Jazz that is.
Actually, lots of people seem to enjoy reading about it. I was just looking at my local library's on-line offerings on the subject and an amazing number of books are out. All three copies of West Coast Jazz, for example are out. Maybe something is up culturally.
Anyway, I was thinking last night of exactly when things went really wrong with jazz. There have been great jazz records the last few decades but there haven't been an awful lot of them.
I think things started to go wrong in 1961. That was the year that Downbeat supplemented their readers' poll with a critics poll. I don't think it was the cause so much as the symptom. The second we start feeling the need for that sort of authority we're in trouble.
I suppose you could say the same loss of confidence signaled the end of rock music with all these 100 best X of all time lists that Rolling Stone began publishing a few years ago. That felt different. I like rock music a bit and used to like it a lot. But it doesn't feel anywhere near the loss that end of jazz represented.
No comments:
Post a Comment