This week I have the privilege of speaking to the director of a local jazz society. This director has long been a figure of jazz music in South Florida and has done so much for the Jazz Music Culture: She has held concerts that benefit music scholarships at Florida universities / schools, she is dedicated to spreading the message about the complex yet improvisational art of jazz music and she has maintained the positive message that music helps to bring society / groups of people together.This week I found another side of the personality of this music powerhouse, fear. The economic situation in the state has caught up with the small arts organizations such as hers that rely on outdoor concerts, restaurant gigs and community support to keep their organizations solvent. Contributions are down, people are staying home versus spending money on a night out and restaurants that once hired performers nightly have scaled back to weekend only entertainment.
Even more distressing to her was that she feels that Jazz Music is being pushed out of South Florida. C
ase in point, one of the last South Florida Jazz radio station has been reformatted to be an easy listening station. The only other Jazz station remaining is the public broadcasting station and her fear is that the economy will force the station into bankruptcy. 
Combine this with that the fact that local public schools are cutting the music programs and forcing band directors to teach basic curriculum, which rarely includes Jazz, and she knows that unless something is done to create more visibility for the American Music Standard there will no longer be an audience for the music.
What can we do? According to our Jazz friend, spread the message about the American Music genre that began in New Orleans. Talk to friends, neighbors and associates and the music and its benefits and mostly participate by sponsoring schools Jazz music programs to ensure that this piece of Americana remains.
We are losing our Jazz music appreciation. Most of us rarely hear it anymore. I think the younger generation can't relate to it so they grow up not appreciating it.
ReplyDeleteI know my son is in Jazz band in high school, but that type of music isn't really Jazz music to me. It's hard to get our kids away from the good country music or rap stuff and listen to other types of music.
This is really too bad, because all music needs to be appreciated. We are all different and enjoy different music and to lose the opportunity to listen to any type of music is not good.