The Independent Ear

One Man’s take on the Jazz Audience Discussion

 

The contributor of this piece is jazz activist Ron Washington.  Besides being a stalwart jazz diehard and tireless observer of the scene, he is proprietor of Ron "Slim" Washington Productions, which provides jazz and other music for festivals, clubs and restaurants.

 

Ron "Slim" Washington (with mic) onstage at one of his jazz productions

 

 

 

How Can a “Music of the Spirit” Die?

 

 

 

   Jazz is dead! Here we go again; i.e. the recent Wall Street Journal article by Terry Teachout declaring that no one is listening to jazz and featuring a prominent cartoon of a “black Jazz musician” being wheeled out on a cart speaks volumes to a continued bourgeois, arrogant Eurocentric lack of understanding of jazz.

 

 

 

   Mr. Treachout’s methodology is the classic case of someone going out to investigate the flowers, but never getting off the horse to “smell the flowers.” Hence the article is so “lightweight” I had to keep a paper-weight on it to keep it from elevating and floating away on its own. Put another way, as Amiri Baraka in his latest book “Digging” would say, “The lack of knowledge about America’s richest contribution to world culture is a reflection as well of the deadly ignorance which stalks this country from the New York City Hall to the halls of Congress to the corporate offices to academic classrooms, like a ubiquitous serial killer…”

 

 

   Treachout uses a number of useless (without context!) numbers from a National Endowment of the Arts survey to conclude that only those with their head in the sand cannot see a larger picture of “lack of mass support for jazz” leading to its demise. There were fewer people attending a jazz concert; the audience is (graying) growing older; older people are less likely to attend jazz performances today than yesterday; and the audience among college educated adults is also shrinking. On the surface, this kind of approach can scare or misinform a great many people into following the ever present “jazz is dead” attacks upon the music. This kind of approach is not the approach of someone who wants to help jazz survive, but one that serves to drive people away from exploring and learning about jazz.

 

 

   How about we come at the non arguable “less than healthy’ state of jazz another way? Once again we call on America’s foremost jazz critic for guidance. Why not investigate and raise the question as to the “domination of US popular culture by an outrageously reactionary commercial culture of mindlessness, mediocrity, violence and pornography means that it is increasingly more difficult for the innovative, serious, genuinely expressive, or authentically popular artist to get the same kind of production and the anti-creative garbage that the corporations thrive on.” (Digging, Amiri Baraka). I suggest that this is the inquiry that the Wall Street Journal should be making into the subject matter, the health state of jazz. But when you’re part of the problem, it’s difficult. From the standpoint of the WSJ, jazz’s mystery can/cannot be solved by market forces. “Look here are the numbers!”

 

 

   From the great work “Blues People,” to his other book, “Black Music,” and the latest contribution from the peoples’ critic, “Digging,” there is one thing that stands out. Amiri Baraka insists that the music, from blues to jazz, is a creation and reflection of the struggles of the Afro-American people. The music is an expression of a people’s culture and cannot be separated from such. Jazz, Afro-American in origin, universal in content and expression, is nonetheless tied to a people, expressing their greatest fears and joys, hopes for the future and repository of the past, that it can said, “the music is the people.” Hence the music can never die, because the people live. Bill Cosby is quoted in Digging as saying, “There’s a wonderful story I like to tell. It’s the end of the world…gray, blowing, turbulent… and there is this tombstone that says, ‘Jazz: It Broke Even!’ The music has its high and lows, but it can never die.”   

 

 

 

   Art is a reflection of a people’s culture. As Baraka says, “Whether African Song, Work Song, Spiritual, Hollers, Blues, Jazz, Gospel, etc., no matter the genre, the ideas contained in Afro-American art, in the main, oppose slavery and desire freedom.” (Digging). For jazz to die, the entire history and Afro-American people would have to die. This is the content that an interloper like Treachout cannot understand.

  

 

   But since jazz is what the great trumpet player Ahmed Abdullah calls, “the music of the spirit,” it can never die. While the WSJ declares jazz dead, refuses to get off the horse and smell the flowers, the music continues to thrive and fight for its life, for its expression. In New Jersey , new small clubs are opening up all over the place, anchored by Cecil’s in West Orange . You have the work of Newark’s own Stan Myers, who has run a successful Tuesday night Jam session at Crossroads for years;  Papillion, Skipper’s, the Priory, Trumpets, John Lee’s annual concerts in South Orange, and countless other venues all testify to the fact that the “spirit” is alive. 

  

 

    Jazz is not popular culture. To compare and demand that Jazz be equated with the lowest common denominator cultural expression, packaged for the most extreme exploitation by monopoly capitalism is to have no understanding of the music. By its very nature it is “rebel” music. Treachout complains that it is not the music of the masses, of the youth, as determined by corporate measuring sticks. Well of course. I like hip-hop but I’m not going to any concerts. That’s youth music. Not particularly challenging.

 

   When we say jazz is “a music of the spirit,” sitting in on a jazz program has the possibility of elevating the listener to heights never experienced by a poplar culture event. For many it is a shared communal experience, as witnessed by the common clapping in appreciation of a musical interlude, or the strictly individual experience of the music. Some can appreciate the full recipe of musical virtuosity on display, some may connect deeply in an emotional way with the music, some relate to the democratic display of the skills of the musicians, and some may not have liked the particular performance.

  

 

Amiri Baraka’s latest volume on jazz Digging

 

Ron Washington, September 10, 2009

blacktel4justice@gmail.com 

  

Posted in General Discussion | 5 Comments

The Artist’s responsibility

The robust audience at the Arena stage at the Monterey Jazz Festival

 

Much has been written about the reportedly dwindling jazz audience recently, including several ‘oh jazz, ‘po jazz, woe is jazz…" red flag wavings and various gnashing of teeth.  (See elsewhere in The Independent Ear one writer’s righteous indignation over Terry Teachout waving that red flag and all but planting a R.I.P. sticker on the nearest jazz artist in the Wall Street Journal.)  All kidding aside (as Jon Hendricks would say "I’m only serious") we are simply not fully developing the potential audience for this music.  Teaching a jazz course for lay people (i.e. non-music students) at Kent State University titled Jazz Imagines Africa has been quite a view into some of the reasons we are failing to maximize the audience for jazz.  Each semester never fails to reveal just how many of my students are experiencing jazz for the first time; and for a majority of them their testimony indicates that the course has opened them up to a world of music they never knew previously!  Yes, our education system shares some blame here, perhaps the many excellent jazz educators in our community could and should do more to educate the non-music student populace on this music.  But a major share of the blame must go to the musicians.

 

Simply put, today’s musicians could do so much more to make jazz music more audience-friendly and be more welcoming towards their audiences, and by turns more inviting of that audience’s return to future performances.  Do you really think that arriving on stage carelessly dressed, bearing aloof expressions with an overall hipper-than-thou demeanor that suggests to the audience that is they who are truly privileged that you’ve consented to come down from on high and inform them of your glorious artistry, does anything for cultivating an audience!?  I can’t count the number of times my relative novice students write about how put-off they were by jazz musicians’ attitudes at performances they’ve attended on assignment.

 

Do you truly think that going a complete set without saying a mumbling word to your audience does anything to make that audience feel invited, welcome, or encouraged to continue supporting jazz?  I’m afraid Miles Davis ruined it for some musicians, suggesting that they could get away without saying a word to an audience for an entire performance.  Did you forget that Miles’ voice was shot and the audience probably wouldn’t have understood a damn thing he was saying anyway, so why bother?  On the other hand, is your voice shot?  If not, then why is it so burdensome and such a seeming chore for you to offer one word of explanation to your audience about the music you’re playing, much less introduce the members of your band in a welcoming way that enables them to at least feel as though they know you better?  Are you that aloof and disdainful of your audience that you would shoot yourself in the foot — and the art form — by being so seemingly dismissive of that audience?

 

Case in point, a recent performance by an exceptional band that was crackling and full of energy.  The artist’s manager introduced the band with copious remarks that bordered on babbling after awhile.  OK, so now we all knew who the players were…  The music was completely original and fresh, but the leader offered no words of introduction or explanation, barely even an acknowledgement that there was an audience in the house!  Do you suppose anyone who may have witnessed this artist for the first time was overly encouraged by this lack of information or interaction?

 

Programming is also a major concern as far as being welcoming of and informative towards your audience and keeping your set fresh.  Does every soloist in your band need to solo on every piece?  NO…  Should every soloist be presented in the same order on every piece?  Ho-hum… only if your aim is to anesthetize your audience…  That kind of presentation glazes an audience over pretty quickly; and one suspects that boring your audience is the last thing you set out to do.  But maybe not; that same set I mentioned in the last paragraph featured the band performing in the same soloist sequence ON EVERY PIECE!  Artists please… that becomes deadly counterproductive after awhile, even for folks so seemingly immersed in the music as the small coterie of cognoscenti I sat with that evening.  As I looked around the room at the remainder of the audience however I could see a lot of eyes glazed over, a lot of quizzical looks, a lot of ‘I can’t wait until this is over’ or ‘what the hell is this’ looks. 

 

Yes, a huge measure of the jazz audience development responsibility falls directly on the shoulders of the practitioners of this great art form… the musicians!

 

Anyone wishing to take up the matter of jazz audience development in any kind of extended way beyond the Comments box below is invited to do so.  Hit me back at willard@openskyjazz.com.

Posted in The Tip | 5 Comments

Ancient Future – the radio program 9/17/09

Ancient Future is produced & hosted by Willard Jenkins for WPFW 89.3 FM, 50,000 watt Pacifica Radio in Washington, DC.

 

ARTIST            TUNE                ALBUM TITLE            LABEL

 

3RD Thursday special: Jazz in South Africa

Nancy Jacbs & Her Sisters    Meadowlands    Soweto Blues    Sheer

Voice        Scullery Department        Soweto Blues        Sheer

Bheki Mseleku    Homeboyz        Timelessness        Verve

Bheki Mseleku    Yukani (Wake Up)    Timelessness    Verve

McCoy Mrubata    Amasabekwelangeni        Hoelykit?        Sheer

McCoy Mrubata    Romeo & Alek Will Never Rhyme        Hoelykit?    Sheer

Simphiwe Dana    Sizophum elokuluami        On Bantu Biko Street    Gallo

Bheki Mseleku        Closer to the Source        Celebration        World Circuit

McCoy Mrubata/Greg Georgiades    Rasta of the Burning Sands    Vivid Afrika    Sheer

Simphiwe Dana    Troubled Soldier    Zandisile    Gallo

Simphiwe Dana    Tribe                    Zandisile    Galla

 

Soundviews Feature new release

Robert Glasper     No Worries        Double Booked    Blue Note

Robert Glasper    Open Mind        Double Booked    Blue Note

Robert Glasper    4Eva                Double Booked    Blue Note

Robert Glasper    South                Double Booked    Blue Note

 

What’s New: the new release hour

U.O. Project        The Maestro Blues    It’s Time For U     (No Label)

Marc Courtney Johnson    Brand New Day    Dream of Sunny Days    (No Label)

Marcus Strickland    You’ve Got it Bad Girl    Idiosyncracies    Strick Muzik

John Beasley        Shatita Boom Boom    Positootly!    Resonance

Matt Wigler        Boogie Au Privave    Epiphony    Vista

Mark Levine and the Latin Tinge        Kathy    Off & On         Left Coast Clave

Kobie Watkins    Third Pew    Involved        Origin

Pete Rodriguez    My Patience    Alchemist    Conde Music

 

Contact:

Willard Jenkins

Open Sky

5268-G Nicholson Lane

#281

Kensington, MD 20895

Posted in Playlists | 2 Comments

Is your artist website truly useful, or a waste of space?

My good friend and colleague Sara Donnelly (who many in the jazz community may remember as the former Sara Warner), has matriculated through the National Endowment for the Arts, worked at the late National Jazz Service Organization,  and later the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, currently runs the JazzNext funding initiative for the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation in Baltimore.  Sara has always been one of the keenest observers of the jazz scene and the jazz condition that I know, and one whose first concern is always the plight of the artists.  Sara recently forwarded me an excellent blog post titled The Jazz Challenge (www.fistfulayen.com/blog) that I highly recommend you check out.

 

In that blog the author takes jazz artists to task for being so far behind the tech curve of their peers in other performing arts, particularly pop music.  The suggestions in that blog are quite pragmatic and wouldn’t necessarily require huge cash outlays or arduous hard work on the part of artists with web sites.  I have to concur with The Jazz Challenge’s contentions as I surf the growing universe of jazz artist web sites.  I cannot tell you how many jazz artist web sites are hopelessly deficient and outdated (I went to one just today that boasted a blog… the most recent blog post was from 2005!!!), and as presently constituted a complete waste of the artists’ money.  Many are thoroughly deficient in user friendly information, lacking certain essential information, and completely sans interactive capabilities which might entice and invite future fans. 

 

 In a curious head-scratching twist I have yet to figure out, it seems many jazz musicians work hard to keep their direct contact information private, as though they were some high-level politician or celebrity with security concerns!  This is your public face dude/dudette, let folks know how to reach you for God’s sake!  Yeah, your manager, agent or even your publicist’s information might be useful when I’m wearing my concert/festival presenter’s hat, but exactly how many such people do you think surf your site?  Most folks who go to your site would find some simple contact information DIRECTLY TO YOU to be quite useful.  What have you got to lose by posting a simple email contact address on your web site?  It doesn’t even have to be your primary and largely private email address; get a gmail or hotmail account for free!  Are you afraid some groupee might put a hit out on you?  Come on folks, get real with the contact information, get interactive with your fans and potential audience, and be more forthcoming with your information and more up-to-date with what’s going on with your career! I recently wanted to send a simple complimentary, encouraging note to a certain singer whose spouse is a high profile bassist and the email address listed on her web site bounced back!  So, you’ve got a brand new record out and nowhere for folks to contact you directly! 

 

One of the blogger’s citations at www.fistfulayen.com/blog dealt with certain artists’ crying lack of a web presence.  One such artist was  Wayne Shorter, who doesn’t appear to have a web presence for crying out loud!  I’ve recently been in the midst of endeavoring to communicate with a certain hall-of-fame level jazz artist about a concert opportunity and since his web site is so thoroughly lacking in contact information, I’ve been referred to his My Space page of all juvenalia!  I asked Sara Donnelly for her follow-up thoughts on this issue and here’s what she wrote:

 

No Wayne Shorter website?

 

"An artist of Wayne Shorter’s stature can choose whatever he’d like in the way of promoting himself, but the best way to go is to be on top of best business practices that popular culture relies on.  Artists should have high-end websites, period, because that will often be where any interested party goes first.  Someone mentioned Wayne not having a site is like Springsteen not having a site.  But take the comparision to the arts world, and say the same for [choreographers] Merce Cunningham or Paul Taylor [who are pretty much to their dance world what Wayne Shorter is to the jazz world] not having sites… their sites exist and are of high quality.  Jazz should represent the same way, and artists need to look at the bigger picture when they fear how much an initial set-up costs.  Those costs will be more than paid for in the future."

                                        — Sara Donnelly, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation

Posted in The Tip | 1 Comment

It’s Coming: the Mid Atlantic Jazz Festival

 

For 15 years, up until her passing on to ancestry, DC area based vocalist and vocal educator RONNIE WELLS tirelessly produced the successful mid-winter East Coast Jazz Festival at the Doubletree Hotel in Rockville, MD (suburban Washington, DC).  During that time Ronnie built an impressive and loyal audience, many of whom traveled from neighboring states and points beyond to spend the weekend bathed in a kind of 3-ring jazz circus — a loving characterization to be certain.  It can truly be said that the East Coast Jazz Festival (ECJF) fostered a jazz party atmosphere, with folks camping out at the hotel for the weekend and hosting parties in their suites and rooms, and feasting on jazz performances that commenced at lunchtime and concluded in the wee hours.  The festival was also deeply steeped in jazz education, fostering free performances by area high school jazz students, student competitions, and scholarship awards.  Ronnie, who taught privately and at the University of Maryland, also provided a showcase for her many vocal students throughout the weekend.

 

When Ronnie Wells passed on to ancestry in 2006 not only was her passing a great loss to the DC scene, but sadly the East Coast Jazz Festival seemed to ascend into memory with her.  When Suzan Jenkins assumed the executive director post of the Council on Arts & Humanities of Montgomery County one of her goals was to facilitate gatherings of arts activists in the county to develop new efforts for the community; renewal/resurrection of the East Coast Jazz Festival was one such opportunity.  A working committee of concerned arts professionals has come together over the last few months to launch the brand new Mid Atlantic Jazz Festival in the true spirit of the former East Coast Jazz Festival.   

 

The first annual Mid Atlantic Jazz Festival will be produced by saxophonist Paul Carr and his spouse Karmen Carr’s burgeoning Jazz Academy of Music (www.jazzacademy.org).  JAM presents an annual summer jazz camp for high school students, many of whom come from Montgomery County.  The dates for the Mid Atlantic Jazz Festival are February 19-21, 2010 at the Hilton Hotel (approximately 15 miles north of downtown DC), the same Rockville, MD hotel which was formerly the Doubletree and host to the ECJF those 15 years.  

 

Among the artists who will perform at the festival are Bobby Watson, Mulgrew Miller, Terrell Stafford, Lewis Nash, Marc Cary, Bruce Williams and a host of the DC area’s finest artists, including the Alto Saxophone Summit Word on Bird, a vocal tribute to Ronnie Wells, the DC Jazz Orchestra, the finest high school jazz bands in the area, nightly jam sessions, jazz-on-film, live artist interviews, and a Next Generation matinee.  Check the MAJF web site: www.MidAtlanticJazzFestival.org for details as they develop. For now SAVE-THE-DATE: February 19-21, 2010, the MID ATLANTIC JAZZ FESTIVAL is coming… at affordable prices! 

 

Don’t sleep… The Independent Ear will have further details on the MAJF forthcoming…  Stay tuned!

Peace,

Willard Jenkins

Artistic Director

Mid Atlantic Jazz Festival

Posted in Events | 2 Comments