I’ve heard this speech many times since moving to New York...a charitable request to the audience, and somewhat of a plea on behalf of the jazz community...that seems to be a recurring theme on gigs that I’ve played.
This, more often than not, happens towards the end of the night. Before the bandleader counts off the last number, they introduce the members of the orchestra, and right after the “thanks for coming,” there is an announcement such as “let’s keep this music alive,” or “together we can keep jazz alive,” or something of the sort.
That’s always struck me as a rather unusual request to ask of one’s audience. First of all: is jazz dying? (I didn’t even realize jazz was sick. No one told me.) Is jazz stuck on life support, attached to a bunch of machines, with only our meager gigs to keep it from shuffling off this mortal coil? What a ridiculous concept! If you ask me, I think that’s a gross misdiagnosis of where Jazz is at.
No siree, Jazz is definitely not dying. It’s just really bloody old. Jazz blew out its knee trying to fight Rock and Roll in the ’50s (Rock and Roll won, by the way), and Jazz has been limping around ever since, trying to tell all us youngsters how much better the old days were.
If, for argument’s sake, you invited all the genres of music to a party at your place, then Jazz is that guy you know your friends won’t lik
