On August 8th, 2014, the
Washington Post published a sort-of response to the recent Sonny Rollins satire fiasco. Written by Justin Moyer, it
was titled “All That Jazz Isn’t All That Great.” In the article, Moyer, a
Wesleyan University music alumnus, explains why, in his opinion, jazz is
“boring…overrated… [and] washed up.” According to him, jazz ruins songs by
taking lyrics away, jazz improvisation is boring, jazz is no longer evolving, is too
ambiguous in what it calls jazz, and it has let itself be commercialized. Moyer
said that the satire was “funny because it was true." This critique is extremely
ignorant, especially for someone who claims to have studied with so many great
jazz artists.
Moyer
breaks his article down into five of his biggest problems with jazz, so I will
address each of those points here. All of his points are somewhat valid, but I
intend to point out what I and many of my fellow jazz musicians will agree he
is missing.
Moyer's first point is partially right: jazz often favors instrumental music over
lyrics, and indeed, this is why many people dislike jazz. But Dyske Suematsu
suggests in his article, “Why Americans Don’t Like Jazz,” that this could be
because many people, especially Americans, simply haven’t been correctly taught
how to appreciate instrumental jazz music. People need lyrics in a song, he
says, because they need a song to be interpreted for them; they have trouble
dealing with the fact that abstract art or instrumental music cannot always be
interpreted easily. So yes, taking the lyrics out of a song may strip away some
of its intended meaning. But then something beautiful happens: the song can now
be whatever you want it to be. Lyrics often weigh jazz down. For example, last
summer at a jazz concert I attended in Branford, CT, the last song of the night
was Take Five, originally performed
without lyrics by the Dave Brubeck quartet. Brubeck, the singer’s friend, had
supposedly asked him to write words to the song. The lyrics he wrote were
decent enough. But by choosing to add lyrics to the song, he took away all
other possible interpretations of the song except the one provided by his
lyrics. Just by adding words, he unintentionally destroyed much of what the
song could have meant and how it could have been interpreted. And that is why
jazz musicians so often prefer instrumental music over music with lyrics. They allow
the listener to take whatever meaning from the music he wishes, which unfortunately
can be intimidating for many.
What
Moyer fails to mention in his critique of jazz improvisation is its incredible
complexity as well as its true purpose. Yes, to the average listener, who has
probably heard little if any jazz at all, improv can be boring. If he is
anything like me before I got into jazz, he may not even realize that the jazz
musician is making up much of what he is playing right off the top of his head.
It was only when I got into jazz music and started playing it more that I
realized improvisation is an infinite world, one that even the greatest jazz
musicians of all time never stop exploring. Try as one might, he will never,
ever run out of ideas. As my own school jazz band director Mr. E. told
me, 90 percent of what a good improviser plays is stuff he has played before,
but the other ten percent is new stuff. The best improvisers are always trying
out new ideas, exploring new horizons. And this is not all. Improv, when done
right, is a meant to be a conversation between the soloist and the rhythm
section, that is, usually the drums, bass, piano and/or guitar. The idea is to
listen to the other players around you and pick up on what they are playing.
Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers were especially good at doing this. They were
always very in touch with each other, feeding off of each other’s energy and
ideas. So yes, improvisation, to the uneducated ear, is boring. To get the most
out of it, one must go much deeper into the world of jazz than he may be
comfortable with. But trust me, it is so worth it.
Moyer’s
claim that jazz has stopped evolving is a narrow-minded one. Indeed, since the
death of Miles Davis in 1991, jazz has become gradually less popular in the
public eye, and fewer and fewer new things are coming out under the jazz genre.
But jazz and its influence is still there. New jazz music is being written all
the time. Because jazz has always been so moldable, new things influence it,
and new sounds are always coming out under its name. Moyer says that the sound
has gotten old, and yes, certainly there are certain elements of jazz, such as
swing, that have gotten a little tired. But, like with improvisation, if you
look deeper, you will find new sounds. Just listen to Cerulean Sky by Fred Sturm, a popular piece among high school jazz
bands today. It’s hard to describe it. Definitely it is jazz, but it sounds at
times classical, at times almost soulful, always modal and airy, and certainly
not like, say, Take the ‘A’ Train or
some other classic swing composition. Then there are all kinds of examples of
arrangers putting a modern spin on classic songs, such as Michael Mossman’s take
on Dizzy Gillespie’s A Night in Tunisia.
And jazz influences many other genres of music, even in small ways. Rock music
came out of jazz. The blues was
originally a jazz concept, and is still the most commonly used form of jazz
music. Even artists as “out there” as Coltrane employed the blues form in some
of their most famous songs. His BlueTrain is one of the best examples. Listen to the form of the song, then go
listen to a song by Muddy Waters or some other blues artist, and you will hear that
it is the same thing, a twelve bar blues. In addition to new songs, new people
are always discovering and playing jazz. Most high schools and even many
elementary and middle schools now have jazz bands, and many, such as the one at
my own school, travel the country performing at competitions and festivals,
such as the Berklee High School Jazz Festival in Boston. In addition to school
programs, there are jazz camps and programs that run every summer and during
the school year. So yes, the obviousness and frequency of new jazz material has
taken a hit, but jazz is still alive, well, and growing.
In
response to Moyer’s claim that jazz is too “mushy,” that there is too much
music that calls itself jazz, I say look at rock music. There are dozens of
subgenres of rock: rockabilly, hard rock, soft rock, indie rock, psychedelic
rock, acid rock, folk rock, punk rock, I could go on and on. Go and listen to
Elvis Presley’s rendition of Blue Christmas, then listen to Float On,the 2009 Modest Mouse hit, and you will see that they’re both in the rock genre.
But Elvis is not indie rock, and Modest Mouse is not rockabilly. Jazz does have
a wider range of sounds than rock does, but that’s because jazz comes from a
wider range of sources: African rhythms, Cajun second line music, and Brazilian
and Caribbean influences, to name a few. Rock is derived from jazz dance music.
So of course you are going to hear a broader range of sounds in jazz. Just as
there are all kinds of rock music, there are many different subgenres of jazz:
swing bands of the ‘40s, bebop, cool bop, avant garde, jazz fusion, funk/acid
jazz, Latin jazz, and so much more. The word “jazz” itself is derived from the
French word for “bulls**t.” Jazz simply does not have a specific sound. By its
nature, it’s more moldable than most music. This, I believe, makes jazz music
truly American. Like the United States itself, jazz is a melting pot of musical
ideas and influences.
Moyer’s
final problem with jazz is, ridiculously, that it has become too commercial, and
it will never die because people will, wrongly in his eyes, see it as
un-American. But it’s true. Getting rid of jazz would be un-American. Jazz is
the only truly American musical genre, regarded by many non-Americans (who
often appreciate it far more than we do) as America’s greatest gift to the
world. But commercialism will happen with any genre of music. Moyer complains about
seeing famous jazz artists such as Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald on things like
postage stamps, but if that’s really a problem, he should complain about all
the other historical figures we put on our postage. Additionally, hearing jazz
in movies and other commercial mediums should be celebrated. Any jazz fan who
saw the Oscar-nominated film American
Hustle surely felt chills after the final scene (spoilers, watch at your own risk!), with Duke Ellington’s band
wailing away as the credits rolled. And while Moyer believes that the rise of
jazz education is a problem, it should be celebrated. Jazz, like classical
music or landscape painting, is a complex art form that takes years to master.
Why not teach youth about the history, the form, about the joyful candidness of
letting your thoughts flow through your instrument through improvisation and
interacting with the ideas of others’ thoughts and ideas from their instruments?
Look, I might be
17, but I’m not naïve. Jazz is not for everyone. Some people simply don’t like
the sound, and that’s fine. But all I am saying is give jazz a chance. It’s not
dead, Mr. Moyer. It’s not overrated. It’s not washed up. It’s alive and well. What
we must do, if we wish to keep it that way, is show people that this is the
case. Show people the near infinite world of jazz music. Show them the joys of
its complexity. Show them that music does not have to have words to have
meaning. Show them the wonderful intricacies of improvisation. Show them the
new stuff. Show them how it ties into America’s history. You don’t have to win
everyone over; in fact, you don’t want to. Maybe, as a young person who is
relatively new to jazz, I’m simply overenthusiastic about the whole thing. But
if that’s the case, I’m certainly not alone.
I promise most of my entries won't be this long. This was my first one. I started my own blog with this because I was going to submit it to the Post as a response to Moyer's article, but it was far too long. I'm not sure exactly what direction this blog is going to go in. But I want it to show how great jazz is, to share the joy I get out of it. I want to show that young people can appreciate jazz too. So I hope you liked my first entry. If anyone actually sees this blog, you could even comment and tell me what it would be cool to post. Until next time...
