That Jazz - Monkey Max Music and File Download

In This Chapter
Chapter 10
Looking Ahead: The Present
and Future of Jazz
� Meeting traditionalist musicians
� Looking at artists combining jazz and classical music
� Surveying contemporary jazz forms
� Taking stock of the future
� Listening to jazz masters’ current work
As the new millennium approached, one thing became clear: artists no
longer felt bound by categories, and jazz became difficult to define. In
2005, Herbie Hancock, a beacon of creativity in hard bop, fusion, and jazzfunk,
released Possibilities, a CD on which he collaborated with pop stars
such as John Mayer, Santana, Paul Simon, and Sting. Is it jazz? Probably not,
but Hancock’s willingness to step outside the jazz box is indicative of the
increasing irrelevance of categories.
Traditionalists speak of jazz as “America’s classical music,” yet, as is the
case in classical music, innovation is an essential quality of jazz. In order to
move forward, new jazz is not going to sound like old jazz. In a global, crosscultural
society, artists find new ways of containing jazz within new musical
contexts.
Before you consider what the future may hold, look at the recent past. It’s
too early to have a clear perspective on jazz in the nineties, but the decade
produced exceptional music. In many ways, it was also a generational turning
point. In the past, jazz’s living legends, like African griots (storytellers),
handed down jazz’s origins and traditions through their interactions with
younger musicians. But since the last edition of this book, many of those
“griots” have passed away: Benny Carter (2003), Lionel Hampton (2004), Milt
Hinton (2000), J.J. Johnson (2001), and Artie Shaw (2004).
With the loss of the last of its original legends, jazz is headed into a new era
where young players won’t have first-hand access to the genre’s original masters.
As that direct connection vanishes, some traditions may fade, or revive