Connecting With & Growing the Jazz Audience

The Marlowshphere (#19)

Earlier today I had a conversation with a noted folklorist about why jazz musicians are having a rough go of it. The  observation went something like this: “Do you know why jazz musicians are not growing their audience? First, jazz musicians, especially virtuosic jazz musicians, play for themselves. Second, virtuoso jazz musicians play to impress other jazz musicians. Third, these same jazz musicians then play for an audience.”

There is some truth to this perspective of the self-centered jazz musician. A few weeks ago I attended a performance of a large ensemble at a midtown New York City jazz club. Throughout the 90-minute performance the alto saxophonist leader talked to the audience by facing the  wall to his left!  For most of the set all the audience saw was his profile. A few years ago I listened to a performance of a well-known virtuoso trumpeter’s sextet. It was a very interesting set, but not once did the leader ever interact with the audience, other than musically. Then there is the description of many of Miles Davis’ concerts where he would turn his back to the audience. Add to this the behavior of bassist/composer/leader Charlie Mingus. I was present in a Greenwich Village club when he literally stepped off the bandstand to not only berate some audience members, but also players in his ensemble. His vaulted reputation (same with Miles) remains. Some musicians can get away it, some can’t.

Put the above in the context of the  ostensible attitude of jazz musicians (as described earlier) and this could be  perceived as a contributing factor to the waning of the jazz audience.

This is somewhat understandable. It’s  not easy becoming, let alone being a jazz musician. It takes years of study and practice, talent notwithstanding. And when the jazz musician gets to a place  where a performance on a professional level is possible and an udience is not there to appreciate it, it is understandable that the jazz musicians’ attitude turns inward. But this is also self-defeating. Every artist wants an audience, regardless of talent level or accomplishment. And certainly there is truth to the motivation of wanting to impress and gain respect from one’s peers. But eventually the factor that sustains the artist is an appreciative audience. To grow that audience means connecting with that audience. It means interaction, engagement, reaching out, conversation with the people who put good money down to hear the musicians play. It means looking the audience in the eye and making them feel connected to the performance.


Connection

Connection is a basic human need. Speech allows us to communicate—the word coming from the Latin, communicare: meaning, to share. There’s also the human need to feel part of a group. Pre-historic man–early humans sans writing, or printing, or electronic media—craved the group, tribal experience. It is a need still with us today.

The urban club scene is just that–an environment where some friends and many strangers come together in a very tribal moment to dance. A theatrical example of this is the New York City off-Broadway show Fuerza Bruta (or “Brute Force,” in English), a non-verbal performance that uses “assaulting” music, quasi-pornographic dance, acrobatics, aerial imagery and some visual displays and set designs. Fuerzabruta is a 360 degree experience. The space looks more like a club than a theater. There’s not even a stage, per se, as the action happens around, above and among you. The audience not only stands for the entirety of the performance, but everyone’s moved (sometimes pushed) around en masse to make way for raised platforms and other changing scenery. Cast members, most of whom are dripping wet, freely mingle with the crowd and might give you a hug and/or encourage you to join in their tribal dancing and shouting. It all ends with a techno dance party, and the DJ’s got a hose!

While the Argentinian-originated theatrical concept is compelling, the inherent flaw with the Fuerza Bruta is its shallowness and superficiality. It is all show with little substance. It is momentary intimacy. It’s like very casual sex: thrilling for a moment without any lasting connection. The DJ’s hose close to the end of show seems metaphorical. Quite literally, the audience gets hosed, and most of the audience loves it! Are the show’s creators commenting on the audience’s lack of tasteful judgment?

Fuerza Bruta is a very non-traditional theatrical experience. Whether your cup of tea or not, the show does say something about what every audience craves: connection. Think back on every performance you have attended and focus on those you remember with pleasure. I’m willing to bet you remember those performances because of the connection the performers made with you. Certainly, these memorable performances are also about the professional level of the performers, the concept, the overall experience. But most of all it’s about the connection, the compelling aspects of the performance.


The Leader’s Role

In the context of a jazz audience, the leader’s role is pivotal to the overall experience.  The audience wants and needs to feel the leader is in charge not only of the performance, but also the audience’s experience. The leader needs to effuse confidence and set the tone.  The audience needs to sense there is an underlying structure to the performance; that the leader and the performers are
in control of the experience that takes them along for an exciting and entertaining ride. The audience wants to “feel” they’re getting their money’s worth.  An audience does not want to witness problems the performers are having, what they care about is an experience worth coming out for that allows them to escape their own problems.

Too many jazz musicians can’t get beyond themselves to deal with an audience directly. Their perspective is that just playing well is enough. This is why some musicians are better off as sidemen than leaders, or behind the scenes composers and/or arrangers. It takes a certain kind of personality to stand in front of the band and deal with the audience, to draw them in to the performance.


Looking Back, Looking Forward

Clearly, creating and building an audience for jazz is not just about the art of making jazz music, it’s also about connecting that art to the audience—an audience that might not be as aesthetically educated as one would want, an audience that might not have heard good jazz before, or an audience that might feel intimidated by music that is more complicated than a three-chord riff.

This is part of the challenge faced by jazz musicians today. Fact is the jazz musicians who have achieved legendary and iconic status in our culture—musicians like Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Lionel Hampton, Ella Fitzgerald, Dave Brubeck, Ray Charles, and too many others to list here—all made a point of reaching out to the audience. But there is an inherent, historical factor that cannot be ignored. Most of the names mentioned above made their   mark in the first half of the 20th century. Fact is jazz music on an international scale in the first half of the 20th century was the music of the age. It was dance music. It was singing music. Since the end of World War II and the emergence of bebop and every style of jazz that has evolved since then, jazz has become “listening” music. And if you don’t have educated or even semi-educated ears for the virtuosic jazz musicians who have come along since World War II, you can’t appreciate what you’re listening to. Ironically, many, if not all forms of pop music that have come along since WWII owe their roots to jazz. But make that point to someone born 20, maybe 30 years ago and the disconnect between the music of now and 20th century roots music is palpable.

But here’s an interesting wrinkle. It is increasingly evident Hispanics have become a larger minority in the United States than African-Americans. Hispanic music is full of rhythms, singing and dancing.  While bebop was becoming the dominant form of jazz and demanding that audiences sit (not dance or sing) to appreciate the music, progenitors, such as Mario Bauza, Machito, and Tito Puente, et al, created Latin-jazz in New York City. The combination of Latin music and jazz created a whole new genre of music that still lives today and will continue to evolve with the likes of multi-Grammy nominated drummer Bobby Sanabria pushing the envelope. In the larger global context, the evolution of Latin-jazz in mid-20th century can be viewed as a harbinger of so-called “world music” in the second half of the 20th century and into the current century.


Looking the Audience in the Eye

The age of jazz purism based solely on the works of the past performed by virtuoso players will only go so far. It’s not just about the music, it’s about connecting with an audience, any audience that comes to be transformed by the performance experience.

Audience interaction is not just a “nice” thing to do, it is a “must” thing to do. This means thoughtful preparation before a performance, especially on the part of the leader. Audiences can smell an ill-prepared performance in a nanosecond. At every opportunity—whether a small, intimate club, or a large venue—jazz musicians need to find ways to directly connect with the audience that shows up. This also means going beyond the traditional repertoire and infusing material with rhythmic, melodic, and structural material from other places. Consider this: when populations marry among themselves (such as many royal families of yesteryear) the gene pool weakens. When people marry outside their immediate circle, the resultant gene pool becomes stronger. It is a simple biological truth. The same is true with all art, and, in this context, jazz. When you look the audience in the eye and understand who is sitting in the seats and you engage that audience in a way that brings them into the musical experience, you make a connection with that audience—one that the audience came to experience. Jazz music that speaks to an audience with heart compatible rhythms, accessible melodies, and understandable lyrics, not just self-indulgent virtuosity, will, in the long run, help build a larger, more connected audience for jazz.

Please write to me at meiienterprises@aol.com if you have any comments on this or any other of my blogs.

Eugene Marlow, Ph.D.
July 16, 2012

© Eugene Marlow 2012

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