On the Jazz Curmudgeon

I've seen a few examples on the jazzerwebs lately of that well-known species of jazz fan who, while passionate about his own particular area of interest (say, Lithuanian swing revivalists of mid-1936 to late spring of '52, or Archie Shepp's bossa nova period), is nevertheless vehemently dismissive of anything falling outside that area. (For prime specimens, see A Blog Supreme and this video by Tyshawn Sorey.)

My initial response to the first guy pretty much sums up my thoughts about this phenomenon: "There are as many restrictive definitions of jazz as there are curmudgeonly jazz fans (seems like their numbers are growing--or is it that the number of non-curmudgeonly fans is shrinking)? These types of arguments can go on infinitely--[Esperanza] Spalding is a hell of a lot more straightahead than Chris Botti, for example, but he gets referred to as a jazz artist all the time. You can argue over where to draw the line until the cows come home (and the audience leaves), but don't expect it to accomplish anything for the music."

As I think about it more, though, I think the reason these voices ring so loudly (especially to musicians) is that the audience for jazz is already so small that to be attacked from inside what one would presume to be one's own camp makes it more unpleasant--and often using the same critiques (no melody, too intellectual, whatever) that someone ignorant of all jazz would use. (With friends like these...)

Maybe that's because jazz is so varied and heterogeneous, at the same time that the audience is so narrow, that once people declare themselves "jazz fans" they feel that all music presented under that banner should conform to their idea of what "jazz" should be. Most likely they traveled a long path of exposure and absorption to feel like a genuine jazz cognoscenti, and maybe being confronted with something that surprises them or once again makes them feel like a neophyte feels like an attack on their identity. I don't know.

I do know that if someone called himself a rock fan because he loved Bruce Springsteen, then went to a Metallica show and told the band they should play some real rock, like Springsteen, he would be rightly viewed as an idiot who should learn more about a band before going to one of their shows.

Or put it this way--art is subjective and you're entitled to your opinion. There's no reason to be a jerk about it to someone who's spent his or her whole life learning to play, though.