WILL IT STAY ALIVE IN ‘85?

The year now under way holds out hope for those of us who remain committed to the perpetuation and evolution of the art of jazz. That, at least, seems to be the near-unanimous consensus of a cross section of participants who represent various facets of the community.

The question posed to each respondent was: How does 1985 look to you for jazz in general or for your particular area of interest?

Billy Taylor, pianist, composer, lecturer, educator, TV personality: I feel very up about ’85. This is the first time in a long while that I’ve felt jazz is really getting the kind of attention from the grass-roots level that I wanted to see.

You tend to be so smothered by the media, by commercial radio and television, that you may become a little discouraged, but this past year, traveling around a lot has changed my opinion. In the schools and colleges, in a lot of communities in this country, there is a definite change. People have a deeper perception of what is happening.

There’s a whole lot of love at every level that will continue to bring the jazz world closer together. More and more people really care about the music and are going to help keep it alive.

Carl Jefferson, president, Concord Jazz Records: I feel very good about the way things are going. This last year was our busiest yet, and we expect 1985 to be even better.

It’s particularly encouraging to see more young people getting into jazz, both as enthusiasts and as performers. Of course, not all the fans can afford to go everywhere: Some of the high-priced artists working at places like the Fairmont in San Francisco are out of their reach economically. But they can buy their records.

I’m talking about the domestic market, but of course we need the great volume of business we’re doing in Japan. And we need to keep encouraging fresh, exciting talents. There’s a whole bunch of first-rate young players out there who have to be given an opportunity.

Carmen McRae, singer: Well, I don’t know. . . . There certainly is a lot of room for good new singers, but where are the good new singers? I haven’t heard any.

Jazz is an art that demands total dedication. You have to realize that it’s not necessarily the greatest medium in the world for making money--but that’s beside the point, or should be.

I’ve had a few youngsters tell me that they are jazz singers, but then I listen to them and it’s not what I consider jazz. It’s like I’ve said so many times--we jazz singers are becoming an endangered species! I hope I’m wrong, and please quote me on that--I hope I’m 140% wrong.

Quincy Jones, producer, composer, arranger, former trumpeter and jazz orchestra leader: I think we’re seeing a dramatic turnaround, which Wynton Marsalis has become a symbol of. His double victory--the classical and jazz Grammy awards--was a reminder of a trend that has actually been taking shape for 10, 15 years.

Hubert Laws, a marvelous flute player, was the forerunner of this; he has been involved in classical music and jazz for a long time. Not long ago, I conducted a session on which he played some suites by Telemann. Musicians are more and more aware of each other’s areas; the barriers are breaking down. I believe wholeheartedly in this development. One of my ambitions, which I hope to realize this year, is to write a concerto for piano, for Oscar Peterson to record.

I hear so many exciting young talents coming up: Stanley Jordan, the guitarist, and, of course, the Marsalis brothers. These people are a new breed, and they’re going to be an important part of our future.

Ruth Hoover, owner, Carmelo’s, Sherman Oaks: To me, it looks pretty grim. It was a very bad year, and it just kept getting worse as it went along. I think people are going to be watching their dollars very closely and become very selective about where they’ll go to spend them.

I just wish the jazz audience would come out more so that we could lower our prices. Of course, part of the trouble is that so many of the performers charge such high fees; we just can’t afford to book them in a relatively small room.

One key to the potential success of jazz is that a lot of little restaurants are trying it out on a modest scale. Because of our payroll problems, we haven’t had a chef lately, and you do have to have something else going for you, besides just the music, in order to maintain a full jazz policy.

(Since making the above statement, Hoover has announced that Carmelo’s must be closed: “If we cannot locate a jazz enthusiast who is interested in maintaining a jazz policy, then the club will probably be sold for a restaurant.”)

Horace Tapscott, pianist, composer: I believe the music will be reaching more ears in the year to come, in the area of the music people call jazz . Maybe it’s because so many trees have been falling--so many giants lost to us this past year--that people are looking around to see what’s left. But in any event, audiences are listening more intelligently.

Art Lange, editor, Down Beat magazine: I’m optimistic about the whole scene. It seems to me there’s an awful lot of interest on the grass-roots level. Assuming the major record companies are not going to back our music as much as they should, well, there will be a lot of local initiatives. More and more artists are taking matters into their own hands: If they can’t get paid by a big company to do an album, they’ll just start their own labels and do it themselves. I think that’s a healthy situation.

I’ve also noticed a lot of jazz societies, local groups of enthusiasts getting together and putting on concerts, spreading the good word about this music.

Another reason for feeling bullish about the future is that never before have there been so many diverse types and styles of music coming together under the jazz banner. There are still people around playing Jelly Roll Morton tunes; there are still bands using Basie and Ellington arrangements and, of course, we have all the contemporary additions. So it’s become a very encouraging continuum.

A few personal addenda: There is no necessary conflict between the negative views of Carmen McRae or Ruth Hoover and the more positive outlook of the others. On the vocal jazz front, there have been a few significant newcomers, such as Bobby McFerrin, but it can be argued that they are the exceptions who prove the rule.

As for the nightclub situation, it is thriving in New York, largely because so many of the creative artists live there. In almost every other city, the clubs are suffering.

More and more, the future of jazz will be concentrated in the concert halls and at festivals at home and abroad. There will also be an upsurge of employment via cable TV and the fast-growing area of jazz cruises.

The record industry, for all its preoccupation with mega-hits, will continue to be helpful as long as there are a few executives who realize that a small profit is still a profit, and that the great jazz recording artists have proven staying power.

What it boils down to can be summed up in Ruth Hoover’s advice: Those who believe in jazz have to demonstrate their beliefs by coming out and supporting it. Somehow or other, as has been the case for almost seven decades, the doomsayers’ predictions will be confounded and jazz will survive, in and far beyond 1985.