this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2024
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Showerthoughts
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I hear you and agree with much of that. I am a fan of multiple genres as well. But, as far as it goes for jazz, jazz is dead. Anyone still attempting to play it is often a sad version of what was once great in the 50s/60s/70s. So while there's plenty of music in other genres I like, always more to find from those time periods, as well as still enjoying the classics, it's a little upsetting good jazz is dead, modern jazz is trash, and people who think they know jazz these days actually refer to some other genre, like rock. Somewhat sad.
Awful take. Last weekend I saw Mike Dillon with Phunkadelick playing with Brian Haas on the Rhodes organ. They played a wild punk-jazz show that is one of the best shows I've ever attended. There was a mosh pit at a jazz concert where a primary instrument was a vibraphone.
In recent years, I've greatly enjoyed things like AKU!'s album Blind Fury (drum/trumpet/baritone sax trio) and Ambrose Akinmusire's Origami Harvest. A lot of modern jazz is blending in electronic influences, like Sungazer. Maybe you don't like these things, but I can't imagine calling jazz dead.
Jazz, to me, a layman to the genre comes off as anything from Miles Davis and Duke Ellington to soundtracks composed for animes, to progressive epics that span twenty minutes and spin into a free form improv that's somewhere between art and math.
But aside from it being a flavor other things come in, like a jazzy rock band, Mars Volta or a jazzy metal band, like Opeth, or a jazzy singer, like Michael Buble, I don't know jazz.
I don't think as a normal person that I'm exposed to pure "jazz", whatever it dilutes into, but I'm fascinated by the chance that there might be something I'm missing that you might mention.
I suppose I don't know a ton. My earliest entry was that of Buddy Rich, the drummer. As a drummer, I wanted to relate. Play fast and all. Haha. Though my playing has all but ceased (the stomach drum and desk drum will always live on!), my love for his often high tempo pieces lives on. He played songs I believe others played as well. His versions were just more upbeat!
I'll give you an example of a group I didn't like all that much and that was the Glen Miller Orchestra. Even as a jazz fan I can hear the style of jazz people refer to when they talk about "music to put you to sleep."
But BR was just the beginning. It sounds like you know more than most believe it or not. Miles is great and I think I have more to discover there even.
The latest artist I found, new to me, also from the 50s/60s I believe, is Bill Evans, a pianist. It was a YouTube comment I came across that mentioned Evans to now be their "piano daddy" and from what I'm hearing, I'd have to agree. 😁 But, again, I only know so much. (Talk as if I know it all though...)
Have you checked out Live from Emmett's Place?
Live jazz streamed every week.
I have not. Thank you.
I definitely don't know where to look these days. I believe I was previously recommended SmallsLIVE, also on YT, but admittedly haven't spent much time there. https://youtube.com/@smallslive?si=b4mxAHP1xqxv7QNm
I've also been listening to Avishai Cohen, a bassist, for the past many years, who has modern things and may still be active. Jazz is just not mainstream in any way anymore. And most people don't know what it is.