The death of Jazz is a subject that is being periodically addressed by some jazz "critics" who, since Charlie Parker blowed over Cherokee, cry out loud that "Jazz is dead".
Take those "critics" seriuosly and Jazz have died over and over again.
The subject has not surfaced in quite a while but with the recent publication of an article by the Weekly Standard very unoriginally called "John Coltrane and the Death of Jazz" a propos the recent finding and publication of some lost Coltrane tapes, made the jazz network react.
The article has a blunt, provocative tone, is very well written and is full of those easy-to-catch epithets : "proto-hippie Eden Ahbez", "Alice Coltrane, the Yoko Ono of jazz", "Duke Ellington, the Debussy of the big band" with the clear goal of attracting discussion (and clicks) but with a great deal of musical ignorance disguised as erudition. The article is specially corrosive towards the "late Coltrane" period. Would love to read what Jon Irabagon will -I hope- write about this.
IMO the article is crap. Very well written crap.
I share the article and (pianist) Richie Beirach's response to it.
What Mr. Beirach wrote is worth this whole discussion.
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| Richie Beirach |
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