Why Doesn't Contemporary Jazz Get Any Respect?

There was a time when jazz was America's popular music. It was THE music of young people. The tunes were straight forward, easy to listen to with hummable melodies and above all you could dance to them. Bebop essentially destroyed these popular elements of jazz. Less than a decade after bebop, Miles and Gil Evans even tried to take the swing out of jazz. Do I need to remind you of what Chuck Berry said about modern jazz? It's not surprising that right at that time young people starting to listen to rock n' roll. After all, you can dance to rock. I don't know the exact date, but real jazz died along time ago. That stuff played by Dizzy, Parker and Coltrane is okay and it probably sounds good in a concert hall or some other place where you sit down to listen to music, but real jazz was meant for dance halls.

Thinking about this over the past couple of days, I believe one of the problems I have with the general SJ genre is the electric bass. I love electric bass in many contexts, but it's a distraction for me in SJ, particularly that slap-and-tickle style of playing that is so popular. Add to that the cheesy keyboard and synth sounds and, well, include me out.

That said, there are exceptions. Just can't think of any at the moment.

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Rupertdacat, I don't know what Chuck Berry said but I can tell you from personal experience that it is futile and sometimes dangerous to try to duck walk to Coltrane.

Sincerely, I remain

Re Onhwy61; I'm no music historian, but in 1957, Chuck Berry said in his song "Rock and Roll Music":........."I have no kick against modern jazz unless they play it too darn fast and change the beauty of the melody and make it sound just like a symphony......."

He goes on ......."gotta be rock roll music if you wanna dance with me". Cheers. Craig