Jazz; as a Commercial Entity

[Mickey Bass]

The disappearance of Jazz Music from Commercially Advertising Radio Stations contributed greatly to a decline in the popularity of this Music.

In light of the fact that there is not now one single Commercially Advertising Radio Station in this Country playing Jazz in their programming; many benefits for the Jazz Community have been lost.

Firstly, Musicians no longer receive those Royalties which were paid to air their Music, on Commercially operating stations. Aside from this fact, Commercial Advertisers such as Record Stores, Jazz Concert and Festival Promoters, Jazz Magazines, Musical Instrument Companies, etc. have lost that place to Advertise & Promote their products. Consequently, there is a need and a demand for commercially advertising radio to promote and sell many products not just Jazz, but the big wigs in these major corporations say that Jazz is not a marketable product, which we all know is false. Jazz was the music used in most TV shows (& Movie) sound scores, during the 50's, 60's, 70's, and into the 80's.

On the other hand, Jazz After Mid-Night was always a good venue for Jazz over the years. It seems to me that someone or some group should seek out a Commercially Advertising Station and present to them the real need and demand for this music. For example, Kathy Hughes owns Radio 1 and TV 1 as well as Inner City Broadcasting which are all primarily Black Owned, yet seem to be doing the same thing as all the other Radio Stations with their Talk Radio formats. If somebody was to approach these stations they may be inclined to do a Jazz After Mid-Night Program format.

Any 'takers'? Who knows nothing beats a failure but a try!

Mickey Bass

[Mickey Bass]

Check it out on Mickey Bass's page!

[TLed]

I've enjoyed the conversation. Give me the details on the release party.

[Mickey Bass]

Yes - all successful popular Music is of course reflective of the times in which we live. It's all also mostly derived from something else... "Jazz, Our National Treasure" It is.

Check out my Record release party next Weekend.

[Mickey Bass]

Good Luck with your project Rich!

[TLed]

In a way, you've made my point. By the two biggest selling Jazz records of all time I'm going to assume you mean Kind of BlueandA Love Supreme. Wonderful music. But for any art form to remain viable it must be a reflection of the CONTEMPORARY reality of the people that make it. One of the things that gave that music such staying power is that the artists were deeply connected with the times in which they lived: The Civil Rights Movement and all of the sweeping changes that were taking place in the country in the late '50's and '60's. They weren't talking about fifty years ago, like we do now. I'm sure you will rebut that the music is timeless, and I agree. But how relevant is it to the kid on the block who doesn't know anything but Lil' Wayne, when we sit around and reference benchmarks that happened before their parents were even born?? 'The doing makes the difference', but my brother, we have to deal with this thing as it is, not as we would like it to be.

You continue to state that there is a market. Prove it.

[Rich Pulin]

2 of us(myself and another guy)are currently working on a project........its somewhat in the stealth mode which means I can't be very explicit this evening.......we feel its the answer to this question/challenge............I can tell you this, its not radio!
Radio has NEVER supported jazz........sure, there were some remote hook-ups in the 40's and 50's
which covered 'Bird', 'Diz' and the boppers of be, and the big bands had a run with radio, but since the 60's there's been nothing happening! The big cities(and a few rare smaller places)but their playlists are political, so the average 'jazz-joe' usually doesn't get played on those stations anyway!
Exactly one year ago I sent e-mails promoting my music to over 350 internet jazz radio stations............under 10 stations replied and took an interest and actually wound up playing my music............one, about 8-9 months later, actually interviewed me and played the interview......as a result of that interview, quite a few of my tunes were downloaded.......so Mickey makes a good point which is if there was an infrastructure set up to promote the music, we, the musicians, would greatly benefit!..................................so what's the answer?
Well, we feel that we have it and those of you who want to stay in touch with me will be the first to hear about it just as soon as we're a bit further down the road.........Once again, sorry to be a bit tight-lipped at the moment!

Rich

[Mickey Bass]

No matter what the reason was for Time Warner giving such an amount, nevertheless, they chose to give that to the building which houses Jazz @ Lincoln Center. I completely agree with you, the entire World has been in the midst of an onslaught of having their senses 'numbed', for a good many years now. It is something to retain a constant awareness of; in the choices that one makes, and this is all up to the individual; the power of the individual....a big part of what this Music is about. Just as the awareness of what it is that one is doing - it's about the Music, only. When the two biggest selling Jazz records of all time were made, the artists involved had no idea that they were making 'Landmark' recordings, they were 'just' making Music. Why, in these recessive, meager days would people choose to listen to Jazz? On a deeply spiritual level, I ask you, what did 'Jazz' come out of? But all of this is simply 'background' knowledge, isn't it. These are words, not deeds, and it is the doing which makes a difference, just like the Music. Jazz is, one of the last, few true Art-forms, which stands, or falls, upon the strengths, or weaknesses of its' exponents.....

There is a market, the question was, and is - who 'out there' has the 'wherewithal' to take action!

[TLed]

That $125M was a tax write off for Time Warner more than anything else. I see a major disconnect between the Jazz community and the listening public. There are two reasons for this: The tastes of the masses have been dumbed down by the garbage that passes for music on most commercial radio these days. But the Jazz community must also hold itself accountable for becoming so elitist, self-absorbed and enamored with its own brilliance that it has turned a lot of people off. Are we really trying to connect spiritually with the people who plunk down their hard-earned, recession-riddled dollars to see us do what we do, or do we feel we're doing them a favor by showing up?

I feel your passion about the commercial viability of Jazz, but I wonder if there's an effective business case to be made here, and on what scale?

[Mickey Bass]

Dear TLed: "It's not what you do, it's the way that you do it...." "Smooth Jazz" was not at all related to what we are talking about. Herbie Hancock, Quincy Jones, Jazz @ Lincoln Center; Time Warner would not have spent $125.000,000.00 if they did not expect to receive a return on their money.....Not 'out of touch', simply seen in rather a different light than.......whomever the papparazzi are currently disecting. Thank goodness! Jazz isn't given 'that' kind of exposure because it is about an art form, rather than some trivial nonsense. But Jazz is Commercially viable, which is my point.

Mickey Bass

[TLed]

One of the problems we the jazz community have is that we tend to be a little out of touch. The radio stations are not in business to promote one genre over another. They're in business to make money. And if they thought there was a reasonable shot that they could make money on jazz trust and believe they'd be doing it. They tried "Smooth Jazz", but that didn't generate the kind of $$ they look for either. Jazz now occupies a parallel universe with classical, primarily preseted in non profit venues. We should continue to support jazz because we love it, because it's the greatest music ever made. But let's not fool ourselves into thinking it's still commercially viable on a large scale.