Can Jazz Ever Be Cool Again?

I think this is pretty cool...I decided to check my Twitter feed, where I stumbled on an hour-long Twitter conversation between Terry Teachout, cultural critic extraordinaire, and his followers, on how to revive jazz as an art form.  You can see the whole thing here, including the Tweets that Teachout re-tweeted and responded to.  It's a very civilized and well-informed discussion, which you might expect from a bunch of jazz lovers.

And that, to paraphrase Teachout's argument, is the problem.  His basic thesis is that jazz, which was a popular and mass art form from the 20s until the early 50s at least, has morphed into 'high art.'  It's fans are the same ones who go to opera, the symphony and non-musical plays.  They trend towards the upper income, college or better educated and - gasp - old.  Jazz is about as cool as polka to the average 20-something - not even something your parents like (that's probably classic rock).  Grandpa, maybe.

Which is too bad, because jazz, probably more than anything, invented the idea of cool.  In fact, Miles Davis announced it, with his first album in the 40s cleverly titled "The Birth of the Cool."  Jazz went on to fuel the Beat poetry of the 50s, Jack Kerouac's crazed travelogue, Lenny Bruce's manic standup routines, French New Wave cinema - it was the cutting edge, what all the cool and culturally aware kids were listening to in an era when artistic boundaries were exploding (which wasn't all for the good, of course).

I also think Miles Davis circa 1958 might have been the coolest cat ever.  Totally self-assured, pursuing his own musical muse and not taking BS from anyone.  Plus stylish, classy and a true visionary.  Miles' music between say 1957 and 1965 set the music world on its ear, just like his fusion stuff (with an entirely new band) a few years later. 

So what happened?  Did jazz get too self-consciously cool?  Too mannered, wrapped-up in an artistic bubble, esoteric?  If you've ever heard a group of jazz musicians wailing in an improv jam session - something I was lucky enough to experience almost every Thursday night back in the day - you'll know it doesn't have to be this way.  There's something about great jazz that literally seems to bounce off the walls, like the music has a life of its own.

OK, I'm babbling...but check out the Teachout thread.  It's a little jazzy and improvisational itself.  It doesn't have any easy answers, but I think it would be good if jazz somehow became cool again.  How about a 'great American songbook' night on American Idol?  Get the kids singing Cole Porter and Gershwin the way Ella and Louis and old blue eyes used to sing them - and make their even younger fans listen.  I probably sound like a geezer even making that suggestion, and I'm sure it's the type of thing that Lord Cowell would disdain.  But it could make for a great and surprising night.              

Comments

[Terry Teachout]

BTW, my last name is Teachout, not Treachout.

[LarryK]

ARGGH...I knew that, posting quickly after a long day. My apologies, it's fixed.

[LarryK]

FYI, I contacted a friend of mine who has an encyclopedic knowledge of jazz (and most other kinds of music) to see what he thought of the post, and my e-mail to him ended with this:

It is kind of random, and I was mostly drawing on memories from a couple decades ago, so I’m not saying it’s the best thing I ever posted, but it can always be revised and/or expanded…

Little did I know I would have to revise so soon, and to correct spelling mistakes!

[Johnny Hates Jazz]

It's odd how this discussion pops up ever so often - will jazz ever get its mojo back? If you compare it to the blues or roots music such as country or rockabilly etc I think the reason that these forms are still thriving is because they were never institutionalized, sanitized and mass-marketed to the public as jazz was. I mean, jazz was touted as the new classical music at one time and the pretentiousness that accompanied it was off-putting to say the least. The chief culprits in this regard would be the Wynton Marsalis's of the world - a complete cad who defines the decrepitude and anachronistic irrelevance of the form he seeks to be the keeper of. I mean, this character was bad mouthing old Miles even as he lay dying which is ironic because while the record companies were busy stuffing the 'young lions' like him into designer suits and putting the last nails into the coffin of jazz by regurgitating old jazz standards and the like, ad nauseam, at least Miles kept it real with his crazy spacesuits and constantly changing definitions of what he construed to be jazz. There is a certain moldiness that accompanies anything that been kept in the cupboard too long and that's precisely the problem w/jazz. It's mildewed and crusty and happily ensconced in the Lincoln Center etc when it needs to be kicked about on the streets where it will learn to survive and gradually assert and redefine itself.

Honestly, a lot of jazz-rock fusion music of the '70s still works for me because it was the natural next step for jazz in order to evolve - a natural alliance with the new kid on the block which was rock. In order to drive us in our hyper-charged lives we need a soundtrack that accompanies it. We saw the same thing in the late 80's and early 90's with hip-hop and jazz (Guru, US3 etc) and then acid-jazz came along which I dug. So, while its doppelganger waltzes about the Lincoln Center the real thing is still out there on the streets and there are cats out there paying their dues still blowing their hearts out in clubs like the Iridium etc in NYC. So, really, while we might see another quick blip in the radar where 'jazz' as we conventionally know it might see a faddish 'coolness' (Michael Buble et al), will ever be cool as it was? Never. Will the likes of Mozart ever be a pop star again? I think not. Jazz as we define it will always be a throwback because the pulse and rhythm of the era we live in have changed and will continue to change with every decade.

Another bit of myopia that killed jazz was its appropriation as an African-American art form, which is complete nonsense when you look at the brilliant stuff that came out of the whole jazz scene that wasn’t black. In this regard, Spike Lee’s ‘Mo Better Blues’ shines as the nadir of this insular and parochial thinking. Really, the quick one off-the-wrist that was ‘Mo Better Blues’ was for me the straw that bloke the camel’s back (together with all the regular blather in the press about jazz and the cultural inappropriateness of anybody else touching this hallowed art form – similar to the talk in the 60’s when it was asked whether ‘blue men could ever play the whites’ etc) and I finally chucked all my jazz records in a box and put them in a cupboard where they fittingly belong.

[Samara]

I'm 27 years old, not particularly artsy, and I've always loved Jazz. I think a lot of people in their 20s like Jazz but today's music is so commercialized. Good Jazz is not created by marketers in a studio. I think it's best listened to live in a bar. Reading this made me want to go to the Balcony Club . . . a well-known decent Jazz bar in Dallas.

[Phillip Sauerbeck]

It's always the early innovators that push the envelope of the genre the furthest... that's why some artforms that were cool/edgy are now commodities (they have been reproduced ad infinitum). Jazz is a great example. As is impressionist painting, or work by Calder or Rothko, or the great Charleston dancers like Al Minns and Leon James.

[Phil P]

Why should we expect any musical style to last forever? Jazz had a good seven decade run. In the art world no one asks "What ever happened to cubism?" In the 19th century, lovers of what we now call "classical music" weren't asking "Why is nobody writing good Baroque music anymore?"

[jim]

Jazz is boring. It all sounds the same. And you can't dance to it. The only people I've known who are into jazz are rich, left-wing hipster jerks - the loathsome self-important Obama-types.

[LarryK]

FYI, I'm loving this debate...it's causing me to rethink what I said, and maybe re-post...which is not a threat! Hope this thread keeps growing...

[A Fan]

Terry, love your columns. Dude, though, go to Brooklyn or the LES. Or come down to Philly: http://www.arsnovaworkshop.org/, where a lot of that scene plays on their way to somewhere else.

There are some ass-kicking, name-taking young hotshots out there. And a young, clued-in, fun crowd that follows them. This generation defies genres, and grew up with music and art built on samples and remixes. Musicians and their audiences are comfortable crossing boundaries. Take drummer Allison Miller as one of many examples: she's backed mainstream artists like Ani DiFranco, traditional jazzers like Kenny Barron, and a variety of free and experimental jazz folks. Other great experimental musicians back R&B groups, folk groups, you name it. It's gotten very fluid.

One of the best nights out I've ever had was a couple years ago, when Matt Wilson's Arts and Crafts played at the Green Mill. Larry Goldings threw down some absolutely sick organ work that had the crowd of 20-somethings and neighborhood guys shouting and falling off their bar stools.

So will jazz be cool again? From what I can tell, it's pretty cool right now.

[karl]

There's jazz and there's jazz -- ragtime isn't swing isn't postbop isn't fusion. The label is pretty inclusive, kinda like classical -- did Vivaldi, Verdi, and Varese all write in the same style?

The problem is that expectations for jazz are too high, it's become an art form that appeals to elites because the masses aren't ready for it anymore -- but they will as they get older, just as happens with classical music.

Not being hip isn't the end of the world.

[Flo]

Hiphop stole the mojo from Jazz!

[Larry, San Francisco]

I used to teach at a college in the middle 90's. One day I was listening to Billy Holiday when a black student came by. He said to me "Why are you listening to Grandma Music?" I told him that in 100 years people would still be listening to Billy Holiday but no one would know who Tupac was. I don't think he believed me.

[BATMAN]

A very cool post that deserves more erudite discussion than I can offer as one who has tried hard to give jazz greats a chance to earn my respect. And I like some T-Monk and Chet Baker and there was a period when I really liked an Albert Ayler record from the late 60s.... but in the end, my verdict on jazz was put most succinctly by one of the Kids in the Hall: "Jazz, schmazz. I'm sorry I have to go that far. Jazz, schmazz." http://www.kithfan.org/work/transcripts/two/jazz.html

[Jason]

Honestly, a lot of jazz-rock fusion music of the '70s still works for me because it was the natural next step for jazz in order to evolve - a natural alliance with the new kid on the block which was rock. In order to drive us in our hyper-charged lives we need a soundtrack that accompanies it. We saw the same thing in the late 80's and early 90's ( http://www.rapidpig.com ) with hip-hop and jazz (Guru, US3 etc) and then acid-jazz came along which I dug.

[jim]

He said, "Why are you listening to music with Grandma?" I told him that in 100 years, people still listen to Billy Holiday,( http://www.narutohits.com ) but nobody knows who was Tupac. I do not think he believed me.

[LatoyaFLOYD20]

Do you acknowledge that this is high time to get the home loans, which would make you dreams real.