This week I'll tip my hat to Chris Rich in the way he's not afraid to bring shit up.Let's take a moment for some Clarity and Honesty about what's really going on in "Jazz" today,.2009.Who am I to bring this stuff up?,.well Like Jim Carrey told the Judge in LIAR LIAR,."I hold Myself in Contempt." This is like some Jerry Maguire shit where he writes the letter that gets his ass fired.

1) WE MAKE TO MANY RECORDS
When Tower Records Fell,.(I watched it fall as the Jazz buyer at Tower Lincoln center in NYC),It was symbolic,.a near Lethal Blow to the Record Industry,.of which Jazz was a VERY small Part.The only time I saw Jazz CD's really moving off the shelves at Tower was never with anything new,.but when 2 old concerts were "discovered",.for release,.Coltrane and Monk at Carnegie hall,..and Bird and Diz at Town hall.I could Not,..keep those cd's in the store! (granted,.2 Live documents that are really good,.and Dizzy was on FIRE for that show).The media made a big deal about these releases which was the main reason people copped,.and alot of non-jazz fans were picking them up believe it or not,demonstrating the media's power once again.At least 65% of the stuff I sold otherwise was reissues of Musicians Long gone.The brutal reality is that the money from those cds,.and yes KENNY G AND SMOOTH JAZZ is what actually was keeping that business afloat! (maddening but true).Nobody today has been able to create a "classic".No Kind of Blue,.No Love supreme today.No Miles and no Trane,.just scores of us trying to create music in their wake.Try,and try,and try we do as everybody turns out one record after another seemingly ignoring losses,and amassing insane amounts of records coming out every month that Almost No-one is Listening to!! the Improv guys are particularly guilty of this,.churning out record after record of total improv.Just how many bright moments did they capture on all these records? Many of us have ALOT of records out,..but how many of us have produced a classic or made a genuine musical statement worthy of the test of time? How many of us have made a record that people will sell and need to hear many years later? Do we do it just to serve our own ego's? I myself have been compelled to make records for one main reason,..to prove that I exist,.and that Ive chosen to make music the focus of my life.I try to create real,whole statements.A record represents that work,..but,.do I need over 10 records out before I turn 40 next year? Is my work so great that 100's of hours of my craft needs to be represented and sold to the public? Is a Matt Lavelle BOX SET necessary? The reason were making all these records today cant be the money,.unless your part of the media-created vision of who the real cats are as informed to us in downbeat.Newsflash,.those guys are NOT the real shit.(maybe Chris can take over here)..The SICK and RIDICULOUS young Lions MEDIA created Bullshit has done alot of damage to jazz and all jazz musicians by misleading the public into thinking that they represented who and what was going on at the time."Jazz radio" got behind it big time.A small select group of people were given careers and alot of money was made in a trade off for "show and tell",.where the public was taught what to Listen to,.and they of course bought it,.like they do anything these days.We always believe what the media tells us to right? that's why the KEN BURNS thing was also TWISTED.He didn't know what Jazz was so he asked Wynton to tell him,.so that he could then tell Wynton's story of what jazz was to the world via PBS and a documentary that SOLD like CRAZY at tower.Trading off the Worship of Louis and Duke for time showing the people that are ALIVE NOW TRYING TO PLAY helps the dead,.not the LIVING.Crypt keeping is a sickness in jazz.
 
Many of us still subscribe to a Label's view in order to get records out.Let's be honest,.How many of us REALLY care about the Label's vision? We Just want to get a record out! When you make a record shouldn't it be YOUR vision? If you want to record for somebody you can enter a frustrating path,where you have to submit your music to most of the time non-musicians where they will deem if your work is worthy of their name,.and if there going to pay you almost nothing anyway.So many of us are willing to work for nothing that many Labels pay nothing,(and also claim to make nothing).we take it because that's all we got.Ive been turned down by Labels time and time again because they just aren't feeling my music,.and hey,.It's there Label so they can do what they want.To be Big time Honest I'll come out and say that many of these non-musician guys (and alot of writers!) have sad ears,.and they put out stuff that mos def is NOT a classic,..and even more Honest,.some Label guys are just serving their own Ego's with the stuff they put out to.Musician run Labels are out there and trying to keep it real some-what,.and sometimes we have to just do Everything our selves.I have 4 records out myself in playing in NYC since the early 90's,.and Ive Lost alot of money to make those records happen,.but I knew what I was doing,and Like i said earlier,.I NEED to exist,.at least my EGO does.Some people don't care if they have records out or not,.props to them.

2) NOBODY IS LISTENING
Just How Relevant are we? REALLY? The state of mind of most people these days is that they ARE NOT HEARING US.Just How much impact are we having trying to keep the music alive and going forward? If we work really hard,make an email list,myspace and facebook our show,take out an add,we might fill a house for a show,.Maybe.In NYC every night there's ALOT of Music going down from the Mainstream crowd on down to downtown and out to Brooklyn,.there's still music going down EVERY night,.(i cant speak on Chicago and Boston but Id like to know how there doing)..somehow we keep it going,.but who comes to these shows? At the Tourist attraction clubs where you have to plan on having at least $25-$35 to sit down,.you ll be sitting down with for the most part,..with tourists.(ain't it something how NYC promotes the image of the jazz musician? All over Times square you can buy "Jazz figures",.like were some noble create at all costs type of people,but NYC could give a shit),Back to who's listening,.The rest of the audience is mixed,.and yes,alot of the audience,.(and players) are white.(a blog for somebody else to write)((cue:the endless JALC debate,.all I can say is how about term Limits? even a 10 year term Limit would balance out the whole thing right?)).Back to the discussion of who's Listening,.African Americans were big supporters of Smooth Jazz,.but even Smooth Jazz,(another media creation?) took a hit when CD101.9 went down in Flames.I used to tell customers at Tower that Smooth Jazz would eat itself,.and some people got pissed.)) Let's not even go there with the cruise ship jazz world,.a place where they actually still have the HEROIN DRAMA going on.So many gigs today are door gigs,.and if you don't play door gigs,.well then you aren't going to play alot of gigs this year.(Hey,.if your a regular at the big clubs like Charlie Haden or something,.you can ditch the door gigs,.).If your lucky You may have built a small audience of people who feel that you have something to say,.and will come out to hear you say it.Here's to you folks,.who mos def can help a musician from losing his cool these days.Any Musician who is making a Living off of their Music alone,.I truly hope they appreciate what a wonderful gift that is! (a dream Ive chased for 20 years) It's no accident that a Major,.or former Major Label Jazz person has a new record out,a week at the vanguard,.and a story in JAZZ TIMES,.all at the same time,and yes,.Money is behind it all.If you have enough money you can buy a media campaign and try to convince the public that your what's up,.and sometimes it works.I even know a singer that PAID THE AUDIENCE to fill the Iridium once!!


3) CRITICS HAVE TO MUCH POWER
Some people want or need to do record reviews.Ive learned about my own music from good writers,.but a great deal of them Don't do the work they should,have bad ears,.or are serving their own ego's and just get off on their opinion being put down in print.Ive confronted Critics about that,.asking them if their opinion is really that important.If there's even a small chance at any of us doing well with a record,.a bad review can destroy it because many people will dismiss giving a record a try based on what the critic said,.rather then spend the time,money,and energy,to give it a try.Critics don't seem to know or care about the power of their words these days.Some just describe the music track to track,.almost taking away the experience of the Listener before they even give it a shot.Most try and reference what they THINK is happening.I still say to this day,.that all critics should TALK TO THE ARTIST,.and ask them what they were going for with the record.That would take humility and Courage,.Lacking in many critics today who think they have it all figured out,.and May also just be plain Lazy about what their doing,.disrespecting something a musician may have worked on for years.

4) JAZZ EDUCATION IS SOME OUT SHIT
Anybody that takes out a huge ass Loan or lets their parents take out a second mortgage on their home so that they can get a degree in JAZZ,(as I know someone did at Berklee once) is making a HUGE MISTAKE,.JAZZ EDUCATION IS A BUSINESS.People have built career's off they idea that by teaching someone how to "handle a professional musical situation",.they can bestow somebody with the ability to move to a major city and make a Living playing Jazz.Just because you read about people in Downbeat doing it,.doesn't mean It's going to happen to you.I know there are teachers out there who do keep it real,.and props to them,.If someone is so in Love with the music that they ARE willing to go to a college jazz program,.then hopefully they will meet a teacher willing to tell them the truth about what's really happening in Jazz today."Go transcribe Clifford Brown",.might be good for chops,.but do you need to pay somebody to tell you to do that? I still say that Being a sideman with a great player is the way to go and the real tradition,.but there are SO MANY people playing today that have gone around that,felt they didn't need it,.or went to a jazz Program instead.There's a division between the generations in that way,.which doesn't bode well when the new jack gets a full page add pushing his latest stellar creation,.while the veteran is down at the Jazz Foundation trying to get some money for RENT.

The saddest thing is that it would seem our standards have just really gone down.If you don't even need your own sound and ideas to play these days,.but you can be pushed as someone important to listen to,.then who are we fooling? How many people sit down with a 60 minute recording nowadays anyway? Has the thing to do something different gotten so important that we are willing to walk away from "jazz",.(Jason Crane has a good take on the word Jazz).Ill ask a question I didn't see until I had to write all this...


Has the intellect become more important than emotional expression in jazz today?


If that's the case,.then I do fear for us all...


Heading off to the Mountains and Playing for the clouds sounds pretty good these days,.There great Listeners,.but despite all the negative shit (that Ive just tried to Purge,).Ill still be playing down in NYC and just keeping HITTING IT.

Its What we DO...