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Opinion/Editorial
When is a Jazz Festival (Not) a Jazz Festival?
John Kelman
With the realization that there will always be more music coming at him than he can keep up with, John wonders why anyone would think that jazz is dead or dying.Here's the reality check. There are really only two choices for most jazz festivals around the world: insist that festivals retain their absolute purity, and watch them run themselves into the ground in short order; or accept that a broader purview is necessary, in order to exist, as long as that purview isn't at the expense of a primary jazz focus. Me? I'll be first in line for Robert Plant and Black Dub, but I'll also be lining up for Atomic, The Thing, Joshua Redman and Brad Mehldau, Kurt Elling and Jonas Kullhammer. And I'll be all the richer for it. Jazz, after all, has always been about inclusion and cross-pollination, rather than exclusion and a glass box mentality, hasn't it?
Photo Credits
Robert Plant: Egghead06/Wikimedia
Kurt Elling: Skip Bolen
