Darwin's Theory of Jazz

There is a big movement towards academic Jazz singing and playing and what I am calling Folk or Pop Jazz. Sadly some are calling it a natural evolution of the music.
How did we get here? I'm sure the Beatles had something to do with it. That’s another whole blog. There was definitely a decline in people going out to hear live music after the drunk driving laws affected most of the club scenes around the country. Jazz musicians ran to the universities looking for work. 30 years ago there were only 3 colleges in the U.S. that offered a jazz program. Now almost every school in the country has one. We are turning out factory made jazz musicians faster than Detroit could make the Edsel .It’s a “Catch 22” educating so many to the music is priceless and important to its preservation but, they are released into a market that has about as many opportunities as Siberia. Every young jazz wannabe in the country is borrowing money from their family or sugar daddy, depending on their ethics, to make cds and flood the market with them. While getting the American songbook out to the masses is important, it could be seen as music inflation and a product of commercialism and capitalism. Those of us that came up learning our craft by actually living it for 30 years are finding it harder and harder to find a new audience as they are now exposed to “new Jazz" by the commercial jazz machine that can make a jazz star out of anyone that has enough money, is 19 and good looking and can sing or at least know how to use Pro Tools. Hey after all it’s the land of the free and everyone depending on how cunning they are can have a big piece of the pie
There’s a few good Dj’s left in the country like Ross Gentile at WSIE in St Louis. Ross plays what he deems great jazz and great singing period, but countless Jazz radio program directors because of various factors of the nature of the new beast,are under pressure and are forced to feed the commercial jazz machine
I am, in no way bitter and consider myself to have a blessed life and career and to be alive to watch any transformation, not just this one. I am proud of every line on my face and proud to be a part of the “old” jazz that’s left. I’m not Doris Day, I’m not Frank Sinatra. I don’t sing the melody all the time. I sing jazz standards and the American songbook my way Like Ella, Carmen and Billy and Betty.
Whenever I am asked if I do anything original my answer is, “Yes everything I do is original “

shhhhh

I am old school jazz singer. There are only a handful of us left. I came up in the “real east coast jazz houses” swingin, with just enough grit and bop. I learned my craft from cats that couldn’t read a damn note and knew every tune in every key, some drank like fish’s and other things we don’t need to mention and played with a passion, like their life depended on it. The crowds screamed with glee and excitement cheering us on higher and higher. There were jazz clubs like that in every town. Your feet stuck to the rug and Billy and Ella and Dizzy poured from the juke box. Steam rolled out onto the street while the musicians played till dawn. (By the way there is still a jazz club like this in my neck of the woods called “Green Pastures” in Elmira N.Y.). Things have changed and the music is mostly played “in concert” and mainstream jazz rooms. The crowd is told to be quiet during the performance. Not because we don’t want some feedback but simply because they talk. As a musician I can tell you there’s a big difference between a room that is buzzing because they are physically and emoitionally involved with the music and a room of noisy listeners that don’t “get it”. We have come to this and it is necessary at this juncture but man do I ever miss hearing “Yeah Baby”or“Amen”or“You go Girl”, pushing the music to higher heights with levels of excitement that have now been forced almost into remission. The environment has become sterile and the “lost chord” may never be found. The days of spontaneous acknowledgement are all but gone.