LJC Community Conversation: A View of Latin Jazz In The Greater Jazz World
I’m starting a new series today entitled LJC Community Conversations. The purpose of this series is to explore major ideas in the Latin Jazz world together as a community and inspire conversation through comments. My main motivator here is my belief that LJC readers hold a great deal of knowledge and passion around Latin Jazz, and I think that we can learn something from everyone. Whether you’re a seasoned Latin Jazz performer or a newcomer to the music, leave a comment and let your voice be heard!
We’ll start our Community Conversation series focusing upon the greater jazz world’s view of Latin Jazz . . .
As the year has closed, I’ve been following the jazz best of 2007 lists around the internet. Jazztimes provided a list of the year’s top 50 jazz releases, and it completely rejected all the Latin Jazz releases. All About Jazz provided their top picks from contributors; again a list of 39 neglected any Latin Jazz releases. New York’s Village Voice magazine published their list of 50 best jazz releases of 2007, which again didn’t include any Latin Jazz – instead they created a separate Latin category in which each of their critics could place one vote (as opposed to the 10 selections they could make in the general jazz category). There were fifty critics, but 27 of them chose to skip the Latin category completely. iTunes published four short best jazz of 2007 lists, which, as predicted, leaned towards commercially popular albums and overlooked Latin Jazz. This represents a small portion of opinions, but as it stands – in a year of numerous outstanding Latin Jazz releases, four influential jazz media voices snubbed Latin Jazz.
I may write this off, but in reality, this is not the first time that I’ve run across the degradation of Latin Jazz by the jazz world. As a musician, I’ve heard many jazz musicians complain about having to do “another Latin gig.” On the gig, I’ve seen them phone in their performance, or even worse, completely struggle through the music. As an educator, I’ve had colleagues, community members, and more complain about me sharing Latin Jazz with the students. When I take my Latin Jazz group to festivals, judges consistently tell the students that they are not playing jazz. A judge once told my students that a jazz festival was a place for serious music and they should go play Latin music down the street at the mall. I’ve flipped through many jazz publications searching for a Latin Jazz feature, only to be disappointed. I’ve heard radio announcers, concert promoters, and more announce “spicy” Latin Jazz or jazz with “hot” Latin rhythms; these are good commercial marketing terms for sure, but they completely downplay the artistic integrity of the music. After too many experiences, I’ve come to the conclusion that many jazz circles look down upon the use of Latin rhythms.
After much thought, I’ve come to several conclusions and some questions about the state of Latin Jazz today.
1. Latin Jazz has grown in popularity tremendously over the past ten years, and in many ways, portions of the jazz community support it.
For every negative example I find, a positive exists. Jazztimes recently published an article about the rising popularity of Latin Jazz. All About Jazz regularly features CD reviews and sometimes interviews and articles from Latin Jazz artists. A positive example exists in each area of the jazz community; yet in the majority of cases, the support is always limited.
2. Many major festivals include at least one spot for Latin Jazz programming in their overall schedule; a good step, but not enough.
One spot limits the possibilities for spotlighting musicians, and these jobs often go to the biggest Latin Jazz names or some times even salsa acts. How about a Latin Jazz mini-festival within a larger organization that allows for legendary musicians and new artists?
3. Maybe Latin Jazz shouldn’t be viewed as a piece of the jazz tradition, but rather as a unique musical genre.
The style certainly arose from a cross pollination between African-American jazz and Afro-Cuban rhythms, but it’s history has grown beyond that simple connection. Latin Jazz has split into many divergent performance styles with a variety of influences; a catch-all term doesn’t aptly describe everything happening in the Latin Jazz world today.
4. In general, most people just don’t understand Latin Jazz.
Traditional jazz artists have worked very hard to educate the community on jazz performance, listening, history, and appreciation – I get the sense that we haven’t done enough of that in the Latin Jazz world. While musician education around Afro-Cuban and Brazilian rhythms has increased tremendously, the general public still falls into the stereotypical view of the music that has existed for years.
I obviously have my bias about the importance of Latin Jazz in the greater jazz world, but I’d be curious in hearing your opinions. If you’re looking for some ideas to start, think about these questions:
- Have you experienced musicians, publications, educators, or critics downplaying the importance of Latin Jazz?
- Do you think that Latin Jazz should be approached with more respect?
- Do you view Latin Jazz as a completely separate entity or should it exist as a sub-category of jazz?
- Do jazz clubs in your area book Latin Jazz artists with any regularity?
JOIN THE CONVERSATION!
Leave a comment below with your thoughts on the matter – let’s sort through this issue together! We want every voice to be heard . . .agree with the post? Disagree? Let us know! Think that you don’t have something real to say – I think you do! I’d love to hear from every reader and get a feel for everyone’s thoughts.
In a hope to get more people involved, I’m holding a giving away two great Latin Jazz CDs. In order to qualify for the CDs, you’ll need to comment twice; once on this post and then once next Monday when I ask a related question. Both comments need to be substantial. Avoid brief yes or no answers; give us something to think about that adds to the conversation. At the end of the two weeks, I’ll pick the reader that provided the most meaningful comments.
Stumble it!
