At the yearly meetings, members come together for a week to play, exchange ideas, hang out and network. It's an international music now, way beyond America, beyond its origins. And this will only continue as now it's slowly working its way into Asia and Africa, more so as their leisure time increases. When I was learning, it sometimes took days just to get a chorus down. The students today have a higher level of development than the previous generation because they absorb what's in the air.
Younger musicians have more skills.
The trade off is that individualism can be lost. It gets harder and harder to find true personalities because of mass teaching and the mass culture, which focuses on conformity rather than individuality. Founded in 1989, the IASJ is scheduled to meet in New York this month, offering nearly 100 students, teachers and administrators an opportunity for international jazz cross pollination. But there seemed to be a problem, too. Jazz musicians and educators from one country weren't seeking out players from neighboring nations.