The heartland? It’s right here

Ask a group of fans to locate the heart of the American jazz scene and the most likely response will be: “New York, man. Where else?” A few might mention the roots rhythms of New Orleans, the urban jazz-blues of Chicago or the down-home swing of Kansas City, but very few will place Los Angeles at the top of the list.

“Where’s the history?” some might ask. “Where are the places like New York’s Village Vanguard, the Five Spot, Chicago’s South Side, 18th Street in Kansas City, Bourbon Street in New Orleans -- all the places where jazz history was made?”

Others might suggest, “L.A. is too cool, too laid back” to have the intensity required for hot, world-class jazz. Or they might focus on our geography -- all that sprawl with no neat urban center.

First, let’s clear up some mythology. Los Angeles is brimming with jazz history. Jelly Roll Morton, the first great jazz composer, was here in the teens and early ‘20s, around the time he made the amazingly prescient comment that jazz was much better when it had a “Spanish tinge.” And Central Avenue, that great thoroughfare of African American culture, was easily the match for any of the nation’s other, better-known jazz centers, from the ‘20s into the early ‘50s. Simmering with sounds and rhythms, it was the West Coast performing destination for every major jazz act, and it was a listening and hanging-out destination for movie stars of the ‘30s and ‘40s.

And while there’s no denying the classic Southland imagery of surfer dudes, yoga classes and wheat grass smoothies, it was that laid-back ambience that helped foster the West Coast jazz of the ‘50s and ‘60s -- the coolly engaging music of Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker, of Shorty Rogers and Art Pepper, of Chico Hamilton, Buddy Collette, Shelly Manne and Jimmy Giuffre.

Those were salad years for West Coast music. Dave Brubeck and Paul Desmond were bringing jazz to college campuses, Mulligan’s pianoless quartet (with Baker) was delivering catchy melodies and foot-tapping rhythms, and Stan Kenton was sustaining the glories of brassy, big jazz band music.

As for our geography, yes, it’s a lot harder to take in one or two (or three) jazz clubs in one night -- as one can in Manhattan -- when the distances are measured in miles rather than minutes. But there’s an upside to the fact that we have clubs and performing venues across the Southland, from the Valley to Orange County, from the Westside to East L.A. Indeed, at a time when jazz is foundering in a lack of vitality and the absence of iconic figures, Southern California offers music that reaches beyond predictable repetitions into a colorful spectrum of ethnicities, nationalities and styles.

On any given night, it’s possible to hear every kind of familiar genre, from New Orleans to swing to bebop and fusion. There’s a rich diversity of Latin jazz, as well, wrapped in the rhythms of salsa, meringue, Afro-Cuban, samba, bossa nova and more. There are avant-garde sounds, cabaret jazz, soul jazz, smooth jazz and fusion. Add to that the jazz spirit of improvisation that one often hears in Persian music, Indian classical music, folk, bluegrass, Celtic music, and the jazz that has always slipped in between the seams of pop, rock, rhythm & blues and rap.

Jazz in Southern California just might be on the cutting edge of something new -- a realistic model that reaches beyond traditional styles, beyond the dominating influence of powerful individuals. A jazz in which a player can be anything he or she chooses to be, a jazz in which the music’s fabled freedom of invention and imagination finally achieves its fullest fruition.