The 20th anniversary of the Seattle Improvised Music Festival (SIMF) spurs me to wonder where jazz is headed. Is jazz dead? Where does freely improvised music fit in?
Since the 1960s, jazz has branched into two concurrent, but hardly parallel, paths. Along one path is freely improvised music; with roots in Free Jazz, the liberating influence of John Cage, and the post-WWII avant-garde, these musicians eschew typical patterns of chords, rhythms, and melodies for instantaneous music aimed at transcending preconceptions and flouting expectations.
Stranger Personals
Jazz remains rooted in blues-based improvisation emphasizing tunes, steady tempos, sections with improvised solos, and an accompanying rhythm section that swings. Is jazz dead? If so, there sure are a whole lotta zombies walking around.
Today, jazz boasts an army of vital musicians but suffers from a legacy of recordings that ossifies styles, calcifies listener expectations, and smothers imaginative sub-genres. Commercial imperatives and romantic stereotypes inhibit, if not discourage, risk taking on the bandstand. Soon, jazz will become a classical music, still rich, still lively, still lovely, but stuck.
Until more jazz musicians explore the abyss of total freedom, the future of jazz as an innovative, radical art form resides in freely improvised music. With a mix of top-notch local and national improvisers, every night of the SIMF looks attractive. See www.seattleimprovisedmusic.com/calendar.html for details and go hear the future of jazz. CHRISTOPHER DeLAURENTI
The Seattle Improvised Music Festival runs Wed Feb 9 through Mon Feb 14, Gallery 1412, 1412 18th Ave at E Union, 322-1533, 8 pm, $10-$20 sliding scale donation.
RSS
Facebook
Twitter
Comments (0)