Blog of a Jazz Singer - Marc Courtney Johnson - WEB JOURNAL
Follow my quest to understand and convey jazz.
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
WBEZ without jazz
My first reaction to the power's that be at WBEZ's decision to eliminate their jazz programming was knee-jerk. After I stopped stuttering and stammering and exhausted my epithet ladened rants of How dare they, why those, those ... incompetent, bean-counting ninnys (no really those were the adjectives I used) phrases.
I stepped back for a moment and gave it some thought. Is this any different than the changes that have rocked our individual and collective worlds at an accelerating pace in the last 20 or 30 years. So much has changed: mass consolidation of resources (thanks Ronnie for gutting the anti-trust laws), the Internet (thanks AL :)), all kinds of new musical styles marketed relentlessly to the next generation, etc...
We the musicians/writers and lover of jazz have to reinvent not only the music, but the genre. WBEZ's decision to can jazz is just the latest warning sign that jazz needs an infusion innovation, talent and especially marketing image to compete with all the new forms of music and media.
I stepped back for a moment and gave it some thought. Is this any different than the changes that have rocked our individual and collective worlds at an accelerating pace in the last 20 or 30 years. So much has changed: mass consolidation of resources (thanks Ronnie for gutting the anti-trust laws), the Internet (thanks AL :)), all kinds of new musical styles marketed relentlessly to the next generation, etc...
We the musicians/writers and lover of jazz have to reinvent not only the music, but the genre. WBEZ's decision to can jazz is just the latest warning sign that jazz needs an infusion innovation, talent and especially marketing image to compete with all the new forms of music and media.
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