Jazz Commons Beta Launch

We're ready to start blogging with a small group of contributors to get Jazz Commons running smoothly!  I'm very excited to create a place where jazz musicians can write about the music they love and share their experiences as an artist.  My vision for Jazz Commons is to provide a gathering where performers and fans interact in a way that benefits the jazz community.  The blog will focus primarily on life in the New York jazz scene, drawing mainly from a select group of contemporary performers who love to write and share their knowledge.  Later, we'll open a Jazz Commons forum that will let a wide audience participate in a variety of discussions.

There are several sites that try to provide everything for musicians or cover all aspects of jazz journalism.  My intention is not to replace those resources.  There is no exhaustive gig listing here.  There are not thousands of musician profiles with autoplaying tracks.  I just want to focus on good stories as told by a few of the many interesting voices creating jazz today.  Musicians of my generation have been very fortunate to learn directly from jazz masters who helped create this music.  Part of the joy of that is hearing firsthand the accounts and anecdotes of jazz eras past and its characters.  In the oral (and written) tradition of jazz, I feel we must retell those stories as well as tell our own.  Perhaps, by doing so we foster an interest in jazz music that goes beyond listening to the melodies and harmonies, but delves into context and how jazz fits into our society and why some make jazz such an integral part of their lives.

I challenge cliché notions that jazz is a "musician's music" or "not danceable".  There are many factors that have pushed jazz underground, but given the chance, the music speaks for itself.  I'm sure we'll touch on specifics during the course of this blog, but the best solution in my opinion is a positive approach.  I've been pleasantly surprised after jazz performances with reactions like, "I never thought I liked jazz, but you guys are amazing!  Where can I hear more?"  And this for music not even remotely "accessible".

It just goes to show that jazz music has appeal to untapped contemporary audiences, and you don't have to be a musician to enjoy it.  Live performance is probably the best way to build that audience.  The energy of the musicians interacting helps communicate what jazz is all about.  My hope is that Jazz Commons will provide another interaction, one that extends behind the scenes and between gigs, and feed that energy back into the jazz community.