Did jazz get "codified in school, much like classical", or, like classical music did it simply evolve intellectually beyond easy rhythms and catchy licks? Don't get me wrong, I love Benny Goodman and Louis Armstrong and Harry James and Gene Krupa, but Dizzy Gillespie and bee bop took jazz in a much more purely intellectual direction and …
Did jazz get "codified in school, much like classical", or, like classical music did it simply evolve intellectually beyond easy rhythms and catchy licks? Don't get me wrong, I love Benny Goodman and Louis Armstrong and Harry James and Gene Krupa, but Dizzy Gillespie and bee bop took jazz in a much more purely intellectual direction and those who followed could only take that further or risk looking like sad dinosaurs. Western art music (as I prefer to call "classical") had no choice but to evolve (or devolve depending how you look at it) into atonalism and minimalism and I think jazz has inevitably followed a similar trajectory. In that case, it is unsurprising that it "lost" much of its youthful audience, especially when popular music/rock/whatever you wish to call it, provided danceable rhythms and lyrics that reflected lived reality. I find it disturbing that when I go to events hosted by people in the 20 to 35 year age group they are playing music from the 70s and 80s, the music of MY youth. I wonder, where is your voice represented musically? Where are your bands, your superstar icons? Young people are not fooled by the commodification of music and are mourning the death of live bands and a culture that they can't experience even if they want to.
Did jazz get "codified in school, much like classical", or, like classical music did it simply evolve intellectually beyond easy rhythms and catchy licks? Don't get me wrong, I love Benny Goodman and Louis Armstrong and Harry James and Gene Krupa, but Dizzy Gillespie and bee bop took jazz in a much more purely intellectual direction and those who followed could only take that further or risk looking like sad dinosaurs. Western art music (as I prefer to call "classical") had no choice but to evolve (or devolve depending how you look at it) into atonalism and minimalism and I think jazz has inevitably followed a similar trajectory. In that case, it is unsurprising that it "lost" much of its youthful audience, especially when popular music/rock/whatever you wish to call it, provided danceable rhythms and lyrics that reflected lived reality. I find it disturbing that when I go to events hosted by people in the 20 to 35 year age group they are playing music from the 70s and 80s, the music of MY youth. I wonder, where is your voice represented musically? Where are your bands, your superstar icons? Young people are not fooled by the commodification of music and are mourning the death of live bands and a culture that they can't experience even if they want to.