Also this issue:

Once More, With Feeling
After an 18-year break, Mission of Burma's Clint Conley returns with a brand-new band.
-Sam Adams

Local Land-Marc
One of the greatest living piano virtuosos calls Philly home.
-Lou Camp

Beat Box
Hip-Hop & You Don't Stop
-Ainè Ardron-Doley

They Survived Philly
-Patrick Rapa

Kelly Slusher
-John Vettese

May 9-15, 2002

the gig

by Nate Chinen

What sorts of lives do jazz musicians lead? What happens offstage, outside, in the real world? And how can we be sure that our discourse -- what we write and say about jazz and its attendant concerns -- is responsible, representative and true? These are good questions, infrequently posed. Which is part of what made the National Arts Journalism Program’s “Talking Jazz: Live at the Village Vanguard” such a significant event.

"Talking Jazz," organized by Columbia University's National Arts Journalism Program, brought a coterie of journalists, scholars and musicians under one low ceiling on a recent Friday afternoon. The marathon session -- three panel discussions over four-and-a-half hours -- covered a range of topics (some prescribed, many others unplanned). The common denominator was a professed interest in "the working conditions and actual lives" of jazz musicians.

The centerpiece panel of the afternoon addressed this issue in explicit, even quantitative terms. "Work Song" presented the results of a study conducted by the Research Center for Arts and Culture and commissioned by the National Endowment for the Arts. The study, in many ways a demographic survey, gathered information gleaned from hundreds of jazz musicians (in New York, New Orleans, San Francisco and Detroit). Results weren't revelatory, but rather confirmed suspicions: that jazz musicians have large social networks, that they often lack pensions and health care coverage, that their wages are scant and sporadic. (According to these findings, the mean income from work as a musician in 2000 was $17,910; the median was $16,001.) Over the course of the study, musicians reiterated several common themes: the need for more individual (non-institutional) empowerment; the critical role of education (both for musicians and audience); an emphasis on fostering more exposure and performance opportunities; and the social responsibility of the jazz industry and media.

This last point seemed especially resonant given the thrust of the day's events. In "Destination Out," an earlier panel moderated by critic Francis Davis, a handful of musicians (Andy Bey, Gary Burton, Fred Hersch, Charlie Kohlhase) discussed the issue of homosexuality in jazz. With the exception of Bey, there was consensus that being openly gay had not adversely affected their careers. But during a post-panel Q&A, insensitive comments by two jazz journalists elicited groans from all corners of the room.

"In All Languages," a final panel moderated by NAJP Fellow Larry Blumenfeld, had jazz critics (Gary Giddins, Steve Dollar, K. Leander Williams) in dialogue with jazz academics (Robin Kelley, Krin Gabbard, Chris Washburne), with scattered but often illuminating results. What went largely unsaid was the fact that both journalists and scholars serve as mediators between the music (and musicians) and the people (consumers). And the further fact that we all shoulder a responsibility, to folks on both sides of the divide.

To report a gig -- or any other jazz-related news -- e-mail Nate Chinen at n_chinen@citypaper.net.