Remove “jazz” from today’s edition of Soundcheck on WNYC and replace it with “classical” or “opera” and you’re pretty much in the same ballpark.
Yet while the Terry Teachout-led debate is pretty tame (“I just wish the conversation was more about solutions. Despite methodological problems w/NEA survey, we all know jazz is in deep trouble,” tweeted composer/bandleader Darcy James Argue), the dialogue it sparked on both WNYC’s comments feature and Twitter was pretty fascinating. It seems that critics are still wont to herald the death of jazz/classical/opera [Name of Music Genre], but who’s offering the solutions to these problems? Moreover, are the data we’re collecting speaking to the actual nature of the problems? We seem to be relying far too much on the quantitative over qualitative here, yet read a comment like Faith from Rockland County‘s and you see that it’s way more than a numbers game:
“As someone who is frequently the youngest member of the audience along with my boyfriend (ages 24 and 22 respectively) at jazz concerts, I think part of the problem is the older jazz community. We are often treated rudely, as if we don’t deserve good seats, don’t get it, and don’t belong.”
I have a whole ‘nother rant on the model that has to change, but it’s still in development on my end and therefore deserves some time to percolate. In the meantime, I’m with Darcy on this one: Where does TT get off saying that you need a large institution in order to yield effective marketing practices?
