By Warren L. Oree
What is jazz?? Put your seat belt on and hold on tight—the floodgates are now officially open. Prepare for an onslaught of answers, arguments, posturing, profiling, and of course, a slew of cliches from the experts. How can anyone answer that question and be right , when the term jazz itself is so subjectively defined. One person’s jazz is another’s r&b. Of course, having so many categories of jazz does not help the uninitiated to determine what it really is. For instance, there’s bebop, and straight ahead, avant-garde, and mainstream. There’s also hard bop, jazz-rock, and contemporary. (Whew! Just a few more I hope.) And of course there’s the infamous, much hated and talked about smooth jazz, who is a close cousin of fusion. But really it’s all like CONfusion!!!
What can be done to unravel the mystery of this exciting yet misunderstood art form? ED-U-CATE!!! That’s right. Help people to understand what it is and why it is! Then they will try to find out where it is. Imagine, throngs of people filling the streets of Philadelphia—hunting, searching for jazz concerts and clubs to attend. It’s a sight that brings tears to my eyes. Unfortunately, the other thing that brings tears to my eyes is the sight of empty clubs, irate owners, and depressed musicians. Both of these scenarios currently exist in Philadelphia. How can we create more of the former and eliminate the latter? Again, we need to ED-U-CATE!!! Some may disagree and feel the need is to focus more on advertisement; others say promotion and publicity. But what good is advertising and promoting something that the general public is not savvy about?
For example, what if you heard blaring radio ads pushing SOLID, YELLOWISH FAT THAT IS THE RESULT OF HOURS OF MOTION INVOLVING A LIQUID FOUND IN COWS? Would you be interested? Would you buy it? Probably not....but once you’ve been educated about this product and realize it’s churned milk or just another way of describing BUTTER…maybe then you’d be willing to at least check it out. Why?
Because now you understand what you’re dealing with. It’s the same with music…especially jazz music! One person might say it’s crazy music; someone else might call it slow music without words; still another might say it’s race music (which has nothing to do with competing cars, horses, or greyhounds). If the people who hear these descriptions are not inclined to investigate for themselves, then you have the makings of yet another misinformed and misED-U-CA-TED, jazz-less population.
So, you might ask, who is responsible to ED-U-CATE the public about jazz? Why don’t you ask me something hard…because this question is easy to answer—(here come the caps again)…WE ALL ARE!!!... What WE?... Who WE?...and How WE???
Everyone of us can play a role, whether big or small, in providing insight into this music we call jazz. First of all, as musicians, we can educate our audiences from the stage. I don’t mean getting on the bandstand and delivering a two hour lecture on the history of jazz, rather, it would be more advantageous to relate quick and informative anecdotes or backgrounds on certain compositions, composers, etc. It would make the music more human and therefore more accessible to the lay person.
The promoters play an important role by presenting this jazz music in venues that stimulate and enlighten. For instance they can schedule jazz workshops as part of the concert itinerary. But the real treat would be to schedule and promote workshops and clinics for the non-musician: workshops on how to appreciate jazz; jazz history; the innovators of jazz music; etc. All too often workshops are given for the aspiring musician only. Although this serves a purpose, it’s sometimes like teaching English to Americans—they already know the language.
The media can play a pivotal role in their coverage and review/preview process of jazz music. Unless it’s a world renowned icon the coverage is polite at best. It’s almost as if the music does not exist. Okay, so it’s not the dominant music of the American public, but it is the music that so many venues and situations make use of. Check out the music used for commercials, TV and movie soundtracks. And let’s not forget everybody’s favorite—cartoons! You might hear Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, or Jan Hammer helping set the mood as some clever mouse escapes the claws of some mentally challenged cat. (Hey, I know quite a few mentally challenged cats!)
Finally, the role played by the educational institutions themselves needs to be more supportive of jazz music. Schools at all levels should be mandating jazz appreciation courses in their curriculum…from kindergarten to college seniors, jazz needs a more prominent place in the many lessons and pieces of information we are required to ingest. I bet that Coltrane goes down as easily as Chopin. Why not include jazz as a music that is paramount to the studies of our children (and adults)?
The results would be a better understanding of jazz music, and less speculation as to what and why it is! After all don’t we like BUTTER better than SOLID YELLOWISH FAT...and JAZZ better than CRAZY, SLOW, RACE MUSIC WITHOUT WORDS? Let’s ED-U-CATE so we can E-RAD-I-CATE all the misconceptions about this powerful music called JAZZ!!!
Warren Oree is a bassist/composer/producer and leader of the Arpeggio Jazz Ensemble. He is a ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂworking musicianÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ who tours throughout the world performing original compositions which have been recorded on several CDs. As the founder of PhiladelphiaÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs Po/Jazz Connection, he has spurred the careers of some of todayÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs most popular spoken word poets.
This article first appeared in the July-August 2002 issue of All About Jazz: Philadelphia.
