Musical Dodo?
“Jazz is like Latin - a dead language,” quipped my friend. “Jazz isn’t dead, but its audience might be,” I replied. We propped up the bar, sinking a few bourbons and enjoying a friendly altercation after work. The verbal sparring continued for another few rounds, until the barman clanged his bell, we agreed to a truce and I wobbled on home. To this day, I maintain I won on points: because for me, Jazz is an esoteric past time - the musical equivalent of Croquet. Its fans are loyal and passionate, but like an outlandish cult they worship in small, subterranean venues after dark. A lot of musicians still play jazz, but not many people are listening to it.
Popular music still incorporates Jazz, albeit in a diluted form. Just as Latin permeates contemporary English, jazz colours the sound of modern pop music: Jazz trumpeter Quincy Jones produced Thriller, the biggest selling album of all time. Radiohead dabble with avant-garde jazz in ballads like “The Pyramid Song”. International crooners Robbie Williams and Rod Stewart have recorded swing albums. The list goes on.
Nowadays however, in the mainstream, Jazz survives by influence alone So where do we go from here? Will popular culture ever embrace “pure” jazz in its bosom again? I can’t see it. Contemporary music is a fusion of different styles, one of which is Jazz. Miles Davis recognised this, and blended modern influences such as hip-hop with his trademark horn sound. Critics accused him of selling out and pandering to the masses. But how do you get new people turned onto jazz if it’s confined to specialist radio stations where no one can hear it? Artistic compromise, or as I like to call it evolution, is necessary to re-ignite the general publics interest. Jazz isn’t dead, but it is an endangered species.