Stop Killing Jazz

Jazz is a music defined by its historical context and whose innovators were talented “musical Savages,” music that requires a love of your musical craft.

The jazz world has went through the transformation from a music centered around live performance to one emphasized recordings. With the quality of digital recording technology, the sound quality of Jazz recordings were good enough to be a replacement for live jazz performances.

Jazz’s popularity continues to declined since the rise of Neoclassicism creating the perception that Jazz is an antiquated, elite, dead form of historical-museum music, causing its decline in popularity. Neoclassicism claiming jazz as a serious art form,  jazz students spend large amounts of time transcribing, analyzing, and practicing solos of previous greats, and restricted definition of jazz.

Fighting the rising tide know as smooth jazz a less restrictive and more appealing to larger younger audiences. Now Smooth jazz audiences are in the decline, and I don't blame them. Enough with the bad enterpation of some pop song, no more covers please! We know that you can play your instrument, but let us hear the band. Bring back that raw improvised talent, not afraid to incorporate the present and build on the past.

Joe Blessett