[Dixielandjazz] Don 't Call Me A Jazz Man - Was Why Jazz isn't cool anymore

[Stephen G Barbone]

Below is the opening paragraph from "Jazz is Dead. Long Live Jazz."  
Newsweek Magazine Dec 9, 2009. - By Seth Coulter Walls. The complete  
article may be found at:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2009/12/09/jazz-is-dead-long-live-jazz.html

"Put yourself in this jazz musician's shoes for a minute. Your record  
label just dropped two of its most acclaimed acts from the roster in  
order to aggressively pursue pop artists. Still, you think you have a  
sound that's relevant to the moment—and to prove it, you need a stay  
of execution from what's starting to look inevitable. So you pick up  
the phone, dial the label president, and beg for release from the  
adjective that's become pure poison in the marketplace. "If you stop  
calling me a jazz man," you promise the boss, "I'll sell more." That's  
exactly what Miles Davis said to Clive Davis at Columbia Records—more  
than 40 years ago."

"This anecdote—first related by the record mogul in his autobiography— 
also appears in Jazz, a new, close-listen-ing history of the genre by  
critics Gary Giddins and Scott DeVeaux. Even though the trumpeter was  
right—Miles'sBitches Brew, complete with psychedelic cover art pitched  
at the Summer of Love crowd, would go gold after its release in 1969— 
you can't help but read Jazz and not realize that the art's economic  
fortunes have been dicey for decades."

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband