One of my all-time favorite quotes is by the late Greg Tate. He said, “the future needs jazz more than jazz needs the future.” It has been true all along and it cannot be truer at this moment in time.
Jazz embodies American ideals. How ironic is it that these ideals are molded into a tangible art form by the group of people who were forced to come to this land and stripped of everything by the people who came here with hopes to manifest the ideals. Then again, it does make sense that freedom, inclusion, compassion, open dialogue, harmonies (consonants and dissonants), and collaborations were best understood by ones who were denied the basic elements of humanity, of the essential ingredients that would make the American ideals possible.
In order for anyone to be a good jazz artist, first you must have healthy respect for what came before you. Knowing history and tradition is important not so much because you need to abide by them but because you must know what to avoid and where to go next.
Jazz requires you to be fluent in its language, which is constantly evolving as the participants expand. Jazz is welcoming to everyone and has a capacity to accommodate differences. You must learn to listen really well and really closely and be present. As in conversations, you can listen half-heartedly and give cookie-cutter replies or you can pretend to listen and wait for your turn to say what you want to say rather than reacting to what is actually happening: however, we all know that is not a fun and meaningful conversation. You feel no connection to others and there are no discoveries. You are just passing time. You need fluency, patience, and openness for the dialogue to be something worthwhile.
Music always sounds better when you allow space, for yourself and for others. When the band members understand the common goals and work together in the service of music, there will be magical moments of joy and excitement. We, including the audience members, feel connected, heard, and understood. I don’t know why that is but over the past 30 years, I have experienced many moments like that where we were happy that we bore witness to the specialness and we felt special and connected by the experiences.
Jazz teaches you to embrace dissonants and musicians work together to either find resolutions or simply agree and be happy to just let them be.
Jazz requires you, also, to work tirelessly on your own individual excellence so that collective freedom and harmonies are maintained on the bandstand, and the music can get to a higher place. And because we all understand that personal struggle, we are respectful with each other and I seldom see jealousy or bitterness. It may be a superficial display of civility and common decency (and they may secretly be envious and angry) but I think politeness is always nice and makes the world go around. What I often see is the mutual respect and camaraderie and fellowship. I should mention, though, hidden or otherwise, these dark feelings eventually and surely eat away at your music so it is always advisable for you to get with yourselves and deal with them early on.
As a musical art form, jazz knows how to create room for everyone, sometimes even at the price of sacrificing itself. It is creative and adoptive. For me, the true improvisation that defines jazz is not the musical part of it (there are other musical traditions where improvisation is an integral component) but its perspective and adoptability. Black people, with the strength and resilience of their spirits, improvised joy and beauty out of impossible situations. That, to me, is the true spirit of jazz and genius of it.
There are many ways jazz can teach all of us how to be a good citizen and this is why the future needs jazz more than jazz needs the future as Greg aptly said more than 30 years ago. Jazz has always been and is and will be fine as jazz is timeless because it is the reflection of our true nature and the best selves, of what our souls really desire.