The Jazz Border Patrol And The Tuesday Link Dump

by Patrick Jarenwattananon

Where our latest Take Five has me dying to play a contrabass saxophone.

--50,000 Turn Out For Kenny G: I promise this will be the only time we lead with Kenny G. (OK, I don't promise that at all.) But news that he drew as many as 50,000 fans for a show at a commmunity college in Syracuse, N.Y. made me perk up a bit. Here's a review, if anyone is curious as to what exactly he played. According to further coverage at Syracuse.com, the parking lots overflowed, and Mr. G also gave away a soprano saxophone. Now, I don't know what percentage of that audience came to really engage with Kenny G's music, but you can't argue with the sheer enormity of 50,000. You don't see those kinds of numbers for anyone playing saxophone who's not in Bruce Springsteen's band.

Reading this interview with Syracuse Jazz Festival director Frank Malfitano, it would seem as if he believes a key to jazz's survival is to form a protective trade organization for all forms of jazz. He also blames jazz purists for the current state of the industry. I don't know if he actually believes that having smooth jazz headliners floats all boats, or if he actually believes that smooth jazz represents a positive growth of the jazz tradition. I wouldn't presume to put words into his mouth, but judging from the interview and the fact that the festival also booked Spyro Gyra to headline the first night, both postulates seem logical. Anyone out there with thoughts on the viability of these ideas?

--The Ever-Expanding Definition Of The Jazz Festival: Closely related to the previous discussion is this examination of why "jazz" festivals book headliners who are not jazz artists. I'll admit that today, it makes sense to book pop artists both to expand the jazz audience and, more importantly, to have them considered in the same breath as reputedly impenetrable "jazz" musicians. But taken to its logical end, at some point this trend reaches a breaking point where jazz and improvised music is no longer the core idea of the event. Seems to me that a better model -- where one can afford to do it -- was this year's Meltdown, wherein a jazz legend in Ornette Coleman was effectively given the keys to the castle. It got lots of attention, and with the interdisciplinary bent to the whole thing, nobody really seemed to care what genre was being presented.

--Jazz Is Still The Word: While we're discussing the jazz border patrol today, the English blog thejazzbreakfast recently held an online poll to see if the term "jazz" was still worth keeping around, given the incredible diversity of what falls under the term now. The results: 66% say yes, 11% say no and 23% take a neutral stance. Now, the data is no FiveThirtyEight science, but the ensuing discussion is what I personally find interesting. It seems as if jazz has become less useful as a genre defined by common sonic elements, but it still has plenty of value as a frame of mind, an aesthetic approach of innovation, a heritage, a catchall for things that wouldn't otherwise have a home in today's fractured music landscape. I understand that the term "jazz" is loaded with potentially uncool stigmas outside of jazz circles, but to me it seems easier to wage that cultural war (especially with the Obamas on our side) than to be without a home base for the many things that wouldn't get any attention outside the jazz industry. (And to tear down that industry apparatus in the first place.) Or am I just fooling myself of the importance of the jazz press?

--The Founder Of Delmark Records, Profiled: Somehow, last week we missed this New York Times story on Bob Koester, sole proprietor of Delmark Records and owner of the Jazz Record Mart in Chicago. Koester comes off really well here, as someone who documents music because he feels it important rather than profitable. Why else would he have chosen to record traditional jazz, Delta blues and the early AACM recordings on the same label? And his record store fostered a real community of musicians and music listeners. (Howard Mandel counts himself as one of them.) Anyway, we should also mention that Delmark is still putting out important music from the Chicago blues, trad-jazz and avant-garde scenes.

12:32 PM ET | 06-30-2009 | permalink

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