Jazz beyond Jazz: June 2008 Archives

Too hip to be rattled by ignorant, idle, defensive -- and of course, revealing - threats, the greatest living musicians are basking in hard-earned recognition and producing inspiringly energized, not necessarily mellow music. Undeterred by Live Nation-like commercial disdain, jazz festivals are thriving throughout North America under nominally non-profit organizations run by a coterie of canny impresarios. Jazz clubs -- not only in NYC, I saw it in Chicago, too -- are hosting eager audiences, maybe because the cheap buck has lured international tourists. But the buck's not cheap Canada, which is also promoting jazz. Jazz is always endangered, but right now it's in high bloom. 

So sayeth tenor saxophonist Albert Ayler in December 1964 -- a clip I used in my latest NPR audio piece about a Swedish documentary film on Ayler currently touring U.S. arthouses. He believed unbound, exploratory and free (yet focused) improvisation was the sound of the future. Typically depicted as a wild-eyed radical whose mysterious death 38 years ago came at the crux of his brief but ecstatic career, Ayler is being proved right by the explosive energies that seek to turn America's vernacular music transcendent -- at jazz festivals this week and next in New York City and beyond. It's the only way left for musicians to play!