No matter the woes with venues, jazz will stay in orbit
The evolution and popularity of jazz is not represented by the figures cited by the music industry
When, a few weeks back, Johannesburg’s largest jazz venue, The Orbit, posted a crowd-funding appeal to stay afloat, it prompted the usual flurry of concern that the genre might be on its deathbed. That’s nothing new. Nearly half a century ago rock musician and musical maverick Frank Zappa asserted in his song Be-Bop Tango (1973) that jazz wasn’t dead, but just smelling funny. Zappa’s track alluded to debates about the impact of the then revolutionary jazz style of bebop after World War 2. But the question also threaded through commentary on “cool” jazz, on the demise of British “trad” jazz under the assault of pop groups such as the Beatles, on “smooth” jazz, on Wynton Marsalis’s jazz neoclassicism and much more. Now that hip-hop has become the unchallenged behemoth of the US music industry, it’s being heard again. But the industry now occupies a new, digital landscape, and the “Is jazz dead?” debate has several aspects. The statistics tell us less than half of the story. First, the...
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