Motown Meets Vampire Weekend – Musicial Movements of the 20th Century
Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye
Stevie Wonder – Superstition
The music that we hear now will be the basis of the music that we will be listening to twenty years from now. Musical genres are constantly evolving from and influencing one another. This trend is evident simply by examining the roots of the musical genres that have emerged during the past century . Two musical movements that shared similar beginnings, but also have fundamental differences in their musical objectives was the Motown movement of the 1960s and today’s Indie rock movement. Both emerged from existing musical genres (Motown from soul, rhythm, and blues; Indie rock from the punk movement as well as contemporary pop-rock music) and further defined the existing genres into more specific terms.
Marvin Gaye – Heard It Through the Grapevine
Motown began in Detroit in the 1960s, when Berry Gordy, Jr. founded Motown Record Corporation. Motown Records had a profound influence on the music scene, and it is widely considered the first truly successful mainstream record label to be owned by an African American. Motown is responsible for introducing many famous black artists, such as Stevie Wonder, The Jackson 5, and Marvin Gaye, into the “pop” music scene. Motown music was considered to be on the simpler side, as the label tended to avoid producing songs that were overly complex or difficult to understand musically. The Motown sound was suited to pop music and optimized to be embraced by the masses. Motown Records was very successful at not only integrating black musicians into mainstream music culture but also in helping them achieve commercial success.
Vampire Weekend – Cousins
Another movement, which is more contemporary, is the indie rock movement, which began in the 80s but really took off in the late 90s and during the new millennium. The indie rock movement is not so much a change in musical style as it is a change in the way that artists think about marketing and promoting themselves and their music. Whereas Motown was trying to take the genres of soul, gospel, and blues and introduce them to the mainstream, indie rock is trying to do the exact opposite, taking control of the music away from the record labels and putting it back into the hands of the musicians. Indie rock bands primarily generate popularity and interest for themselves via word-of-mouth and the internet through social media such as Myspace, Twitter, and Facebook. Artists of the indie rock movement place retention of their creative licenses as their number one priority, choosing to forgo popularity and success on the mainstream music scene in exchange for the ability to have control over the production and promotion of their music.
NICK BARETTA
WHAT: 9th Annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Lecture in Social Justice
WHERE: Zellerbach Theatre, Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, 3680 Walnut St.
WHEN: 5:30 p.m., Friday, Jan. 22
Inaugurated in 2002, the Martin Luther King Jr. Lecture in Social Justice is an annual event that honors individuals and scholars of African descent who have committed themselves to social justice. This year’s program features Benjamin Jealous, president and CEO of the NAACP, in conversation with Camille Charles, director of Penn’s Center for Africana Studies and professor of sociology.
A program highlight will be the performance of the new NAACP anthem, “Someone Is Listening.” The song, composed by Penn music professor Guthrie Ramsey Jr. was commissioned in honor of the NAACP’s 100th anniversary.
The Center for Africana Studies and the Annenberg School for Communication at Penn will present the lecture as part of the University’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Symposium on Social Change. The event is free and open to the public.
Elvis Presley
In the world of recorded music, the 1960s was a time of dramatic change, as for the first time, the music industry came to equate success with the concept of the “hit”.
The ideas of “hits” and “singles” gained prominence in the 1960s through bands and artists such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Marvin Gaye, and Elvis Presley. The term “singles” comes from 45-rpm records sold at the time, which featured a single song on each side.
Rolling Stones – (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction
Artists generally only recorded their best songs and radio stations played only the most popular songs of the day. These “pop” songs included one of the The Rolling Stones’s greatest hits, “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” which was recorded in the summer of 1965 This hit has even been re-recorded by another artist defined by her greatest hits – Britney Spears.
Britney Spears – (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction
A current analogous musical movement is centered on the relatively new downloads music industry. With programs such as iTunes, fast and easy downloads – most commonly of single songs – are possible. Generally speaking, as illustrated by the “Top Songs” column prominently displaying the most popular single downloads in the iTunes store, songs are downloaded individually, not necessarily in album compilations. These hits are often what people hear on the radio or see publicized on TV; but it is through their cyber popularity that they truly become “hits”.
As in the music industry’s shift during the 1960s, today’s notion of a hit determines the popularity of an artist or band and most often greatly influences the popularity of the artists’ future songs. The link between an artist and his or her hit song has, since the “all hit era” in the 1960s, become inextricable and undeniable.
LAUREN CORALLO
Sit-ins, marches, boy-cotts, and the general African American fight for equality in the country that they called home defined 1960s America. The battle was evident throughout. From literature to visual art to music, black used every form of communication available to them to express their craving for racial dignity. America, built on the backs of slaves, had denounced her darker brother for centuries. In the words of Sonny Rollins “America is deeply rooted in Negro culture: its colloquialisms; its humor; its music. How ironic that the Negro, who more than any other people can claim America’s culture as his own, is being persecuted and repressed.’’
As the American Negro population began to realize its invaluable contribution to the United States as it stood, the fight for equality began. Even acclaimed black young men and women suffered the degradation of racism. Sonny Rollins, one of the best tenor saxophonists known to the jazz world, was still unable to buy the apartment he desired in New York City due to the color of his skin. To this he commented: “Here I had all these reviews, newspaper articles and pictures. At the time it struck me, what did it all mean if you were still a nigger, so to speak?” In response, Rollins chose music as his weapon, and composed ‘the suite’ as he calls it.
‘The Suite’ refers to a twenty minute long jazz piece featuring Rollins alongside bassist Oscar Pettiford and drummer Max Roach, and also the title piece of his later album. Protest pieces were common of the era, such as Nina Simone’s Mississippi Goddam and other such musical social commentary. But Freedom Suite would be the first instrumental extended instrumental protest piece. Rollin’s piece represented what freedom meant to him, but more importantly what it meant to him at that time, in that place. His piece portrayed what freedom was for a black man of his status in specifically in New York in the 1960s.
The first point many critics make when analyzing the significance of the Freedom Suite is the obviously apparent length of the piece. Some say the shocking length of the piece is meant to represent the long-standing suffering of the black people in the U.S. Secondly, the composition and improvisation is thought to portray the freedom that Rollins would ideally like to live in.
In other words, musical freedom is a portrayal of physical and moral freedom. Ironically however, Rollins’s label Riverside Records initially deemed the piece and its intentions too provocative and controversial, and attempted to change the content. America wanted to hear the black music, but not the black story, and this is exactly the mentality the civil rights movement aimed to overturn, and the fight that ‘Freedom Suite’ aimed to express.
Another notable point is the style of improvisation Sonny employs throughout his piece. Through his many themes, the melody line is never lost despite complex improvisations going on above it, and additionally, by the end of the piece the listener can see that the seemingly different themes are in reality all connected and held together by a larger musical idea.
Furthermore when listening to the 20 minute masterpiece, strands of joy can distinctly be heard, versus strands of anger and strands of struggle. Though analysis on this aspect of the work is not quite as widely accepted, it is said that this fact alone represents the many sides of the African American effort for equality. The constant melody represents the African Americans constant strength despite the oppression, hardship and constant change going on around them (ie the improvisation.)
Without lyrics, the debate on the intent of Rollin’s piece can go on and on without ever reaching a ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ conclusion. However with Rollin’s own comments on his piece we know that his work was clearly a political statement. The title itself, ‘Freedom Suite’ does not refer to musical freedom alone. He sought to portray the liberation of his people, as well as the liberation of jazz (as the era moved towards free jazz) in one combined effort. Rollins also opened the door for others to follow in his path, for example his drummer Max Roach went on to compose his own Freedom Suite entitled We Insist. Doors also opened up for females to take their stand, and in fact Max Roach recorded his work alongside his wife Abbey Lincoln.
Sonny Rollins took a bold step for his time, and of course his music was met with much opposition. Yet he, as well as many others in his community, saw it fit to let their voice, and their views be heard. Through his music he put forward the change he wished to see around him, and let the world know that his people were finally prepared to fight for the racial equality they long deserved. The Freedom Suite was not meant to represent specifically the Little Rock Nine story, or specifically Brown vs. Board of Education. Instead it represented the change that would soon come, and the freedom that the African American population was battling for nationwide.
For more about Sonny Rollins and to listen to The Freedom Suite, check out NPR Music’s entry on the piece by clicking here.
ENITAN MARCELLE
Bob Marley
Reggae music developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s with stylistic origins in rocksteady and ska. When reggae music started in the 1960s, it was mostly thought of as folk music. This formed a strong sense of community based on common ethnic backgrounds and life experiences.
Toots & the Maytals – Funky Kingston
Some early reggae musicians or bands are Toots & the Maytals, Clancy Eccles, The Pioneers, and Larry Marshall. In the 1970s, reggae music made the transition to being considered a popular music around the world. This was due in large part to Bob Marley, who is probably the most recognizable reggae artist of all time.
Bob Marley – No Woman No Cry
His albums have sold millions of copies worldwide and are still largely popular today. Although Bob Marley is a perfect example of reggae as popular music, Marley’s music has also made its way into that of the “art music” discourse as it has been taken seriously by music critics and in their criticism. In fact, Time Magazine recognized Marley’s 1977 “Exodus” album as the “Album of the 20th Century”.
Bob Marley – One Love (The song was featured on Marley’s Exodus album)
Bob Marley – All In One
Today, Marley is considered a music legend, as during his lifetime he was able to use his music to connect to millions of people around the world.
Morgan Heritage – Nothing to Smile About
In addition to Bob Marley, the music of more recent reggae artists and bands, such as Morgan Heritage, Beres Hammond, Freddie McGregor, Beenie Man, and Sean Paul, have also been considered popular music and thereby continuing the reggae tradition for a new generation of listeners.
Beres Hammond – Tempted to Touch
Sean Paul – Gimme The Light
CHERRIE BUCKNOR
From the Streets of London: Identity in the Music of Dizzee Rascal
Dizzee Rascal
‘And all I care about is sex and violence
A heavy bass line is my kind of silence
Everybody says that I’ve gotta get a grip
But I let sanity give me the slip
Some people think I’m bonkers
But I just think I’m free
Man I’m just living my life
There’s nothing crazy about me’
This year, Dizzee Rascal has shocked the US music industry with his inimitable style and some addictive tunes. Yet, at only 24, he has remained a British icon for almost a decade. The East London-born rapper mixes grime and electronic music to complement his signature fast-paced, staccato lyrics. Since 2002, Dizzee, née Dylan Mills, has released four albums, all of which have captivated the critics. But his childhood was not as idyllic as his music career. Raised by a single mother, he was expelled from four schools, earning the brand ‘rascal’ from an early age. Consequentially, violence and crime characterized his teenage years.
Although Mills’ struggle is not one with race, he seems to be severely conflicted over the representation of his identity. On the one hand, his lyrics are ostentatious and bold, spattered with constant referrals to money, and reveal his prominent competitive streak. In one of his earlier songs, Money Money, Mills expresses the urge to increase his wealth, adding ‘Don’t get it confused, I will never lose.’ In a later song, Old Skool, he advises to ‘Stand tall even when their hating and their scheming, Yeah watch your money rise right to the ceiling.’ Mills does not shy away from his fame either. In Holiday, he raps:
‘Party around the clock
And when we get there it’s strictly VIP
No need for ID, security know me
No waiting in line, no high entry fee
Don’t worry about nothing when you’re beside me.’
Dizzee Rascal – Holiday
Yet on the other hand, Mills still yearns to be perceived as normal. In his most recent success, Bonkers, he insists that, although ‘some people think I’m bonkers [...] there’s nothing crazy about me.’ However his insistence of normality is farfetched, especially when the following lyrics claim that ‘all I care about is sex and violence.’ At the very least, Mills expresses the desire to counteract the ‘self’ that his industry success has created. In his second big hit and one of my favourite Dizzee Rascal songs, Fix Up Look Sharp, he addresses this concern:
‘I’ve heard the gossip from the street to the slammer,
They’re trying to see if Dizzee stays true to his grammar,
Being a celebrity don’t mean shit to me,
Fuck the glitz and glamour, hey I’m with the Blicks and Gamma.’
Dizzee Rascal – Fix Up, Look Sharp
Despite Mills’ struggle with self-image, his ‘Englishness’ has remained a part of his true identity, and inspiration for countless songs. He stays loyal to his roots, rapping in his signature, quirky cockney and embellishing his lyrics with English street slang. He repeatedly refers to himself as a ‘rude boi,’ terminology that originated in London. In Wannabe, he states:
‘Leave me alone or you’ll be sorry,
Beef ain’t nothing new to me, you wally,
Why don’t you just kick back, be jolly,
Stay at home with a cup of tea, watch Corrie.’
In the end, Mills does not seem to use his race as inspiration for much of his work. Indeed, there is very little direct mention of the colour of his skin anywhere on his albums, something that seems a rarity for black rappers today. Instead, he focuses on his hometown, a theme that may grow in popularity as the younger generation puts racial struggles behind them and focuses on newer issues of the future. Mills sums up his sentiment in his interview with British newsman Jeremy Paxman. When asked if he was British, Mills replied:
‘Of course I’m British, man [...] It don’t matter about what colour you are, but it matters what colour your heart is.’
Dizzee Rascal interviewed by Jeremy Paxman for BBC Two’s Newsnight Barack Obama Special
ANNA CHRISTOFFERSON
The Art Ensemble of Chicago
With the black arts movement in the United States during the 1960s came politically charged performances by artists such as Max Roach and The Art Ensemble of Chicago, who were attempting to “take back” jazz for blacks from an industry they perceived to be under white control. There is much controversy about the “free jazz” these men played. Melodically and rhythmically it had begun to venture so far outside the traditional parameters of what was traditionally accepted that people began to question whether or not what they were playing really even qualified as music at all, much less jazz music.
Max Roach & Abbey Lincoln – Freedom Now Suite
What these artists attempted to do with their music was radical, but also completely understandable. Jazz had always been about improvisation and innovation, so free jazz proponents saw what they were doing as a logical extension of the genre. Turbulent times during the civil rights movement called for turbulent music, punctuated by hoarse screams (in the “Freedom Now Suite”) and flamboyant costumes (in the Art Ensemble). But while these artists succeeded in blazing new trails in terms of what could be done with music both sonically and socially, it is debatable whether they succeeded in creating what the Art Ensemble termed “great black music.”
James Brown – I Feel Good
While some consider it great, and the artists were black and concerned with Afro-centric history and politics, it never became the music of the black race. In fact, it was artists such as James Brown the “Godfather of Soul”, who was enjoying great popularity during this time among the black community. Although the issues that jazz artists at the time were confronting were important to many black people, the majority failed to see the connection between the progressive politics and the progressive sound of free jazz music.
This divide continues today. Almost everyone, black or white, has heard of Kanye West, but the majority of American youths can probably count the number of contemporary jazz artists they know on one hand. This isn’t to say that the music is irrelevant, or not salvageable, but perhaps we must accept that for a popular audience, it has been subsumed under the umbrella of “rock music,” a term just as indefinable as jazz.
Sly and the Family Stone
Since Miles Davis pioneered jazz fusion after witnessing his contemporaries Sly and the Family Stone move the crowd in ways that even he no longer felt he could with straight jazz, jazz and rock have borrowed from each other freely. I would submit that jazz still thrives, and that it is commercially viable, although perhaps it exists in a form that would appall the Art Ensemble.
Dirty Projectors – Temecula Sunrise
Artists like Dirty Projectors employ many of the elements of what made bop initially successful. It takes the tried and true pop verse-chorus-verse pop song format and uses traditional rock instrumentation while introducing complex, virtuosic instrumentation, intricate time signatures, and drum beats that weave in and out of the melody instead of simply keeping the beat.
For the most part, the band uses drums, guitar, bass, and keys, instruments that are typically associated with rock music, not jazz, but all of the essential elements are there. Their song “Temecula Sunrise” off of their most recent album Bitte Orca provides a good example.
Radiohead – The National Anthem
Similarly the band Radiohead, one of the biggest “rock” bands in the world, borrows heavily from Charles Mingus tinged hard bop on the songs “The National Anthem” off of their album Kid A (which won the 2000 Grammy for Best Alternative Album) and polyphonic early New Orleans influenced jazz sounds on “Life in a Glasshouse,” off their 2001 album Amnesiac. If Radiohead were not packaged and sold by the industry as a rock band, it would be very difficult to categorize this music as such.
Radiohead – Life In A Glasshouse
However, we must note another important thing these two bands have in common: they both consist exclusively of white men. Is this not just another recurrence of white executives and musicians copping a black musical form in order to appeal to a more mainstream audience and cash in on a black musical innovation? It’s hard to say.
The music industry is different now, with black artists like Jay-Z controlling his own musical empire. But in a lot of ways this certainly looks like a case of white artists “Benny Goodman-ing” jazz music to make it more palatable. It’s certainly not the vision of the Art Ensemble, and so the controversy remains: Is the only way to make jazz music popular to Anglicize it?
STEVEN WAYE
From the Studio to the Stage: The Evolution of Jonny Lang and His Signature Song “Lie To Me”
Jonny Lang
Jonny Lang has survived in his twenty-eight years what most people don’t experience in five lifetimes. The North Dakota native skyrocketed to fame at the young age of fifteen, bolstered by Lie to Me, his 1997 multi-platinum big-label debut. The skinny white farm boy with the gravelly voice of a black blues veteran was hailed as the rightful heir to the throne of the legendary Stevie Ray Vaughan. The comparisons were near undeniable, as Lang’s skillfully soulful guitar playing and rugged tenor echoed the talents of the Texas blues king. Perhaps even more haunting was the penchant for drugs and alcohol the teenager harbored, a habit that notoriously nearly killed Vaughan before he achieved sobriety in the late eighties.
The title track on Lie to Me is a blues-injected pop tune in the vein of Vaughan, characterized by Lang’s signature Telecaster twang and growling vocals. The song is as wild and restless as its narrator was. Listener reactions to the album were often mixed, colored by a reverence for Lang’s musical prowess and the unnerving feeling that almost inevitably accompanies hearing a boozy scorned lover’s tale told as by a child. Lang aggressively tried to fill the shoes of the prototypical bluesman, believing, like many musicians before him, that in order to truly play the blues, one has to “live” the blues.
Jonny Lang – Lie to Me (Album Version)
Several years and three records later, the prodigy experienced a spiritual rebirth, trading in the bottle for the Bible. His most recent studio album, 2006’s gospel-inspired, Turn Around, unveils a new man, less of a shadow of SRV and more of his own musician. During his recent live shows, Lang displays a virtuosity and restraint not found in his earlier records, and this is best showcased in the newly arranged “Lie to Me.”
The song tends to startle audiences now, as it does not begin with the familiar howl of an electric guitar backed by a full band, but instead with a lonely reverb-drenched acoustic guitar, followed by ethereally mournful vocals. The tune moves from gently plucked single note lines splashed with wide vibrato to deliberate strums of the chord progression. Lang ends the piece with whispery falsetto moans evocative of the late Jeff Buckley. The effect of this new arrangement in a live setting is almost transcendent, a decidedly deep experience that casts audience members as firsthand witnesses to his transformation.
On one level, it serves to paint Lang as a confident artist, unafraid to strip his composition down to its essentials. On another, without the guitar gymnastics of the album track, the story of love and loss is brought to the forefront, and an intimate bond between the storyteller and his audience is forged. The bitterness and pain of “Lie to Me” in a live setting is now made evident and believable: no longer is Lang a boy miscast in the role of a man, but an introspective adult who has traversed the twisted path of addiction and has since achieved a remarkable degree of musical maturity.
Jonny Lang – Lie to Me (Live)
MICHAEL HOWARD
Chrisette Michele
Chrisette Michele’s live performance of “Best of Me” on various occasions is a testament to her singing ability as these renditions stand up to the quality of the studio recordings of the song. On stage she seems to have a very calm, collected aura, with a dash of hipness and most of all down home realness, not in the caricature-like sense of the term.
While viewing the song’s music video, the song seems to be “phased out” yet still present. The viewer/listener would most likely pay attention to how the supplementary items in the video help explain the song. Since the viewer usually knows the song before watching the video, the song itself takes a backseat these supplementary items, for example, to what the artist is wearing or what is going on in the background.
Chrisette Michele – Best of Me (Official Music Video)
Similarly, during a live performance, the listener will probably be focused on the artist behind the music as well as the differences between the live performance compared to the recording. Before the performance, the listener may try to discern the artists’ personality through how they move to the music, their image and the way they talk and sing. Then, if they’re not too star struck, they may try to scrutinize the artist to figure out if they don’t just have a “studio voice” and in fact can actually sing.
During this process they may look to the musical accompaniment for guidance. In the case of these performances, Chrisette Michele is backed up by music that enhances rather than overpowers her voice. One would conclude that since, here she sings in a Borders bookstore with nothing but a background CD, and her voice sounds just as it does on the record, she can indeed sing. Of course not all listeners go through all of these steps when listening to a live performance, but one can be sure that listeners do go through at least one of them subconsciously at some point.
Chrisette Michele – Best of Me (Live at Borders Bookstore in New York City)
Chrisette Michele – Best of Me (Live at London’s Jazz Café)
CHELSEA IVEY
Kenneth Bruce Gorelick, known to the general public as the curly-haired, loveable, saxophone playing Kenny G, definitely knows how to make jazz ‘‘work’’, and his global album sales totaling more than 75 million prove this point. But how does he do it? First of all Kenny G takes classic jazz and turns it into something that people in this day and age can relate to. He understands ‘why people are listening to this music at this time’ and has effectively produced music that captures what people want to hear.
Weezer Featuring Kenny G – I’m Your Daddy
Secondly Kenny G works with artists in several varying genres, and merges what works for others with what works for him. An example of his techniques of collaboration can be seen in his soon to be released album entitled Rhythm & Romance; a jazz album with a Latin flavor. This album features some of the world’s most prominent Latin musicians, yet never loses that distinctive Kenny G feel, and is predicted to be a huge success.
Kenny G – Sabor A Mi from the album Rhythm & Romance
Gorelick’s music has often been criticized for being ‘impure’ jazz. In fact his biography, written by Scott Yanow, begins with the line “Kenny G has long been the musician many jazz listeners love to hate.” Fellow jazz musician Pat Metheny bashed Gorelick saying he is not ‘anywhere near a really great player in relation to the standards that have been set on his instrument over the past 60 or 70 years.”
However the reality is that Kenny G is not a musician of 60 or 70 years ago, and he is one of the few jazz musicians of today that realize this fact. He embraces the fact that he is a musician of the twenty-first century and acts accordingly. Many modern jazz musicians view their music as ‘high art’ and as such do not work to make it accessible to the general public. Kenny however aims to bring jazz back into the ‘popular’ music sphere. In one interview he said he lives by the rule of ‘Let’s do things we haven’t done before.’
One of the main grudges that the jazz world holds against Kenny G is that he does not improvise as typical jazz performers do/did. But it is a fact that the popular music of today is much more basic than it used to be (‘Touch My Body’ by Mariah Carey was a perfect example of this phenomena.) Trying to force what used to be popular onto the younger generation cannot and will not be successful. Instead Kenny G has merged old jazz customs with styles that will appease his crowd in order to bring jazz back into the popular realm or, in other words, save jazz.
Additionally we must note that we live in the time of technology, and the use of technology in saving jazz seems to separate those who succeed from those who don’t. Today the key to success lies in utilizing facebook, twitter, and blogging as forms of advertisement. On Kenny G’s official website fans can read blogs straight from Kenny on his most recent musical happenings, or download his latest hit to their computer, or even download their very own Kenny G ringtone. The music industry is a business, and attempting to keep jazz on its high horse in art galleries and on dusty records will never successfully restore it to where it used to be.
Finally, collaboration with other artists, both within the genre and externally, can only help the music to grow and prosper. Music is dynamic and ever changing. It is impossible to keep any form of music pure. In fact if that were the outlook, we would not have jazz music today in the first place. Each form of music is popular for a reason, and by working in non-jazz genres, jazz musicians can incorporate what makes salsa, for example, interesting to its respective listeners into their own music, and in turn expand the jazz audience.
Kenny G – Songbird
Kenny G’s first breakthrough album entitled Duotones was not only a hit on the jazz charts, but also in the R&B, Hip-Hop, and Adult Contemporary worlds as well, as it incorporated nuances from all of these. In fact one of his most popular songs from this album, Songbird, was number 4 on the US Billboard Hot 100, which ranks the most popular songs in the US regardless of genre. By taking pages out of the books of genres not within the jazz continuum, Kenny G was able to make his music accessible to a wider audience, bringing it, even if for only a moment, back to the forefront of popular American culture, or in short, save jazz.
It may take some getting used to, but jazz can be saved. By appreciating the needs of the targeted audience, appealing to them accordingly, and ‘borrowing’ ideas from other successful popular genres, it is very possible for jazz to again be America’s music.
ENITAN MARCELLE
