These comments were somewhat in regard to the use of electronics in jazz but I thought they were instructive regardless.

With much of jazz still under the shadow of 1950s hard bop, Shipp believes these changes toward a broader sound spectrum have come not a moment too soon. "I think jazz has become its own museum-keeper, its own graveyard attendant, and it's buckling under the weight of its own pretensions. I definitely think there is a necessity to broaden it out and try to reflect the times right now."

you can use any pitch in any variation; you can use a lot of color-it's a big, wide spectrum-and it opens up a new universe and it seems very natural to use it inside jazz, because it has been the nature of jazz to experiment and evolve new expressionism. I think jazz really needs to expand anyway, because it's been standing quite still for a long time."

"It's a new world, and it seems very exciting," says Shipp, whose albums Nu Bop and Equilibrium for Thirsty Ear's Blue Series are regarded by many as benchmark albums of the new trend. "This is reflecting thought processes I have been going through for several years. Just recently I've had the character and the wherewithal to do it. I think it's definitely time for a change. I kind of wish the jazz establishment was a little more open-minded and could see it, but maybe that's why jazz is dying.

For a musician such as Shipp, the preoccupation with older paradigms of jazz, shaped in a different time and a different place, has meant jazz is becoming less and less able to reflect the tensions, emotions and complexity of modern-day living.

Shipp talks of creating a new emotional language for jazz in the 21st century, one that comes in bursts of information from a variety of sources. "I'm interested in the idea of syntax feeding the nervous system, and discreet little musical phrases forming its own nervous system.

Jazz is a radical music, but it's now practiced by conservative people,"...

there [are] now young musicians out there "who possess a high caliber of musicianship but don't want to get caught in that historical quagmire. They're in tune with what is going on today in music.

The challenge in jazz today, as Metheny points out, is to reinvent the music to a new paradigm resonant to this era. "The 20th century is over. It's simply not gonna cut it to just keep looking back, emulating what has already been done with just a slightly different spin on it. We have to get to work on a vision that is more concerned with what this music can become than what it has already been. We need to move the music forward! You know what excites me? The thought of a kind of jazz that sounds nothing like the jazz of the 20th century, that is an entirely different thing, a new kind of animal.

I couldn't agree more.

When Joni Mitchell collaborated with Jaco & Mingus, she was excoriated by jazz musicians for not being "authentic", and she said that it destroyed her career.

Kenny Werner, the author of Effortless Mastery, said that the last few decades has seen an increasing concern for "jazz authenticity", which goes against his belief that innovation is the tradition, and that everybody should find their own style.

Still, I'm just coming to appreciate jazz as it has been played in the 50's, 60's, and 70s. It's taken a long time for my ears to open up to it, and I love jazz harmony, and I can't wait to learn more about it. I just don't think people who study jazz and play it should be pigeonholed. That's really academic and doesn't serve the spirit of music, 'nuff said.

R

It could also have a lot to do with the name "jazz". Whilst some of us see the term meaning progressive and provocative music, many many others see it as lounge/dinner music or (one that I used to get regularly) elevator music - music that's not supposed to be heard....

The hard thing, probably, is creating something far enough outside the status quo but still able to use the familiar vocabulary that connects it to the past.

I think bebop in particular is now textbook music and is mostly only useful as a training exercise. It happens to all genres really - once the experts pick it apart, the original energy evaporates.

Just my two cents

Hi Tim, Hi Rodan,

that Joni Mitchell and Jaco collaboration was some of the best "pop" music ever. The potential in a music that melodic never materialized though because we moved on to techno and rap. Bring a melodic pop back like Joni and James Taylor but not reject the techno/rap and developments after hard bop. You know Coltrane was left out of jazz pedagogia because what he did from Kind of Blue and afterwards was not seen as jazz. The most inspiring jazz musician of all time... The academics were horrified that young players wanted to move straight to that and bypass everything they had to teach about what jazz "should" be. If there's something you want to do there's no reason you have to wait until someone else shoves down your throat what they think. Do what you want from the start. If you can't/don't want to target guide tones and make sure that disonant notes are normally played off the beat it's not criminal.

Re: Coltrane, the same could be said of Wynton Marsalis and other jazz conservatives not recognising Miles as a jazz artist.

The idea of forging an individual direction in from the very start is so inspiring, but one can follow that direction at any time if they choose to leave behind all the overarching precedents. (That also applies to pretty much every other style of music and instrument).

It does take considerable confidence, fortitude and ignorance of others' views to take that path. Perhaps those that have been able to forge their own direction were either raised with or were able to instill in themselves the necessary self belief.

I really like Joni, Jaco etc. collaborations BECAUSE they don't follow the old model. I'm surprised to learn that her career suffered so much. When Me'Shell Ndegeocello made (very) contemporary jazz records, she faded to obscurity because she refused to conform to the traditional funk that she was known for or make traditional jazz that the conservative audience could digest easily.

Happily I don't consider Metheny, Garbarek or Ralph Towner etc. etc. etc. etc. jazz - just beautiful sensitive and harmonically intriguing music. Calling music Jazz is always the easy way out.

Again just my two cents.

Peace

That's four cents already. Are you sure you can afford it?

I wouldn't complain that's a crap load of words for four cents.