Commercial = Bad?

We spend a lot of time in class talking about commercial or main stream players, such as Wynton Marsalis, and usually negative comments will ensue. I'm not saying that I think Wynton should be the future face of jazz music, but he may very well be in the general public's eye. It is important to remember, sometimes, that we are trying to make a career out of being a musician and we need support from other people.

In my eyes mainstream jazz isn't always the most creative music that I have heard. Examples of this would be Wynton albums full of standards, or maybe Chris Botti with some trumpet love effects in his performances. Granted they don't really sound like the underground musicians that most of us adore. However we are performers and I think that we have to keep our audience in mind. I know that some of you will really not like that statement but hear me out on this. Bands like The Bad Plus, and even Jason Moran are playing rock songs that relate to a wider audience. Does this mean that they are selling out like Wynton? I know that they have several other songs on their albums that are their own unique compositions, but they have to get the audiences attention. Getting a large audiences attention is great for any kind of musician.

This being said, music to the average person is meant to be a fun experience. People want to see and hear musicians loving what they do, but if they can't relate to it at all they aren't going to go out of their busy schedules to make it to your next gig. Big band music was originally produced for the general public to party, but it evolved into something more. Sometimes I think that we loose our roots of the original ways that people played jazz music. It is important that we remember that kind of spirit.

In class we have been coming back to the issue of how to critique musicians that play free or experimental music. This is one the most confusing tasks that a musician could take on. However we judge musicians on their ability to play in different styles including the classic roots of jazz. Experimental music is a very expressive type of music in its own unique way. Unfortunately the public will most likely NEVER get it. It it might be more work for the general public to understand and enjoy the music. If musicians choose to perform like this they have to understand that they aren't performing for money. They have now moved on to something more noble, and that is furthering their creativity.

Maybe as musicians we have to find a balance (If we want to make a living) between playing music that can appeal to a wide audience, and playing music that is what we deeply believe in. I do believe that if any of us got a deal to go mainstream and play like Wynton or even...Kenny G we would take that job. Those artists are the ones that are making large amounts of money. However as we gain fame maybe we will start to rock the boat a little bit and play some free jazz that we really enjoy playing. I guess what I'm trying to say is to at least think about our audience and try to lure them in to listen to us. Maybe Coltrane originally wanted to play spiritually but started blowing over changes. He definitely is a prime example of a musician that evolves but had to pay a price with his fan base. But Coltrane was playing music for reasons that we can relate to. We play music because we love it and if we could not make a career out of it we would still carry on the tradition.