"Jazz is dead and not popular"

[DawgBone]

Lies.

Maybe there won't be a ton of top 40 "standards" anymore. But live music played well is always popular from the bandstand, regardless of what it is. And that definitely includes jazz.

This week I looked at artists, of which many were jazz genre, requesting funding at or near the 100k US $ mark that will likely be granted the funds.

Last week I came across a whole slew of younger jazz artists doing some amazing stuff, some of which were standards, some of which weren't. But it was amazing, and excellent, nonetheless.

Late last year I saw just how many radio programs and reviewers are available as outlets for new, independently produced jazz music.

No more guitar forum defeatism should be allowed here. Music done right will always hold an audience captive and will always have someplace as an outlet. Go find it. Bitching is easier though.

Thanks for listening.

[Strat-itis]

This is also my viewpoint.

'Jazz is dead.' Ok? Are you some weak follower who has to have his music be in the top 40 for you to enjoy it?

It's not dead, it's just not populist anymore. There is plenty of arena for it and live jazz done well will always captivate an audience.

[Stevebol]

No matter what you play, you can try to find management, get mobbed-up or go find gigs on your own. Think of something.

[wolflen]

In California and other states there are MANY jazz festivals in the summer with top name artists and new players.

You can hear familiar tunes and new material.

Many of these festivals are sold out year after year.

While jazz may not be on every radio station 24/7 it is on several dedicated stations and has a strong following.

Jazz is not "dead"..its alive and well..it just may take a bit of effort to find it

[Little Jay]

I do 3 jazz jamsessions every month as part of the houseband and it’s always crowded with musicians and listeners.

I do paid gigs with a jazz trio, jazz 5tet and as substitute 3-4 times a month. (I do this next to my full time job.)

In my home town (The Hague, the Netherlands) you can attend a jazz performance or jam session every night of the week.

So jazz does not strike me as dead or impopular…..

[ragman1]

Dead and not popular are two different things.

[palindrome]

Dead and not popular are two different things.

I guess the majority of us are one without being the other.

[sgcim]

No matter what you play, you can try to find management, get mobbed-up or go find gigs on your own. Think of something.

Mobbed up is always the best way to go....

[Greywolf]

Jazz is Dead .. great band with Steve Kimock

[Jonah]

These days everything is dead and not popular except stupid shorts on TikTok... but when was it different? The only difference that stupid people did not have platforms to speak out and gain audiences for their stupidities.

Now they can...

the other side is that the internet today creates a niche for everything.

You want gypsy jazz ... you can find a niche, you want flamenco - also possible, you want medieval music - you can do it...

It won't be a huge audience maybe but it will be dedicated one. If one feels comfortable among a few people who do and love the same thing - it can be nice living.
And let others enjoy what they wish...

[RLetson]

As Miracle Max reminded me (last night), "There's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive. With all dead, well, with all dead there's usually only one thing you can do."

But I'm not ready to go through jazz's pockets yet.

[MiniMerckx.22]

Music is not the music business and the music business is not music.

[Stevebol]

Mobbed up is always the best way to go....

I'm so mobbed up it's absurd. It's not a healthy environment for women.

[DawgBone]

Music is not the music business and the music business is not music.

100% agreed, and it should be stated regularly to aspiring types but I guess I was implying that for people who want to mix business with pleasure there are still quite a few outlets to make that happen, to grow your music on a business/commercial level. There have been a lot of jazz is dead threads but the reality is there are more actual jazz clubs operational than blues clubs now, and pretty much every public radio station, quite a few streaming stations, and even some broadcast commercial radio have jazz programming and dj's who will spin new jazz if you send them your CD/MP3/WAV cuts and a well written one sheet. It's a matter of finding those outlets and building those connections to bring it to new audiences. I've found that with dj's....they are always hungry for new music. Like an addiction.

[mheton]

Music is not the music business and the music business is not music.

This nicely said ...

[Greywolf]

Oh yes , Jimmy is a local hero . He was a student of my friend Bill Hart who ran the Guitar Dept at Atlanta Institute of Music for 25 years, Jimmy went on to teach as well. We shared a Harley Mechanic .. he's a great guy . A Colonel Bruce Hampton alumnus in Aquarium Rescue Unit and now with Widespread Panic after Mickey passed. That's why you see a Col Bruce pic on the stage with Widepsread.

Kimock has been around forever , same age as me. His Group Zero still plays, and KVHW was great.

A longtime member of the Dead family Jerry Garcia, was a friend of his He's played with many of the "Family " including the bands the Other Ones, RatDog, and Phil Lesh and Friends. Garcia cited Kimock, along with Frank Gambale and Michael Hedges, as his favorite guitar players during the later part of his life

[Gilpy]

I’m not worried about the health or popularity of “Jazz”. But, as a person who has been gigging regularly for 50 years, I can say that the number of live music venues is only a fraction of what it used to be.
Live music on the local level is not as important in our culture as it once was. People are spending more time in the virtual world.
Where I live, there are many talented musicians and few places to play.
I’m not whining about it, things change. But it’s too bad.

[Greywolf]

Around Atlanta , COVID killed a lot of clubs , it's been slow coming back .
The music scene is finally back , although venues are still slim . I'm blessed to have a steady weekly gig.

[emanresu]

I have an idea why jazz is not too popular these days.

The theory is one sentence long: jazz is a certain color palette of sounds, played over and over again.

We have so many things happening in jazz but when the band comes together, it will produce the same thing over and over again.

The way i feel about jazz is a certain amount of solid things(which actually defines it)... then the rest, which are just splatters of abstract colors on a prepared canvas.

For me, I honestly feel that is an endless stream of abstract paintings that I should approve ..

[Christian Miller]

Music isn’t popular really.

Music has become a utility. People switch on Spotify and don’t really engage with what’s playing.

In terms of the raging generative ‘AI’ debate it’s this sort of passively consumed content that is obviously the easiest to replace. I’m of the ‘everything was kind of AI already’ camp. Which is to say AI only fills a role in the entertainment industry because the entertainment industry became a sausage machine for consistently mediocre content already - by design.

Maybe I’m naive but I don’t really care about Suno or any of these tools. They are as irrelevant to me as music streaming. Who makes money out of Spotify? The owners and operators of Spotify and their shareholders. Not any musicians - except maybe Taylor Swift. People who do well on Spotify do not by and large see their streams or inclusion on popular playlists converting into any kind of deeper engagement with their music. Because it’s largely passively consumed.

So it’s worthless to indie artists, and I see no value in having one’s music on there. I don’t care if it gets replaced with AI slop. I obviously feel sorry for the musicians who derive income from library music etc.

What is much better is and actually the point of what we do is making a personal connection of some kind with listeners. The sort of people who buy vinyl records and so on. And we’ve never been in a better position to that than today because we can make connections beyond the geographical. It follows that we don’t need to appeal to most people because there’s an awful lot of people.

OTOH however apathetic young people may be about music, there’s a real visceral backlash against AI content. So, the obvious response is to ride that wave by emphasising the humanity in the arts. Which I think is a Good Thing. Nothing more human than improvisation and swing.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Litterick]

Jazz is alive and well and living in Auckland:

The spirit of New Orleans' top jazz spots will be making its way to Auckland Baptist Tabernacle this season thanks to The Jazz Room.

Believe it or not, jazz has been jiving in Auckland for some time now. Back in 1918, soldiers returning from war introduced New Zealand’s capital* to the genre’s soulful sounds and rhythms. Now, over 100 years later, The Jazz Room in Auckland is treating the city to an electrifying live music show that celebrates the genre’s enduring legacy.

On select dates, the evening journeys through the golden ages of jazz, paying tribute to stars from NOLA and beyond. Whether you like Dixieland jazz or prefer some swing, these performances packed with groovy improvisations as well as jazz classics by Sinatra, Armstrong, Fitzgerald and more.

The Jazz Room celebrates the legacy of one of the century’s most influential genres. The evening begins with New Orleans classics like Louis Armstrong’s “On the Sunny Side of the Street,” before moving into refined instrumental improvisations inspired by Herbie Hancock and Miles Davis. The final segment showcases the Great American Songbook through iconic vocal interpretations, including Frank Sinatra’s “Fly Me To The Moon” and Oscar Peterson’s elegant take on “Night And Day.”

*Auckland has not been the capital of New Zealand since 1865.

[2bornot2bop]

It doesn’t matter. It’s what you dig. You dig?

[StormyMonday]

One band I play with, not a jazz band but we do include some standards most of the time as well as some Metheny etc. But when we did Help/Slip/King Solomon's Marbles a la Jazz Is Dead the crowd really got into it. Stuff like that and what Scott Metzger is doing with LaMP is not traditional jazz of course but anything that brings people to hear instrumental/improvised music is great.

[benhatchins]

I don’t think jazz is dead at all, it just doesn’t sit in the mainstream the way it used to. Music trends always shift, and genres move in and out of the spotlight over time. In a way, it’s similar to how something like bristol herald courier customer service might not always be in the conversation unless people are actively looking for it. There’s still a dedicated audience keeping jazz alive and evolving. Do you listen to more traditional styles or newer interpretations? I think that makes a big difference in how people see it.