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Contrary to popular belief, I believe jazz is in a better place, musically, than it ever has been. People point to a lack of identifiable trends or "movements" in current jazz as proof that the genre is dead. While few would deny that jazz is commercially and culturally "dead," this lack of easily discernible movements in the genre just means that there is greater individualism and ingenuity by the leading artists. People often ask, "where is the Charlie Parker of our generation?" when in fact I'm glad there is none. While Bird was a genius player, his genius resulted in diminished creativity from a whole generation of alto players who were simply trying to sound as much as they could like him.
Furthermore, freed from any hope of commercial success, artists are generally more likely to make the art that they truly believe in, not what they or some record executive think will make them money. Just look at how many great artists made awful bossa nova albums in the early 60's, purely for commercial reasons.
Jazz is dead commercially and culturally but as a result it has never been more alive musically.
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>>72140528
agreed
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This is a strong opinion. Thank you for sharing.
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I feel the same way about current prog
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Ooh, I didn't know I could find good opinions on /mu/. Thanks for sharing.
Just wondering, do you happen to have in mind some artists that you regard as 'highly creative' or portrait some of the features you've mentioned early on? I'm curious. I'm not a big connoisseur of modern jazz.
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>>72141236
Peter Evans
Matana Roberts
Daniel Levin
Rudresh Mahanthappa
Matthew Shipp
Steve Lehman
Craig Taborn
David Binney
Mary Halvorson
David Virelles
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>>72140528
>>72140528
>I believe jazz is in a better place, musically, than it ever has been
Late 50s-mid 60s tho. All the innovations that arose during that time have been assimilated into modern jazz, but boundary pushers like Davis, Dolphy, Williams, Taylor, Coltrane, etc. had a passion, enthusiasm and expressive power that can only really come from being on the vanguard of something new. There certainly are people doing fantastic, unique and emotionally powerful stuff nowadays. Some of the best that's ever been done, but the scene in the 50s/60s had a wave of innovation and candid excitement in the same way the mid-late 60s had for rock that can't really be recaptured by anything but another rapid upheaval of the music.
>>72141236
pic related
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yeah, jazz is doing well artistically - only problem is that in this age of streaming too many jazz labels are staying out of all streaming services and lack of international jazz media makes it a chore to try to keep up with interesting releases internationally
the real strength of jazz as a genre is that it's relatively cheap to produce albums and concerts without compromising so it doesn't need a big marketing machine behind the music
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>>72142687
>only problem is that in this age of streaming too many jazz labels are staying out of all streaming services
I think it's too much of a niche genre to make streaming services worth it
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>>72142955
it's true that jazz labels can't really make money out of streaming - musicians even less, but all the classic Miles and Coltrane and whatever is going to be there anyway and all jazz musicians will be trying to play a lot of gigs anyway, so I'd reckon musicians would be better off if all new jazz was available for streaming
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>>72143151
that's true. you can find a surprising amount of full albums on youtube, or at least all the tracks are on youtube. I think jazz musicians often upload them themselves. ECM seems to be the only one that is really strict about removing their material from youtube.
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>>72142955
ECM is not on Apple Music or anything, but those services do carry stuff from great labels like Clean Feed, AUM Fidelity, Pi Recordings and ACT
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>>72143372
ECM is strongly against streaming, although they were on Apple Music for a short period when they went live and I actually subscribed just due to that. It's really a shame - there are so many good albums in their back catalog that they don't sell anymore that could as well be available.
I didn't know that Pi is on Apple - they're not on Spotify that I mostly use, although I still have an Apple Music subscription as well. This is great news as Pi is definitely one of the most interesting jazz labels right now.
ACT has new releases often come a couple months late to streaming which is annoying and not everything comes to streaming, but at least almost all interesting new ACT releases do show up eventually
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