These people are all white males.  There is but one African-American major label record executive, and no women.  Although there is no organization or secret  pact that binds these good fellows together, they are nevertheless participants in a boy’s club with a very restricted membership.  The Record Boys may think otherwise, but their only goals are profits and more power. 

I know many of these men and they are not evil or malicious people, just lonely and selfish chaps who live in constant fear that their empires may be crumbling.  I’m certain that when they begin their Napoleon-like journeys, they start with the best of intentions.  They actually want to help the music.  It’s when they join the status-quo that their ethics run amok.  Otherwise musicians would receive regular royalty statements and be able to make a decent living without supplicating, as opposed to the indentured slave mentality that has permeated the record industry since its inception. (Ever read a record contract?)

Of course the Record Boys are no different than any other businessmen.  It's just that their business happens to be the most creative art form ever conceived and that’s why yours truly, a lifelong jazz enthusiast, finds their actions so repugnant.  Hence these eruptions.

My diatribes and the flippant way I refer to them is in no way meant to personally demean the Record Boys.  It’s the system itself that I abhor.  Having survived the 1960s and participated in the last semi-organized rebellion in recent memory, which helped end the Vietnam war and gave birth to the women’s movement and a new worldwide consciousness about the environment, I must admit that a distaste for what we called "the establishment" endures.  I’m suspicious of any organized group, especially those solely concerned with the bottom line.  I find all major corprations and their pledge of allegiance to consumerism both  distasteful and largely responsible for most of the ills that plague modern man.

A Wake-Up-Call From The Prophet of Doom

This morning I received a phone from an industry insider.  Although he’s walking propagandist for Jazz, lately, he has become a profit of doom.  Producing both new recordings and reissues, he has his finger on the pulse of the jazz biz and reports that the Record Boys are running scared.  CDs aren’t selling and the growing global economic exigencies are starting to take their toll.  One major label doesn't even have European distribution anymore.  (Go straight to Amazon and do not pass go.)

Just what could the Record Boys do to invigorate the jazz industry and build a new audience for this music?

Solidarity (What A Concept)

What really needs to happen is for the Record Boys to work together in solidarity.  That seems unlikely.  These men only operate within the bounds of their own agendas and can’t see beyond their current release schedules.  Like rats in a maze, the Record Boys have a very limited field of vision and can’t focus on the larger problem at hand.  Their only concern is, what can we do to generate some numbers for this particular release?  There is crisis brewing of apocalyptic proportion in the world of jazz yet the Record Boys remain oblivious.  Maybe they’re too busy eating their gourmet lunches or riding up and down the streets in their stretch limos to notice.

The jazz community overall is hardly a bastion of harmony. Has there ever been a more fractious bunch of like-minded folk?  When Bird and Diz gave birth to Bebop, traditional jazz lovers were quick to put them down.  When Trane arrived, critics and listeners alike dubbed him "anti-jazz."  Then the mainstream, hard-boper started taking pot shots at free musicians, those who played what was called Avant Garde.  Those battles continue to rage on.  And because artists and labels are fighting for a piece of a diminishing pie, the conflict is now at a feverish pitch. 

Can’t We Just Work Together?

There is no jazz industry association.  If fact in nearly 80 years of recording music, there never has really has been, in fact.  What about NARAS, you ask?  A look at the annual GRAMMY Awards show and it’s quickly obvious NARAS is just another ego trip for those involved.   The amount of Jazz heard on these programs is pathetic.  The movers and shakers at NARAS treat jazz musicians like bastard step-children. NARAS’ mission statement says that "The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Inc. also known as The Recording Academy, is dedicated to improving the quality of life and cultural condition for music and its makers."  Do they really believe that?  What has NARAS ever done to help jazz musicians and build an audience for American’s homegrown art form?  NOT A FUCKING THING.

At this writing, the Israelis and Palestinians have managed to work out a fragile peace agreement after years of conflict.  If the Record Boys were waring nations they’d never even reach the negotiation stage.  The Record Boys make the Jews and Arabs seem like kissing cousins.  It took decades for a Jazz Awards ceremony to take place and the reason it did happen was because of two outsiders, Michael Dorf of the Knitting Factory, and Howard Mandel of the Jazz Journalists Association.  No Dorf, No Mandel, no Jazz Awards.

Enough Complaining, Got Any Real Ideas?

Yes.  If I was sitting in the catbird seat, if I was in a position of power, if I was one of the Record Boys, here’s what I’d do. 

First of all, set up a jazz industry association and create a fund designated for the sole purpose of building a new audience for the music (if every record label executive at every mid-size and major label would to limit their lunch expense to $15 per meal, and take cabs instead of limos, the money saved could easily fund this project).  Here is what the fund will do:

• 1 - Produce a budget priced compilation CD every six months featuring a cross section of TODAY’S artists on labels large and small.   The CD will contain a booklet that is, in essence, the Idiot’s Guide to Jazz.  Simple, well-written, beautifully designed and linked to a website. 
• 2 - Create the best jazz education website known to man.  Thousands of jazz sites on the web today and there is not one site that takes the users by the hand and presents an explanation of the music, and how to listen to and enjoy it.  That’s what people need to get into jazz, not album covers and sound clips.  They have to be taught how to appreciate it.  If not for friends, most people have no gateway to jazz.  The industry association should produce that website. 
• 3 - Produce a series of infomercials for television broadcast, to both sell the compilation CD and promote the educational website.  Get Quincy Jones, Wynton Marsalis, Herbie Hancock or another identifiable, telegenic spokesperson and run these infomercials day and nite on as many cable channels as possible. (If you think BET-On-Jazz is doing anything to help this music, I have a bridge in downtown Manhattan you might be interested in purchasing.)
• 4 - Use the Internet to promote new music by offering free tracks in MP3 format.  The age of digital distribution is upon us.  Tens of thousands of people worldwide are starting to download tracks and play them on their computers.  The numbers grow daily.  Every time a label releases a new CD, one of the tracks should be available for digital download.  Go to the website, get a free track. People like to get things for free.  If the music moves them, if they dig the artist, they might even buy the CD.  And what does it cost to offer a track to the burgeoning web audience, practically nothing.

OK Record Boys, it’s your move.  I invite your comments, your feedback.