-and-above 

groups are only slightly more likely than the national average to prefer jazz to 

all other genres (6 percent and 7 percent, respectively). In the highest income 

group, jazz advocates (7 percent) are outnumbered by devotees for rock (17 

percent), "no one type" (14 percent), mood (13 percent), country (11 percent), 

and classical (10 percent). 

Age 

Several distinct patterns appear for musical taste with respect to age. One 

large category shows markedly increased interest with age, with the most notable 

increase occurring for big band. Others in this category are classical, opera, and 

musicals. Another category consists of genres for which interest decreases 

steadily with age: reggae, rap, soul, and rock. Jazz fits into a third category: those 

genres that rise to a peak somewhere in the middle before declining with age. 

Folk, blues, country, and bluegrass show the same trend. The peak for jazz is in 

the 25-to-34 age group, where it appeals to 41 percent, placing it behind rock 

(59 percent), country (50 percent), easy (47 percent), and blues (46 percent) in 

popularity. Figure 9 shows the percentages of each age group that reported liking 

some selected musical genres in 1992. 

The rates of those who "like jazz best" show a far less clearly defined pattern. 

Slightly above-average percentages are found in the broad range of 25-to-64­

year-olds, with significantly lower figures in the youngest and oldest groups. 

Race 

The data on musical preference clearly show that musical taste in this country 

is stratified by race. Only a few genres are relatively "race-neutral." The remaining 

genres tend to be strongly identified with one race or another. White Americans 

show strong likings for country (57 percent), rock (46 percent), big band (37 

percent), classical (35 percent), and bluegrass (33 percent). (The corresponding 

figures for black Americans are much lower: country, 19 percent; rock, 23 

percent; classical, 18 percent; bluegrass, 12 percent.) Black Americans show 

strong likings for soul (68 percent), reggae (43 percent), and rap (34 percent). 
40 I Jazz in America 

FIGURE 9. Musical Taste and Age, 1992 (Percentages Who 

Reported "Liking" Various Genres) 

Jazz -~- Musicals ~ Folk ~ Rock 

Classical ~ Blues ~ Country ~ Mood/ 

Easy 

Opera --~-- Big Band 

70­

60­

50­

~ 30­

" 20­

10­

18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65-74 75-96 

There are two genres that, although most strongly liked by black audiences, 

also have a significant white audience. Blues is liked by 59 percent of black 

Americans and by 38 percent of white Americans; jazz is liked by 54 percent of 

blacks and 32 percent of whites. Because white Americans greatly outnumber 

black Americans, the racial distribution of the jazz-liking audience is still roughly 

the same as for participation: 80 percent white, 18 percent black, 2 percent 

"other." (The distribution for blues is essentially the same: 81 percent white, 17 

percent black, 2 percent "other.") But the figures clearly show that more than 

half of all black Americans report a liking for jazz--a percentage that is 

comparable to the number of white Americans who like country music. Table 

6 shows the 10 musical genres that black respondents most frequently said they 
MusicaIPreferences I 41 

TABLE 6. Musical Genres Liked by Black Americans 

Percentage who 

Genre "liked" the genre 

1. Soul 68 

2. Blues 59 

3. Jazz 54 

4. Reggae 43 

5. Rap 34 

6. Ethnic 30 

7. Latin 25 

8. Rock 23 

9. Big band 22 

O. Classical/chamber 18 

"liked" and the percentages who liked them. Table 7 shows the counterpart 

genres and percentages for whites. 

The figures for the genres liked "best of all" show an even more prominent 

racial polarization. There is very little overlap in the top seven genres by race, 

and even with these, racial disparity is evident. Religious music (gospel) is by 

far the genre most preferred by blacks (30 percent), while it commands the 

allegiance of only 7 percent of whites. Nine percent of whites prefer mood music 

above all other genres, compared with 4 percent of blacks. Country and rock, 

preferred above all others by large percentages by white Americans (24 percent 

TABLE 7. Musical Genres Liked by White Americans 

Percentage who 

Genre "liked" the genre 

1. Country 57 

2. Rock 46 

3. Blues 38 

4. Big band 37 

5. Classical/chamber 35 

6. Bluegrass 33 

7. Jazz 32 

8. Show tunes/operettas 30 

9. Folk 24 

10. Ethnic 21 
42 I Jazz in America 

and 16 percent, respectively), show relatively little support among black Americans. Similarly, soul, blues, rap, and reggae have significantly higher percentages 

of black adherents than white. 

Jazz lands in the top seven genres for both races--testimony once again to 

its cross-ethnic appeal. But jazz ranks second only to religious music among 

blacks, with a remarkably high 16 percent preferring it above all other types of 

music. Only 4 percent of white Americans express a similar commitment to 

jazz--well behind the numbers for country, rock, mood, religious, classical, and 

big band. 

The racial distribution of this dedicated audience for jazz is still predominantly white (63 percent), but a third (34 percent) are black--three times the 

percentage of black Americans in the population as a whole. Jazz joins soul, 

reggae, rap, blues, and religious music as genres for which the dedicated audience 

is at least one-third black. 

Table 8 shows the percentages of blacks who liked particular genres "best of 

all." Table 9 shows the equivalent percentages for the top seven genres for whites. 

Table 10 shows, for six of the most popular musical genres, what percentage 

of the audience that liked this genre best is black. These percentages should be 

compared with the 11 percent of the U.S. population that is black. 

TABLE 8. Musical Genres Liked Best by Black Americans* 

Percentage who 

Genre "liked best" 

1. Hymns/gospel 30 

2. Jazz 16

3. Soul 9 

4. Blues 8

5. Rap 4 

6. Mood/easy 4 

7. Reggae 3 

"1 5% of the respondents indicated they preferred "no one type." 
MusicaIPreferences I 43 

TABLE 9. Musical Genres Liked Best by White Americans* 

Percentage who 

Genre "liked best" 

1. Country 24 

2. Rock 16 

3. Mood/easy 9 

4. Hymns/gospel 7 

5. Classical 6 

6. Big band 4 

7. Jazz 4 

"13% of the respondents indicated they preferred "no one type." 

TABLE 10. Black Audiences for Musical Genres 

Percentage of "liked best" 

Genre audience that is black 

1. Soul 61 

2. Reggae 42 

3. Rap 37 

4. Blues 37 

5. Hymns/gospel 36 

6. Jazz 34 

Gender 

The 20 genres surveyed in the SPPA can be grouped into three categories 

according to gender preferences: (1) those liked disproportionately by women; 

(2) those liked more or less equally by both genders; and (3) those liked 

disproportionately by men. The female-dominated category includes classical, 

soul, opera, and musicals. The gender-neutral category includes country, big 

band, folk, and blues. Jazz falls into the third, male-dominated category, along 

with rap, rock, parade, and bluegrass. 

In the figures for genres liked "best of all," the gender disparity is much 

more pronounced. Indeed, the dedicated jazz audience is tilted more toward the 

male side than the audience of any of the other 19 genres surveyed, even more 

than the ostensibly macho genres of parade, rock, and rap. Tables 11 and 12 

show the percentages of males/females for selected male-dominated and femaledominated genres. 
44 I Jazz in America 

TABLE 11. Gender Preferences for Male-Dominated 

Musical Genres 

Percentage who like the 

genre "best of all" 

Genre Male Female 

Jazz 68 32 

Parade 65 35 

Bluegrass 63 37 

Rock 61 39 

Rap 60 40 

TABLE 12. Gender Preferences for Female-Dominated 

Musical Genres 

Percentage who like the 

genre "best of all" 

Genre Male Female 

Opera 30 70 

Hymns/gospel 32 68 

Musicals 35 65 

Choral 37 63 

Mood 37 63 

Soul 39 61 

Classical 42 58 

Cross-tabulations 

What other kinds of music do those who "like jazz" like? Perhaps the best 

way to address the question of the musical taste of the jazz audience is to see 

how its preferences for other genres deviate from the national average. 

On the whole, jazz listeners have catholic tastes and state a liking for nearly 

all genres at a higher rate than the population as a whole. But certain genres are 

clearly more appealing than others. Topping the list with the largest margins 

over the national average are blues and soul, two of the most popular genres 

among black Americans, followed closely by big band music, a genre with close 

ties to jazz of the Swing Era. Classical music, musicals, and reggae also show 

large margins. Only country music shows a neutral relationship. Table 13 shows 
MusicaIPreferences I 45 

TABLE 13.	 Percentage of Those Who Like Jazz Who Also Like
 

Other Musical Genres, Including Comparison
 

with Population as a Whole
 

Those who Population
 

Genre like jazz as a whole Difference
 

Blues	 75 40 +35 

Big band 57	 35
 +22

Classical 53 33 +20
 

Rock
 52 44 + 8
 

Country 52 52 --


Soul	 48 24 +24
 

Musicals 46 28 +18
 

Bluegrass 43 29 +14
 

Reggae 39
 19 +20
 

Latin 34 20 +14
 

Ethnic	 34 22 +12
 

Folk
 30 23 + 7 

Parade 26 18 + 8
 

Opera 19 12 + 7
 

Rap 18 12 + 6
 

the percentage of those who "like jazz" who also like other genres and compares 

these percentages with percentages for the population as a whole. What musical 

genres were "liked best" by those attending jazz performances? Jazz, not surprisingly, leads the list, followed by "no one type"--suggesting that a consistent 

percentage of those who decline to name a favorite genre are, in fact, jazz fans. 

Of the largest groups, rock fans participate in jazz in large numbers but are 

somewhat underrepresented, compared with national averages, as are fans of 

religious and mood music. Fans of country music are significantly underrepresented. Blues, classical, big band, new age, and reggae music typically show 

above-average representation. Tables 14, 15, and 16 show the percentages of 

those participating in jazz through attendance, radio, and recordings, respectively, who "like best" the various genres, compared with the national averages. 

Another way of examining the same data is to see what percentage of those 

who "like best" each musical genre participate in jazz through attendance at jazz 

events or via the media. The youthful, dedicated fans of reggae, blues, and new 

age show a strong inclination to participate in jazz in all forms. The somewhat 

older groups whose favorite music is opera, big band, soul, classical, or musicals 

participate in jazz somewhat more than the average (although fans of soul listen 
46 I Jazz in America 

TABLE 14. Musical Genre Preferences of Jazz Performance 

Attenders, Compared with Population as a Whole 

Percentage Difference 

Genre liked best Jazz attenders 

Population 

as a whole 

Jazz 

Rock 

Classical 

Hymns/gospel 

Mood 

20 

12 

7 

6 

6 

5 

14 

6 

9 

9 

+15 

- 2 

+ 1 

- 3 

- 3 

Country 

Blues 

Big band 

New age 

Reggae 

6 

5 

5 

3 

2 

21 

2 

4 

2 

1 

-15 

+ 3 

+ 1 

+ 1 

+ 1 

"No one type" 17 13 + 4 

TABLE 15. Musical Genre Preferences of Listeners to Jazz 

Radio, Compared with Population as a Whole 

Percentage Difference 

Jazz radio Population 

Genre liked best listeners as a whole 

jazz 16 5 +11 

Rock 13 14 - 1 

Mood 8 9 -1 

Country 8 21 -13 

Hymns/gospel 7 9 -2 

Classical 7 6 + 1 

Big band 5 4 + 1 

Blues 4 2 + 2 

Soul 3 2 + 1 

New age 3 2 + 1 

Latin 2 3 - 1 

"No one type" 1 7 13 
MusicaIPreferences I 47 

TABLE 16. Musical Genre Preferences of Listeners to
 

Jazz Recordings, Compared with Population
 

as a Whole
 

Percentage Difference 

Listeners to Population
 

Genre liked best jazz recordings as a whole
 

Jazz 21 5 +16
 

Rock 13 14 - 1
 

Classical 7 6 + 1
 

Mood
 6 9 - 3
 

Hymns/gospel 6 9
 - 3 

Country 6 21 -1 5
 

Blues 4 2
 + 2
 

Big band 4 4 --


New age 3
 2 + 1
 

Soul 3 2 + 1
 

Reggae 2 1 + 1
 

"No one type" 1 7 13 + 4 

to a lot of jazz radio). Again, of the four largest groups, rock fans participate at 

a slightly below-average rate, religious and mood fans somewhat below average, 

while country fans participate hardly at all. Tables 17, 18, and 19 show the 

percentage of those who "like best" a given genre, who participate in jazz through 

attendance, radio, and recordings, respectively, compared with the national 

average for those activities. 
48 [ Jazz in America 

TABLE 17. Jazz Performance Attendance in Order of 

Genre Preference 

Genre liked best 

Jazz 

Reggae 

Blues 

New age 

Choral 

Opera 

Big band 

Soul 

Musicals 

Classical 

Folk 

Rock 

Rap 

Mood 

Hymns/gospel 

Ethnic 

Bluegrass 

Parade 

Latin 

Country 

"No one type" 

Percentage who attended 

a jazz performance 

44
 

28
 

25
 

21
 

16
 

15
 

14
 

13
 

13
 

13
 

(National average: 11 )
 

10
 

10
 

9
 

8
 

8
 

6
 

6
 

5
 

4
 

3
 

15
 
MusicaIPreferences I 49 

TABLE 18. Listeners to Jazz Radio in Order of 

Genre Preference 

Genre liked best 

Percentage who listen to 

jazz radio 

Jazz 89 

New age 51 

Soul 48 

Blues 48 

Reggae 46 

Opera 39 

Folk 38 

Big band 34 

Classical 33 

Choral 32 

(National average: 28) 

Rock 26 

Musicals 24 

Mood 24 

Rap 23 

Hymns/gospel 21 

Bluegrass 19 

Latin 19 

Ethnic 12 

Parade 12 

Country 10 

"No one type" 35 
50 Jazz in America 

TABLE 19.	 Listeners to Jazz Recordings in Order of 

Genre Preference 

Percentage who listened 

Genre liked best to jazz recordings 

Jazz	 79 

Reggae 46 

Blues 35 

New age 35 

Soul 30 

Folk	 28 

Opera	 27 

Choral	 24 

Classical	 24 

Rap	 22 

Big band	 22 

(National average: 20) 

Rock 18 

Musicals 15 

Mood 14 

Hymns/gospel 14 

Parade 11 

Latin 9 

Bluegrass 8 

Ethnic 7 

Country 6 

"No one type"	 26 
Performers
 

The numbers of adult Americans who actually perform jazz rather than simply 

listening to it are, not surprisingly, quite modest. Approximately 1.7 percent 

(3.2 million) reported "performing or rehearsing" jazz. Less than half of these 

performers (0.7 percent, or 1.3 million) performed or rehearsed for a public 

performance. The 1982 SPPA reported approximately the same percentage (0.8 

percent) for public performance of jazz. Substantially larger numbers (4.2 

percent, or 7.8 million) report performing classical music, although the percentage for public performance of classical music (0.9 percent) is not much higher 

than that for jazz. 

What are the demographic characteristics of jazz performers as a whole? 

They are predominantly male; the male/female ratio is roughly 60:40. They are 

predominantly white, although blacks and Asians are somewhat more likely to 

perform jazz in private or in public than are white Americans. (The rates for 

performance are 2.2 percent for blacks, 2.9 percent for Asians, and 1.7 percent 

for white non-Hispanics; blacks account for 15 percent of the jazz performers; 

Asians, 5 percent.) Jazz performers are predominantly youthful, with 45 percent 

under age 35 and 71 percent under age 45. The highest rate (2.5 percent) is 

reported for the 18-to-24 group (suggesting that many performers may be 

students), followed by the 35-to-44 group (2.1 percent) and the 25-to-34 group 

(1.9 percent). 

Inclination to perform rises steadily with education: over 3 percent of those 

with graduate education perform jazz, and all those with at least some college 

education are more likely to perform jazz than the population as a whole. The 

correlation between performance and income is much less clear. The highest 

percentage of performers appears in the $5,000-or-below group (2.7 percent), 

again suggesting a significant number of student performers. The next highest 

rates are for those with an income from $15,000 to $25,000 (2 percent) and 

over $50,000 (1.9 percent). 

Demographic analysis of the tiny number of public performers is risky 

because the sample is so small. But the data suggest that the gender disparity 

widens further (a male/female ratio in excess of 7:3), and that blacks are 

disproportionately represented (they account for about 25 percent of the total 

number of public performers). Public performers are somewhat less youthful 

5]
 
52 I Jazz in America 

than jazz performers generally (only about 30 percent are under age 34), with 

the greatest concentration in the 35-to-44 range. 

Not surprisingly, there is a strong correlation between performing jazz and 

attending jazz performances. About 60 percent of jazz performers attend jazz 

performances; they make up 9 percent of the attending audience. About 70 

percent of those who perform in public attend--a high percentage, but one that 

means that nearly a third of those who perform in public evidently do not count 

their own performances and did not attend performances of others. 
Music Education
 

I

s there a correlation between music education and jazz participation? It should
 

be remembered, first of all, that music education does not necessarily mean
 

jazz education. Jazz has only recently attained even a modest profile as an
 

officially sanctioned art and has made only modest inroads into educational
 

networks that remain overwhelmingly committed to the European art tradition.
 

Nevertheless, the basic technical training for performance of European 

music has served well as a foundation for most varieties of American music, 

including jazz. The image of the autodidact may loom large in jazz mythology, 

but the large majority of jazz performers since at least the 1930s have been 

literate in Western musical notation, and most have received some conventional 

training on their instrument. It is not surprising, therefore, to learn that 93 

percent of the jazz performers have at some time taken music lessons (compared 

with 40 percent of the adult population as a whole). Four percent of those who 

have taken music lessons perform jazz (compared with less than 2 percent of the 

adult population as a whole). Moreover, those who have taken music lessons 

attend jazz performances at a higher rate (17 percent) than the national average 

(11 percent) and make up 61 percent of the audience. 

Music appreciation courses, on the other hand, probably have a far more 

indirect relationship to jazz per se. While many colleges and universities now 

offer courses in jazz history or appreciation, the large majority focus on 

European music and include such genres as jazz only as ancillary topics. 

There is, in fact, a strong correlation between taking courses in music 

appreciation and participating in jazz. Although only 18 percent of the population as a whole has taken such courses, 40 percent of jazz attenders and 62 

percent of jazz performers have done so. This relationship, however, probably 

reflects two factors: (1) the audience for jazz is considerably more educated than 

the population as a whole and therefore far more likely to take courses that are 

usually only offered in institutions of higher education; and (2) the audience 

for jazz is more interested in European music than the population as a whole 

(about half of those who "like jazz" also like classical music, and vice versa) and 

therefore is more inclined to take advantage of opportunities to learn more about 

the subject. 
Leisure Activities
 

On the whole, those adult Americans who attend jazz performances are 

more inclined than the general population to participate in a variety of 

leisure activities. This is not surprising, since participation in both leisure 

activities and jazz is strongly correlated with education and income. 

The activities favored by jazz attenders broadly mirror those favored by the 

population as a whole, with going to the movies (84 percent), exercising (82 

percent), and going to amusement parks (66 percent) leading the list. The SPPA 

showed that jazz attenders participate at substantially higher rates than the 

national average for all activities surveyed. The two activities that showed the 

smallest increases over the national average--gardening and home improvements--were also the only two activities strongly associated with older Americans. The highest rates of participation for these activities occurred among 

35-to-64-year-olds for home improvements and 45-to-74-year-olds for gardening--well past the peak of jazz interest in the 25-to-44-yearoold group. Two of 

the activities that showed the most substantial rate increase above the national 

average--"participation in sports" and "attendance at sports events"--were also 

the most male-dominated in the population as a whole. Table 20 shows the 

percentage of those attending jazz performances who also participated in nine 

surveyed leisure activities, compared with the national average for those activities. 
Leisure Activities I 55 

TABLE 20. Jazz Performance Attenders’ Participation 

in Other Leisure Activities, Compared with 

Population as a Whole 

Percent of Percent of 

jazz attenders population 

who as a whole who 

Activity participate participate Difference 

Movies 84 59 +25 

Exercise 82 60 +22 

Amusement parks 66 50 +16 

Participation in sports 62 39 +23 

Gardening 61 55 + 6 

Attendance at sports events 59 37 +22 

Home improvements 57 48 +9 

Charity work 51 33 +18 

Outdoor activities 50 34 +16 
Conclusions 

The decade from 1982 to 1992 has seen a crucial generational shift in .jazz. 

Many of the giants from the formative years of swing and modern jazz passed 

from the scene during this period, among them Thelonious Monk (1982), 

Count Basie (1984), Benny Goodman (1986), Miles Davis (1991), and Dizzy 

Gillespie (1993). Their deaths symbolize the end of an era and have caused some 

longtime observers of the jazz scene to wonder whether the links between 

contemporary forms of music making and the jazz tradition have become 

attenuated. "Jazz has always lived not by the hipness of the public," writes Eric 

Hobsbawm, "but by what Cornel West calls ’the network of apprenticeship,’ 

the ’transmission of skills and sensibilities to new practitioners.’ The cords of 

this network are flaying. Some of them have snapped.’’31 

And yet the contemporary image of jazz--as exemplified by the new 

generation of performers led by Wynton Marsalis, if not by Kenny G--is not 

only young, black, and hip, but fiercely committed to ideals of tradition, artistic 

discipline, and education. Jazz is undergoing a historic transition from a music 

embedded in popular culture (though carving out an ironic stance to it) to an 

official, if belatedly recognized, part of the art establishment. "Straight-ahead 

jazz almost died in the 1970s," wrote a correspondent for Time in 1990, "as 

record companies embraced the electronically enhanced jazz-pop amalgam 

known as fusion. Now a whole generation of prodigiously talented young 

musicians is going back to the roots, using acoustic instruments, playing 

recognizable tunes and studying the styles of earlier jazzmen.’’32 These two 

assessments--one pessimistic and elegiac, the other optimistic and celebratory-sum up the ambiguous position of jazz as it approaches the end of the 

century. Compared with other "official" arts, jazz still retains traces of its origins 

in popular culture: the relative youthfulness of its audience and the associations 

with old (blues) and new (rap, reggae) forms of African American music. But 

contemporary audiences are increasingly likely to encounter jazz in settings 

carefully sealed off from the marketplace: college classrooms, PBS specials, 

concert halls. As the new century nears, jazz will continue to compete with the 

European "classical" tradition as the music of choice for the training of young 

musicians.33 And knowledge of jazz, its history, . and its major performers will 

increasingly be seen as a desirable outcome of education, a crucial component 

of American "cultural capital." 

56 
Conclusions I 57 

This presents advocates of jazz--those who wish to see it thrive as an 

American art form--with a peculiar challenge: to marshal the prestige and 

financial resources of the arts and educational establishment on its behalf 

without endangering its appeal to a youthful, pop-oriented audience. Whether 

the current audience profile for jazz will persist into the future is a key question. 

Will jazz become even more the special province of the affluent, the educated, 

and the middle-aged; or will it continue to be, as it is now, the favored music 

of the 25-to-44 age group, delicately balanced between the adolescent enthusiasm for pop music and the considerably older audience for most other official 

arts? Will the African American audience continue to embrace jazz--perhaps 

as its own officially sanctioned art--or will jazz be displaced by newer forms of 

vernacular African American music that speak more directly to current concerns 

and tastes? As jazz becomes more integrated into existing arts networks and less 

associated with the insular, intense world of enthusiasts, will the imbalance in 

participation between men and women gradually disappear? 

These questions cannot be answered by the current survey; the information 

it contains can only provide fuel for speculation. And yet for those who cherish 

jazz as a uniquely American form of artistic expression and who have some 

sense of the extraordinary path it has taken over the past century, these figures 

cannot help but encourage a feeling of optimism. The audience for jazz is 

modest, but diverse and e,,x~anding; in the language of market research, it 

"reaches all demographics. For the foreseeable future, the music will continue to be heard. 
 

Appendix A 

Survey of Public Participation in the 

Arts Questionnaire, 1992 

INTRODUCTION - Now I have some questions about your leisure activities. The Bureau of the 

Census is collecting this information for the National Endowment for the Arts. The survey is

authorized by Title 20, United States Code, section 954 and Title 13, United States Code, section 

8. Your participation in this interview is voluntary and there are no penalties for not answering 

some or all of the questions. (If PERSONAL INTSRVIEW, hand respondent the Privacy Act Statement, 

SPPA- 13.) 	 ~ 

The following questions are about YOUR

activities during the LAST 12 months-­

between 1, 19 __, and

.... 19__. 

With the exception of elementary or high

school performances, did YOU go to a live

jazz performance during the LAST 12

MONTHS? 

0~]No 

Yes - About how many times did you do 

this during the LAST 12 MONTHS? 

[~ Number of times 

2. (With the exception of elementary or high school performances,) Did you go to a live

classical music performance such as

symphony, chamber, or choral music

during the LAST 12 MONTHS? 

~ 0 [Z] No 

Yes - About how many times did you do 

this during the LAST 12 MONTHS? 

[~ Number of times 

3.	 (With the exception of elementary or high

school performances,) Did you go to a live

opera during the LAST 12 MONTHS? 

~ or~No 

Yes - About how many times did you do 

this during the LAST 12 MONTHS? 

[~ Number of times 

4. (With the exception of elementary or high

school performances,) Did you go to a live 

musical stage play or an operetta during

the LAST 12 MONTHS? 

Yes - About how many times did you do this during the LAST 12 MONTHS? 

[~ Number of times 

5.	 (With the exception of elementary or high

school performances,) Did you go to a live

performance of a non-musical stage play

during the LAST 12 MONTHS? 

Yes - About how many times did you do this during the LAST 12 MONTHS? 

[~ Number of times 

6.	 (With the exception of elementary or high

school performances,) Did you go to a live

ballet performance during the LAST 12

MONTHS? 

Yes - About how many times did you do this during the LAST 12 MONTHS? 

[~ Number of times 

7.	 (With the exception of elementary or high

school performances,) Did you go to a live

dance performance other than ballet, such

as modern, folk, or tap during the LAST 12

MONTHS? 

~ o[~No 

Yes - About how many times did you do this during the LAST 12 MONTHS? 

[~ Number of times 

8.	 (During the LAST 12 MONTHS,) Did you

visit an ART museum or gallery? 

~ oE:] No 

Yes - About how many times did you do 

this during the LAST 12 MONTHS? 

~ Number of times 

9.	 (During the LAST 12 MONTHS,) Did you

visit an ART fair or festival, or a CRAFT fair

or festival? 

~ 0[~] NO 

Yes - About how many times did you do 

this during the LAST 12 MONTHS? 

~] Number of times 

58 
Survey of Public Participation in the Arts Questionnaire, 1992 I 59 

10.	 (During the LAST 12 MONTHS,) Did you visit an historic perk or monument, or 

tour buildings, or neighborhoods for their

historic or design value? 

~ o[]No 

Yes - About how many times did you do 

this during the LAST 12 MONTHS? 

~]~ Number of times 

11.	 With the exception of books required for

work or school, did you read any books 

during the LAST 12 MONTHS? 

~ o(~No 

Yes - About how many books did you 

read during the LAST 12 MONTHS? 

~ Number of books 

12.	 (During the LAST 12 MONTHS,) Did you


read any -


Read answer categories 

a. Plays? ~ I~]No 2r-]Yes 

b. Poetry? r-~ ~[]No 2[]Yes 

c. Novels or short stories? [~ l~]No 2[]Yes 

13.	 (During the LAST 12 MONTHS,) Did you


listen to ­

a. A reading of poetry, 

either live or recorded? ~ ~[~No 2[]Yes 

b. A reading of novels or 

books either live or 

recorded? [~ ~[]No 2]~Yes 

14a.(During the LAST 12 MONTHS,) Did you
 watch a jazz performance on television or


a video (VCR) tape?
 

~l~No - Skip to item 14c 

Yes - Was that on TV, VCR, or both? 

~[]TV
 

~[~VCR
 

4[~ Both 

b.About how many times did you do this in the LAST 12 MONTHS? 

Number of times 

c. (During the LAST 12 MONTHS,) D d you


listen to jazz on radio?
 

~ ~ [~]No 

~[]Yes 

d.(During the LAST 12 MONTHS,} D d you
 listen to jazz records, tapes, or compact


discs?
 

d~No
 

2[]Yes
 

15a.(During the LAST 12 MONTHS,) Did you watch a classical music performance on 

television or a video (VCR) tape? 

lr~No- Skip to item 15c 

Yes - Was that on TV, VCR, or both? 

31~VCR 

4 [] Bot h 

b.About how many times did you do this (in

the LAST 12 MONTHS)? 

~ Number of times 

c. (During the LAST 12 MONTHS,) Did you

listen to classical music on radio? 

d.(During the LAST 12 MONTHS,) Did you

listen to classical music records, tapes or

compact discs? 

~ ~[]No
 

2[~Yes
 

16a.(During the LAST 12 MONTHS,) Did you watch an opera on television or a video 

(VCR) tape? 

~[]No - Skip to item 16c 

Yes - Was that on TV, VCR, or both? 

2[]TV 

3r~VCR 

4[]Both 

b.About how many times did you do this (in 

the LAST 12 MONTHS)? 

~ Number of times 

c. (During the LAST 12 MONTHS,) Did you

listen to opera music on radio? 

d. (During the LAST 12 MONTHS,) Did you

listen to opera music records, tapes, or

compact discs? 

~ ~[]No
 

2~]Yes
 

17a.With the exception of movies, did you 

watch a musical stage play or an operetta

on television or a video (VCR) tape during

the LAST 12 MONTHS? 

,r~No- Skip to item 17c 

Yes - Was that on TV, VCR, or both? 

3[]VCR 

4 [] Both 

b.About how many times did you do this (in

the LAST 12 MONTHS)? 

~ Number of times 

c.	 (During the LAST 12 MONTHS,) Did you 

listen to a musical stage play or an operetta

on radio? 

~ ~[]No 

2[~Yes 

d.(During the LAST 12 MONTHS,) Did you

listen to a musical stage play or an operetta

on records, tapes, or compact discs? 

~ ~[]No 

~Yes 
60 I Jazz in America 

18a.With the exception of movies, situation
 comedies, or TV series, did you watch a


non-musical stage play on television or a video
 

(VCR) tape during the LAST 12 MONTHS? 

~ ~[]No - Skip to item 18c 

Yes - Was that on TV, VCR, or both? 

2[~TV 

3[]VCR 

4 [] Both 

b. About how many times did you do this (in the 

LAST 12 MONTHS)? 

Number of times 

c. (During the LAST 12 MONTHS,) Did you listen

to a radio performance of a non-musical stage

play? 

~ ~[~No
 

2i~Yes
 

19a.With the exception of music videos, did you watch on television or a video (VCR) tape 

dance such as ballet, modern, folk, or tap

during the LAST 12 MONTHS? 

1FqNo - Skip tO item 20a 

Yes - Was that on TV, VCR, or both? 

2[]TV 

3[]VCR 

4 [] BOth 

b. About how many times did you do this (in

the LAST 12 MONTHS)? 

[~ Number of times 

20a.(During the LAST 12 MONTHS,) Did you watch a program about artists, art works, or art

museums on television or a video (VCR) tape? 

~I-]No - Skip to item 21a 

Yes - Was that on TV, VCR, or both? 

2~TV 

3[]VCR 

4 [] Both 

b. About how many times did you do this (in 

the LAST 12 MONTHS)? 

[~ Number of times 

21a01"m going to read a list of events that some
 people like to attend. If you could go to any of


these events as often as you wanted, which


ones would you go to MORE OFTEN than you


do now? I’ll read the list. Go to -


Mark (X) all that apply. 

[]Jazz music performances 

2[]Classical music performances
 

[] Operas
 

[] Musical plays or operettas
 

[] Non-musical plays
 

[] Ballet performances
 

7~Dance performances other than ballet 

B[]Art museums or galleries 

sE]None of these - Skip to item 22a 

If only one is chosen, skip to item 22a. 

If more than one is chosen, ask ­

b. Which of these would you like to do most? 

°5-~ [~ Category number 

oo[]No one thing most 

FORM SPPA 2 (49 92) 

22a.The following questions are about your
 participation in other leisure activities.
 

Approximately how many hours of television 

do you watch on an average day? 

Number of hours 

b. During the LAST 12 MONTHS, did YOU go
 

out to the movies?
 

2[~Yes 

c. With the exception of youth sports, did you 

go to any amateur or professional sports

events during the LAST 12 MONTHS? 

~ ,[]No 

2[]Yes 

d. During the LAST 12 MONTHS, did you go to

an amusement or theme park, a carnival, or

a similar place of entertainment? 

~ ~[N0 

2[]Yes 

e. During the LAST 12 MONTHS, did you jog,

lift weights, walk, or participate in any other

exercise program? 

~ ,~]No 

2~]Yes 

f. During the LAST 12 MONTHS, did you

participate in any sports activity, such as

softball, basketball, golf, bowling, skiing, or

tennis? 

2[~Yes 

g. Did you participate in any outdoor activities, 

such as camping, hiking, or canoeing during

the LAST 12 MONTHS? 

2[]Yes 

h. Did you do volunteer or charity work during

the LAST 12 MONTHS? 

BE]Yes 

Did you make repairs or improvements on

your own home during the LAST 12 

MONTHS? 

~[]No
 

2C]Yes
 

Did you work with indoor plants or do any

gardening for pleasure during the LAST 12

MONTHS? 

~[]No

2F]Yes 

23a.(During the LAST 12 MONTHS,) Did you work
 

with pottery, ceramics, jewelry, or do any


leatherwork or metalwork?
 

~ []No - Skip to item 24a
 2FqYes
 

b. Did you publicly display any of your works? 

~ ~No 

2[]Yes 

Page 3
 
Survey of Public Participation in the Arts Questionnaire, 1992 I 61 

24a.(During the LAST 12 MONTHS,) Did you do
 

any weaving, crocheting, quilting,


needlepoint, or sewing?
 

~ [] No - Skip to item 25a
 

2~Yes
 

b. Did you publicly display any of your works? 

~ ,rqNo 

2FqYes 

25a.(During the LAST 12 MONTHS,) Did you
 make photographs, movies, or video tapes


as an artistic activity?
 

~ [~No - Skip to item 26a
 

2~]Yes
 

b. Did you publicly display any of your works? 

~ llaNo
 

2~Yes
 

26a.(During the LAST 12 MONTHS,) Did you do
 any painting, drawing, sculpture, or
 

printmaking activities?
 

~]No - Skip to item 27a
 

2[~]Yes
 

b. Did you publicly display any of your v. orks? 

~ ,[]No
 

2[~Yes
 

27a.With the exception of work or school, did you do any creative writing such as stories, poems, 

or plays during the LAST 12 MONTHS? 

~	 ~FqNo - Skip to item 28a
 

2~Yes
 

b. Were any of your writings published? 

~ ~ [~] No
 ~FqYes
 

28a. Did you write or compose any music during


the LAST 12 MONTHS?
 

llaNo - Skip to item 29a
 

2[~Yes
 

b.	 Was your musical composition played in a 

public performance or rehearsed for a public 

performance? 

o7~ ~E~No
 

21~ Yes
 

29a. Do you own any original pieces of art, such
 

as paintings, drawings, sculpture, prints, or


lithographs?
 

~[]No - Skip to item 30a
 

2[~Yes
 

b. Did you purchase or acquire any of these
 

pieces during the LAST 12 MONTHS?
 

~ ~FqNo 

2[~Yes 

30a. During the LAST 12 MONTHS, did you


perform or rehearse any jazz music?
 

~	 1[]No - Skip to item 31a 

2[~Yes 

30b.Did you play any jazz in a public performance 

or rehearse for a public performance? 

31a.During the LAST 12 MONTHS, did you play
 any classical music?
 

~	 ~]No - Skip to item 32a
 

2[]Yes
 

b.Did you play classical music in a public
 

performance or rehearse for a public


performance?
 

~ ~]No
 

2C3Yes
 

32a. During the LAST 12 MONTHS, did you sing any

music from an opera? 

llaNo - Skip tO item 33a 

2rQYes 

b. Did you sing in a public opera performance

or rehearse for a public performance? 

~ ~[~No
 

2[]Yes
 

33a.During the LAST 12 MONTHS, did you sing
 music from a musical play or operetta?
 

~[]No - Skip to item 33¢ 

2[]Yes 

Did you sing in a public performance of a

musical play or operetta or rehearse for a

public performance? 

~[]No 

2[~Yes 

c. During the LAST 12 MONTHS, did you sing in

a public performance with a chorale, choir,

or glee club or other type of vocal group, or

rehearse for a public performance? 

~ I[]N0 

~[]Yes 

(During the LAST 12 MONTHS,) Did you act in a

public performance of a non-musical play or

rehearse for a public performance? 

2~]Yes 

35a.(During the LAST 12 r~IONTHS,) Did you dance any ballet? 

~ [] No - Skip to item 36a 

2C3Yes 

b. Did you dance ballet in a public performance 

or rehearse for a public performance? 

~ ~[]No
 

2r~Yes 

36a.(During the LAST 12 MONTHS,) Did you do any dancing other than ballet such as modern, folk,

or tap? 

~ [] No - Skip to item 37a 

2[]Yes 

b.Did you dance modern, folk, or tap in a


public performance?
 

2[~Yes 
62 I Jazz in America 

37a.l’m going to read a list of some types of
 

music. As I read the llst, tell me which of
 these types of music you like to listen to? 

Mark/X) all that apply. 

1 [] Classical/Chamber music
 

Opera
 

31--1Operetta/Broadway musicals/Show tunes 

41~ Jazz 

5~]Reggae (R~g gay’) 

Rap music
 

7[]Soul
 

e~Blues/Rhythm and blues
 

Lat i~Spanish/Salsa
 

~0~BIg band
 

Parade~arching band
 

Countw-western
 

Bluegrass 

~Rock 

~5~The music of a pa~icular Ethnic/ 

National tradition 

~e~Contemporary folk music
 

~7~ Moo~Easy listening
 

~e~New age music
 

~9 ~ Choral/Glee club
 

20~ Hymns/Gospel 

All 

22~ None/Don’t like t0 listen t0 music - Skip to item 

b. If only one category is marked in 37a, enter code in

37b without asking. Which of these do you like 

best? 

~	 ~ Category number 

001~ No one type best 

38a.Have you EVER taken lessons or classes in
 music - either voice training or playing an
 

instrument?
 

~ []No - Skip to item 39a 

2[~Yes 

Did you take these lessons when you were -

Read categories. (Do not read category 4 if

respondent is under 25 years old.)

Mark (X) all that apply. 

~	 ~l~Lass than 12 years old
 

21--112-17 years old
 

3F~ t8-24 years old
 

4[~25 or older 

Refer to item 38b
 

Is box 1 or 2 marked in item 38b?
 

I~No - Skip to Check Item B rqYes - Ask item 38c 

38c.Were these lessons or classes offered by the
 elementary or high school you were


attending or did you take these lessons


elsewhere?
 

~	 ~ [] Elementary/high school
 

~ [] Elsewhe re
 

3~]Both
 

Refer to item 38b 

If box 4 is marked in item 38b, ASK item 38d. 

If not- Is box 2 or 3 marked in item 38b AND the respondent is under 25 years old? 

[]No - Skip to item 39a rqYes - Ask item 38d 

38d.Did you take any of these lessons or
 classes in the past year?
 

1 I-]No 

~l~Yes 

FORM SppA.2 (4.9.9Z} 

39a.(Have you EVER taken lessons or
 classes) in visual arts such as sculpture,


painting, print making, photography, or


film making?
 

~	 t[]No - Skip to item 40a 

2~lYes 

b. Did you take these lessons when you were

Read categories. (Do not read category 4 if

respondent is under 25 years old.)

Mark (X) all that apply. 

~	 ~ [] Less than 12 years old 

2[]12-17 years old
 

3~ 18-24 years old
 

4F-125 or older
 

Refer to item 39b 

Is box 1 or 2 marked in item 39b? 

[] No - Skip to Check Item D 

F]Yes - Ask item 39c 

39c.Were these lessons or classes offered by the
 

elementary or high school you were


attending or did you take these lessons


elsewhere?
 

~	 1[]Elementary/high school 

2 [] Elsewhere 

3 [] Both 

Refer to item 39b 

If box 4 is marked in item 39b, ASK item 39d, 

If not- Is box 2 or 3 marked in item 39b AND 

the respondent is under 25 years old? 

I~No - Skip to item 40a
 FqYes - Ask item 39d
 

39d.Did you take any of these lessons or classes
 in the past year?
 

40a. (Have you EVER taken lessons or classes) in
 

acting or theater?
 

~	 ~[]No - Skip to item 41a
 

2[]Yes
 

b. Did you take these lessons when you were - Read categories. (Do not read category 4 if

respondent is under 25 years old./

Mark (X) all that apply. 

~	 d~Less than 12 years old 

2E~ 12-17 years old
 

3[] 18-24 years old
 

4[~25 or older
 

Refer to item 40b 

Is box 1 or 2 marked in item 40b? 

[]No - Skip to Check Item F 

[~Yes - Ask item 40c 

40C. Were these lessons or classes offered by the


elementary or high school you were


attending or did you take these lessons
 

elsewhere? 

~	 ~[]Elementary/high school
 

2 [] Elsewhere
 

3 [] Both
 

Page 5 
Survey of Public Participation in the Arts Questionnaire, 1992 1 63 

Refer to item 40b 

If box 4 is marked in item 40b, ASK item 40d. 

If not - Is box 2 or 3 marked in item 40b AND 

the respondent is under 25 years old? 

[~No - Skip to item 41a 

~lYes - Ask item 40d 

40d. Did you take any of these lessons or classes


in the past year?
 

41a.(Have you EVER taken lessons or classes) in
 

ballet?
 

~	 ~ [] NO - Skip to item 42a 

2[]Yes 

b.Did you take these lessons when you were -

Read categories. (Do not read category 4 if respondent is under 25 years old.)

Mark (X) all that apply. 

:[Less than 12 years old
 

2112-17 years old
 

31~ 18-24 years old
 

4[~25 or older 

Refer to item 41b 

Is box 1 or 2 marked in item 41b? 

r~No - Skip to Check Item H 

[ Yes - Ask item 4 lc 

41c.Were these lessons or classes offered by the
 

elementary or high school you were


attanding or did you take these lessons


elsewhere?
 

~	 ~ [] Elementary/high school 

2[ Elsewhere 

3[Both 

Refer to item 41b 

If box 4 is marked in item 41b, ASK item 41d. 

If not- Is box 2 or 3 marked in item 41b AND 

the respondent is under 25 years old? 

[] No - Skip to item 42a 

~lYes - Ask item 41d 

41d.Did you take any of these lessons or classes
 in the past year?
 

42a.(Have you EVER taken lessons or classes) in
 

dance, other than ballet such as modern, folk


or tap?
 

~ []No - Skip to item 43a
 

z[Yes
 

b. Did you take these lessons when you were -

Read categories. (Do not read category 4 if respondent is under 25 years old.)

Mark (X) all that apply. 

~	 ~l~Less than 12 years old 

2[]12-17 years old 

3[] 18-24 years old 

4F325 or older 

Refer to item 42b 

Is box 1 or 2 marked in item 42b? 

[] No - Skip to Check Item J 

[]Yes - Ask item 42c 

42c.Were these lessons or classes offered by the elementary or high school you were 

attending or did you take these lessons

elsewhere? 

~ F3 Elementary/high school 

~ [ Elsewhere


3r-] Both
 

Refer to item 42b
 

If box 4 is marked in item 42b, ASK item 42d.
 

If not - is box 2 or 3 marked in item 42b AN._._~D
 the respondent is under 25 years old?
 

[No - Skip to item 43a 

I-]Yes - Ask item 42d 

42d.Did you take any of these lessons or classes
 

in the past year?
 

~ ~[]No 

21~Yes 

43a. Have you EVER taken lessons or classes in


creative writing?
 

~	 ~ []No - Skip to item 44a 

z[Yes 

b. Did you take these lessons when you were -

Read categories. (Do not read category 4 if 

respondent is under 25 years old.)

Mark (X) all that apply. 

~	 1[Less than 12 years old 

2[]12-17 years old
 

3r~ 18-24 years old
 

41~25 or older
 

Refer to item 43b 

Is box 1 or 2 marked in item 43b? 

[]No - Skip to Check Item L 

[]Yes - Ask item 43c 

43c.Were these lessons or classes offered by the elementary or high school you were 

attending or did you take these lessons

elsewhere? 

~[ Elementary/high school
 

~[] Elsewhere
 

3[ Both
 

Refer to item 43b 

If box 4 is marked in item 43b, ASK item 43d. 

If not - Is box 2 or 3 marked in item 43b AN~D 

the respondent is under 25 years old? 

I~No - Skip to item 44a 

[]Yes - Ask item 43d 

43d.Did you take any of these lessons or classes
 in the past year?
 

~ ~[]No 

2[Yes 

44a.(Have you EVER taken a class) in art
 

appreciation or art history?
 

~ [ No - Skip to item 45a
 

2[]Yes
 

b.Did you take this class when you were -

Read categories, (Do not read category 4 if 

respondent is under 25 years old,)

Mark (X) all that apply. 

~	 ~ [ Less than 12 years old 

~[12-17 years old
 

~[] 18-24 years old
 

~[25 or older
 
64 I Jazz in America 

Refer to item 44b 

Is box 1 or 2 marked in item 44b? 

[] No - Skip to Check Item N 

[]Yes - Ask item 44c 

44c.Was this class offered by the elementary or
 high school you were attending or did you


take this class elsewhere?
 

~	 1[]Elementary/high school 

2 [] Elsewhere 

3 [] Both 

Refer to item 44b 

If box 4 is marked in item 44b, ASK item 44d. 

If not - Is box 2 or 3 marked in item 44b AND 

the respondent is under 25 years old? 

[] No - Skip to item 45a 

[]Yes - Ask item 44d 

44d.Did you take any of these lessons or classes
 in the past year?
 

45a.(Have you EVER taken a class) in music
 

appreciation?
 

~	 ~ []No - Skip to item 46a 

2[]Yes 

b. Did you take this class when you were -

Read categories. (Do not read category 4 if

respondent is under 25 years old.)

Mark (X) all that apply. 

~	 ~ [] Less than 12 years old 

2[]12-17 years old
 

3[]18-24 years old
 

4[]25 or elder
 

Refer to item 45b 

Is box 1 or 2 marked in item 45b? 

[] No - Skip to Check Item P 

[]Yes - Ask item 45c 

Notes 

45c. Was this class offered by the elementary or


high school you were attending or did you


take this class elsewhere?
 

~	 1[]Elementary/high school 

2 [] Elsewhere 

3 [] Both 

Refer to item 45b 

If box 4 is marked in item 45b, ASK item 45d. 

if not - Is box 2 or 3 marked in item 45b AN__._~D the respondent is under 25 years old? 

[]No - Skip to item 46a 

[]Yes - Ask item 45d 

45d.Did you take this class in the past year? 

~ ~No
 

~l-lYes 

46a.What is the highest grade (or year) of regular
 school your FATHER completed?
 

01 []7th grade or less 

o2[]8th grade
 

03[]9th-1 lth grades
 

o4 [] 12th grade
 

os[]College (did not complete)
 

0s[]Completed college (4+ years)
 

07OPost graduate degree (M.A., Ph.D., MD., J.D, etc.
 

08 [] Don’t know
 

b. What is the highest grade (or year) of regular

school your MOTHER completed? 

~ 0~ r~7th grade or less 

02r~8th grade
 

03[~9th-1 lth grades
 

o~ [] 12th grade
 

osl~lCollege (did not complete)
 

~ [] Completed college (4+ years)
 

eTr~Post graduate degree (M.A., Ph.D., MD., J.D., etc.
 

o~[~ Don’t know
 

Is this the LAST household member to be 

interviewed? 

[] No - Go back to the NCS- t and interview the 

next eligible NCS household member 

[]Yes - END INTERVIEW 

Page 7 
Notes
 

1. Data collected by the U.S. Bureau of the Census in this survey were analyzed by 

Jack Faucett Associates, Inc., and John P. Robinson of the University of Maryland. 

The results of the analysis were published by the National Endowment for the Arts 

as Arts Participation in America, 1982-1992, Research Division Report #27. 

2. Data on the jazz audience derived from the 1982 SPPA were analyzed by Harold 

Horowitz, Director of Research of the National Endowment for the Arts. The 

results of this analysis were published in 1986 by the National Jazz Service 

Organization as The American Jazz Audience (available through the Education 

Research Information System [ERIC] as ED 280757), and summarized as the 

opening chapter of New Perspectives in Jazz, ed. David N. Baker (Washington, DC: 

Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990), pp. 1-8. 

3. JeffLevenson, "Who’s Listening, Who’s Buying?" Billboard, 4 July 1992, J-2. 

4. Richard Crawford, The American Musical Landscape (Berkeley: University of 

California Press, 1993), pp. 86-88. Crawford’s argument is designed to describe 

the sharp distinction between composition and performance prevalent in the 

European art music tradition and its derivatives in America. In jazz, of course, the 

improvising performer assumes much of the responsibility normally assigned to 

the composer. 

5. "Jazz Charts Debut," Billboard, 28 February 1987, 6. 

6. Hank Bordowitz, "Letter Perfect," Jazziz, January 1994, 32. 

7. The regional arts organizations are Arts Midwest (Minneapolis), Mid-AmericaArts 

Alliance (Kansas City), Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation (Baltimore), New England 

Foundation for the Arts (Cambridge, MA), Southern Arts Federation (Atlanta), 

and Western States Arts Federation (Santa Fe). The presenting organizations are 

Afro-American Historical and Cultural Museum (Philadelphia), The Artists Collective (Hartford, CT), ArtsCenter (Carrboro, NC), Carver Cultural Center (San 

Antonio), Cityfolk (Dayton), Contemporary Arts Center (New Orleans), District 

Curators (Washington, DC), Earshot Jazz (Seattle), Flynn Theater (Burlington, 

VT), Helena Presents (Helena, MT), Jazz Institute of Chicago, Jazzmobile (New 

York), Kentucky Center for the Arts (Louisville), Koncepts Cultural Gallery 

(Oakland), Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild (Pittsburgh), Northeast Ohio Jazz 

Society (Cleveland), Northrop Auditorium (Minneapolis), Outpost Productions 

(Albuquerque), Folly Theater (Kansas City), and Sum Arts (Houston). 

8. Jack Faucett Associates, Inc., John P. Robinson, comp., Arts Participation in
 

America, 1982-1992, Research Division Report #27 (Washington, DC: National
 

Endowment for the Arts, 1993), p. 47.
 

9. Neil Tesser, "March of the Majors," Billboard, 7 July 1990, J-5. 

10. A. James Liska, "Wynton and Branford Marsalis: A Common Misunderstanding," 

Down Beat, December 1992, 64. 

11.	 John McDonough, "Harry Connick, Jr. Monk? Sinatra? Try Cab Calloway," Down 

Beat, January 1993, 19. 

65
 
66 I Jazz in America 

12.	 Personal communication, 13 January 1994. 

13.	 Don Jeffrey, "Reissue Fever," Billboard, 4 July 1992, J-4. 

14.	 The top "contemporary jazz" label for 1992, according to Billboard, December 

1992, was GRP, followed at some distance by Warner Brothers and Columbia. 

The top "jazz" labels were Verve, Columbia, GRP, Blue Note, and Warner 

Brothers. 

15.	 Jack Faucett Associates, Inc., John P. Robinson, comp., Arts Participation in 

America, i982-1992, Research Division Report #27 (Washington, DC: National 

Endowment for the Arts, 1993), pp. 29, 32. 

16.	 Mike Harrison, Billboard, 15 August 1981, 31. Harrison later explained, "The 

reason I choose to spell jazz with the extra z... is to emphasize the point that 

among the new breed of commercial jazz musicians and broadcasters there is an 

emerging broad-minded attitude about the music, its expanded boundaries, and 

new potential for being competitively marketable. Not surprisingly, the purist jazz 

community is resentful and resistive of this growing movement to ’bastardize’ and 

’sell-out’ jazz. Hence, the 3rd z clearly separates the philosophies and avoids the 

long-standing and obvious pitfalls of becoming caught up in the ’what is the 

definition of true jazz’ syndrome." Billboard, 22 August 1981, 23. 

17. Personal communication, 13 January 1994. 

18. Kim Freeman, "Jazz Carves a Niche on the Airwaves," Billboard, 20 June 1987, 

13. 

19. Jeff Levenson, "Who’s Listening, Who’s Buying?" Billboard, 4 July 1992, J-8. 

20. Jack Faucett Associates, Inc., John P. Robinson, comp., Arts Participation in 

America, I982-I992, Research Division Report #27 (Washington, DC: National 

Endowment for the Arts, 1993), p. 26. 

21.	 Personal communication, 25 January 1994. 

22.	 Quoted in Larry Blumenfeld, "Forecast: The Future of Jazz from the Inside," 

Jazziz, January 1994, 93. 

23. Tom Evered of Blue Note Records said in 1992, "My feeling is that there are mostly 

young people buying records." According to Willard Jenkins, executive director of 

the National Jazz Service Organization, "The demo has shifted to a younger 

audience, much of that owing to the young lions proliferating on various labels." 

(Quoted in Jeff Levenson, "Who’s Listening, Who’s Buying?" Billboard, 4 July 

1992, J-2). Nevertheless, "youth" is a relative concept. In a pop music market 

dominated by teenage consumers, the maturity of jazz record buyers may be more 

striking than their youth. "The mainstay of the record industry was always 13-18 

year olds," according to GRP executive Larry Rosen. "But the average age of 

American consumers is now 32. And as they’re getting older, they’re looking for a 

more mature music." (Quoted in Neil Tesser, "March of the Majors," Billboard, 7 

July 1990, J-5. 

24. Richard A. Peterson and Darren E. Sherkat, Age Factors in Arts Participation, 

Research Division Report #35 (Washington, DC: National Endowment for the 

Arts, in press). 

25. James Lincoln Collier, Jazz: The American Theme Song (New York: Oxford 

University Press, 1993), p. 185. 

26. Ibid., p. 215. 
Notes I 67 

27.	 Because the audience for jazz is predominantly white, relatively few jazz venues are 

situated in neighborhoods where blacks are the majority. One such venue is 

Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild, a nonprofit arts center located in the historically 

black Manchester area of Pittsburgh. Its jazz programs attract a higher percentage 

of African Americans than most commercially run nightclubs in the city. Personal 

communication, 25 January 1994. 

28. Jeffrey Love and Bramble C. Klipple, Arts Participation and Race/Ethnicigy, Research Division Report #36 (Washington, DC: National Endowment for the Arts, 

in press). 

29. See, for example, Mike Shalett, "On Target," Billboard, 1 March 1986, 23, which 

describes the audience for various contemporary jazz artists as male-dominated 

above age 35 (although the under-18 audience is "mostly girls"). The 24-hour 

"straight-ahead" jazz station KJAZ reported targeting men between 35 and 44. See 

Kim Freeman, "Jazz Carves a Niche on the Airwaves," Billboard, 20 June 1987, 

18. 

30. Jazziz Magazine, "Readers Demographics, 1993"; Jazz Times, "Reader Profile 

1992/1993." 

31.	 Eric Hobsbawm, The Jazz Tradition (New York: Pantheon Books, 1993), xxii. 

32.	 Thomas Sancton, "Horns of Plenty," Time, 22 October 1990, 66. 

33. According to sources quoted by James Lincoln Collier, it is now rare for a college 

or university not to have a jazz component in its music program; and more than 

half of America’s secondary schools have jazz programs. See James Lincoln Collier, 

Jazz: The American Theme Song (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), p. 

145. 

34. Mike Shallett, "On Target," Billboard, 1 March 1986, 23. 
About the Author 

S cott DeVeaux is Associate Professor in the Mclntire Department of Music 

at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. He has written articles on 

jazz for the Journal of the American Musicological Society, American Music, the 

Black Music Research Journal, and the Black American Literature Forum. He is 

series editor of Readers in American Music from the Smithsonian Institution 

Press, and coeditor of the book The Music of James Scott. 
Other Reports on the 1992 SPPA 

The following publications report on various aspects of the 1992 Survey of 

Public Participation in the Arts. Information regarding availability may be 

obtained by writing to the National Endowment for the Arts, Research Division, 

1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC, 20506. 

Age Factors in Arts Participation, Richard A. Peterson and Darren E. Sherkat 

American Participation in Dance, Jack Lemon/Jack Faucett Associates 

American Participation in Opera andMusical Theater--1992, Joni Maya Cherbo 

and Monnie Peters 

American Participation in Theater, Chris Shrum/AMS Planning and Research 

Americans’ Personal Participation in the Arts, Monnie Peters and Joni Maya 

Cherbo 

Arts Participation andRace/Ethnicity, Jeffrey Love and Bramble C. Klipple 

Arts Participation by the Baby Boomers, Judith Huggins Balfe and Rolf Meyersohn 

Cross-Over Patterns in Arts Participation, Richard J. Orend and Carol Keegan 

Effects of Education and Arts Education on Americans’Participation in the Arts, 

Louis Bergonzi and Julia Smith 

Hold the Funeral March: The State of Classical Music Appreciation in the U.S., 

Nicholas Zill 

Patterns of Multiple Arts Participation, Jeffrey Love 

Reading in the 1990s: Turning a Page or Closing the Books?, Nicholas Zill 

Socialization in the Arts--1992, Richard J. Orend and Carol Keegan 

Tuning in and Turning On: Public Participation in the Arts via Media in the 

United States, Charles M. Gray 

69 
NATIONAL 

ENDOWMENT 

FOR~THE 

ISBN 0-929765-40-0
 ARTS 

Seven Locks Press
 

Carson, California