Interesting online article in Intelligent Life, the quarterly lifestyle and culture webzine, on the topic of the perceived waning viability of jazz. Certainly, every genre of music will have its elemental Puritanism, the desire (and ultimately dying wish) to preserve and protect the "true" composure of its stylings in original form. The Bluegrass "Police" don't want any variation from how Bill did it, "no part of nothing,' and today's jazz purists often want to ignore the invading facets of hip hop, smooth jazz, third-stream, and rock in roll in exchange for preserving "traditional" jazz.

Like it or not music evolves. Some would reject the mandolin as a viable medium for jazz. Don Stiernberg tells of a discussion with a programmer from a popular Arizona jazz station that outright rejected his music, let alone the notion of a mandolin being capable of bearing the jazz message. We share with him the dream with him that someday our children will think of the mandolin as much a legitimate instrument for the genre as a trumpet or sax.

That's why we're here.

Meantime, read this interesting article; seems jazz has struggles of its own: Jazz is not dead.

Posted by Ted at November 15, 2009 11:31 AM