June 28, 2007
Uploading D.C.'s Jazz Scene
This city has always produced fine jazz musicians, but the scene has had its ups and downs. In the 1990s, D.C.'s jazz landscape was very different. This was a time before the resurgence of U Street and Adams Morgan as centers for live music, and it also seemed as though there was a dearth of young talent in the city. While top notch national acts always came to the Kennedy Center and Blues Alley, the local scene was suffering. Since then, several venues featuring live jazz have opened and UDC, Howard, and the University of Maryland, as well as some fine high school programs, have made great strides in developing young talent. D.C. jazz will never equal that of New York, and for that matter no city will, but D.C. has all the elements in place to have as vital a jazz community as any other city in the country.
One area in which the D.C. jazz community is still lacking is its web presence. Unlike local rock acts and clubs, the city's jazzers are far behind in utilizing the Internet for promotional purposes. Web sites such as DC Jazz do a commendable job in trying to create a web based jazz community, but many of the "Artist Suites" on the site are outdated. Given the emergence of MySpace and the relative ease with which today's artists can record their work, it is practically mandatory that musicians establish some sort of web site that showcases their work. Unfortunately, it seems to be happening at too slow a pace within the jazz community. Even more discouraging is that many venues, such as Cafe Nema and Columbia Station, which feature some excellent musicians, do not have web sites that list basic calendar information.
DCist has not been covering jazz for very long, but it is our hope that the jazz content on this site will eventually be on par with its other content. As a matter of practicality, we are much less likely to list an artist who has no web site to which we can link. It is our goal to expand our coverage to include more of the local jazz scene, but D.C.'s jazz community needs to do its part in order to take advantage of new media outlets.
Photo by LaTur
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Your jazz coverage has been awesome! I really appreciate your inclusion of non-traditional and edgier jazz in amongst the straight-ahead stuff. Keep it up!
Thanks for the focus on this.
please keep up the jazz coverage - much appreciated! the weekly jazz listings are really helpful.
more jazz = better life.
Thanks!
I do sympathize with the musicians somewhat. While individual musicians may be around for a long time, groups and combinations change often. It's sort of tough to put together a website for a specific combination that only exists on occasion, or for a group whose style and repertoire will vary based on who shows up.
That said, I'm pretty sure I speak for a lot of younger people when I hear about an upcoming jazz gig, the first place I look for information is always online. As someone who reasonably new to the area and the local jazz scene, I'm pretty likely to skip an event unless I've heard some sound samples or something to convince me that the gig is something I want to go hear. There's an awful lot of music that gets labeled as jazz, and given that cover prices often aren't cheap, I'm a whole lot more likely to go to a club if I know what to expect beforehand.
The obvious explanation for the DC Jazz Community's technological feet-dragging is that Jazz musicians tend to be older and less tech-saavy than musicians in other genres, but TheFreeFood makes a good point. Jazz is a spontaneous art form and, compared to other styles of music, its practitioners do not benefit nearly as much from having a set-in-stone repertoire posted on a website. In many cases, it may even stifle their creativity and lead them into a stylistic rut, and no one likes to be pigeon-holed.
That said, there's nothing wrong with bandleaders and even sidemen setting up websites, if only for the worthy purposes of self-promotion, facilitating gigs, and furthering the general Jazz discourse. The recent addition of this great american art form to DCist's broad array of topics shows that the latter has already begun in earnest.
Keep up the great work, DCist!
great to see some jazz coverage here..
"Older and less tech-saavy"???? Where is your evidence for this kindofasiandrummer? The only reason jazz hasn't died completely is because of younger jazz musicians devoted to the art form. Next time somebody is at Columbia Station on Sat. night ask the musicians if they have web sites, MySpace pages or Facebook pages. Or how about using IM away messages and profiles to advertise upcoming gigs.
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I think your "IM away messages and profiles" suggestion illustrates the other problem with jazz musicians and publicity. I think there's a tendency for jazz musicians to assume that they only need to cater to people "in the know." I do think that many jazz musicians still see inaccessibility and esotericism as virtues; it's an ethos that goes back to the roots of bebop jazz. Staying out of the Internet realm helps to preserve that air, so many jazz musicians see a web presence as wholly unnecessary, even counterproductive.
The problem is, as it always has been, that jazz can't afford to just cater to people in the know. This is especially true in DC, a city that's full of young people with high turnover. Even among people with some degree of interest in jazz, the lack of online resources makes the barrier to entry (a knowledge of individual local musicians, their styles, etc.) so high that I think many new residents just don't bother to get involved.
DCist, your jazz coverage is great. Thanks for pressing the musicians and venues to get more information online.
I'm going to be visiting in D.C. July 6-11, 2007, can you tell me if Bertell Knox is playing anywhere?
apecorino@austin.rr.com
Freefood, the premise that jazz musicians are not web users is simply incorrect and it is a myth that jazz musicians try to be mystical. Most jazz musicians in the DC area teach and would be more than happy to tell you everything they can about jazz. While there may be a lack of an up-to-date organized jazz web space for the DC area, this doesn't reflect on the individual jazz musicians, particularly the younger ones who are naturally more connected to the Internet.
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