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jakewesier · 03-10-2005, 04:52 AM

a jazz musician chiming in on this one.

The trouble with Jazz is that it's to big for itself. One of the fundamental things about this music is that it's ever changing. It refuses to settle down in one place for to long and therefore people are often confused as to what's new in Jazz or what the state of it is right now.

The whole retro thing as discribed is understated. Straightahead Jazz playing is just a style. It's how everyone learns the music properly (by learning standards, transcribing Parker, Miles, Trane). When I play my own music it's not that style of playing. However when I sit down in the morning to practice I start with standards to get my head in the right mind set. Those styles and those tunes are home base for Jazz Musicians.

And Jazz players are traditionalists. YOu need to be, it's all about the tunes that you can play with other people the second you meet them. Therefore when your career is off and running, established sometimes you get inspired for a Standards album and when you record it people will want to hear it because Musicians who buy the records will be interested in seeing the bare bones of your playing, your influences and your understanding of the music.

You might say there's a retro thing happening. But that's allways been going on and since the emergence of Krall it had become mainstreamish for a little while. At least if you were in a resturant you would hear her over the speakers while you enjoyed your soup. She's popular and a star and she's done standards albums. her new stuff has nothing standard in it. Norah Jones is popular and while she's not pure Jazz there are super strong elements of it in her playing and she's not singing standards.

For every album released with a 10 minute treatment of a 12 bar Blues there is an album released with a 10 minute free improvisation by a quartet of musicians. Everywhere artists are pushing the envelop in Jazz it's just that it's hard to find them, and the Music buying public will not support it.

In the end the "Public" isn't ready for much in terms of Jazz. It's %2 of the Record Selling market and therefore if you want to do a jazz album you have 2 options.... be one of the elitist musicians in the world (Pat Metheny) or be naturally Marketable (Diana Krall) and get a record lable contract that will market and distribute your album. Or 2 do it yourself and release it independently, distrubute it independantly and market it yourself. Jazz musicians generally do not record albums to make money off of them unless they are super established and know that they can sell 100k units and there are very few of them out there that can do that.

03-10-2005, 04:52 AM	#4 (permalink)
jakewesier Tilted Location: Nova Scotia	a jazz musician chiming in on this one. The trouble with Jazz is that it's to big for itself. One of the fundamental things about this music is that it's ever changing. It refuses to settle down in one place for to long and therefore people are often confused as to what's new in Jazz or what the state of it is right now. The whole retro thing as discribed is understated. Straightahead Jazz playing is just a style. It's how everyone learns the music properly (by learning standards, transcribing Parker, Miles, Trane). When I play my own music it's not that style of playing. However when I sit down in the morning to practice I start with standards to get my head in the right mind set. Those styles and those tunes are home base for Jazz Musicians. And Jazz players are traditionalists. YOu need to be, it's all about the tunes that you can play with other people the second you meet them. Therefore when your career is off and running, established sometimes you get inspired for a Standards album and when you record it people will want to hear it because Musicians who buy the records will be interested in seeing the bare bones of your playing, your influences and your understanding of the music. You might say there's a retro thing happening. But that's allways been going on and since the emergence of Krall it had become mainstreamish for a little while. At least if you were in a resturant you would hear her over the speakers while you enjoyed your soup. She's popular and a star and she's done standards albums. her new stuff has nothing standard in it. Norah Jones is popular and while she's not pure Jazz there are super strong elements of it in her playing and she's not singing standards. For every album released with a 10 minute treatment of a 12 bar Blues there is an album released with a 10 minute free improvisation by a quartet of musicians. Everywhere artists are pushing the envelop in Jazz it's just that it's hard to find them, and the Music buying public will not support it. In the end the "Public" isn't ready for much in terms of Jazz. It's %2 of the Record Selling market and therefore if you want to do a jazz album you have 2 options.... be one of the elitist musicians in the world (Pat Metheny) or be naturally Marketable (Diana Krall) and get a record lable contract that will market and distribute your album. Or 2 do it yourself and release it independently, distrubute it independantly and market it yourself. Jazz musicians generally do not record albums to make money off of them unless they are super established and know that they can sell 100k units and there are very few of them out there that can do that.