Journeys Through The Past And All That Jazz
There is something that has been happening to jazz music for the past several years, which both pleases and frightens me, depending on when you ask, and, recollecting the matter in as much tranquility as I’m able to summon at the moment, I’m still a bit puzzled.
Journeys Through The Past And All That Jazz
by
Joe Goldberg
There is something that has been happening to jazz music for the past several years, which both pleases and frightens me, depending on when you ask, and, recollecting the matter in as much tranquility as I’m able to summon at the moment, I’m still a bit puzzled.
No music places a greater premium on spontaneity—that, indeed, is supposedly what it’s all about, the inspiration of the moment—yet, in terms of packing and promotion, jazz seems to have become a nostalgia item, not too much different from Greatest Hits packages sold on television. I doubt the music would look back so assiduously if it weren’t entirely lacking in forward motion; dead societies love to rake over their past, like dogs in shitpiles, or pyramid souvenir hunters.