On Jazz Wars and Tolerance

How and why did we arrive at a point where we fiercely “defend” this music from those who are not attacking it at all?

Micha / Eurojazzist apprentice

A few days ago, I published an interview with double bassist Esat Erikincioglu in which we talk about many topics – his work with AVA Trio and Kuhn Fu, how he developed his playing style, his concert agency, life in the Netherlands, his relationship with figures from the Turkish jazz scene, and so on. I had decided to publish three Instagram videos as a kind of teaser for the full interview, so during the initial editing of the audio file I marked the parts that seemed most “catchy” for a short format.

Even during the conversation, I knew I would be able to use the part where Esat talks about American jazz and notes how, in his formative years, he didn’t like either jazz or Ron Carter – probably the greatest legend in the history of jazz double bass. I’m not naive, and I was aware of the polemical potential of his statement, that it would provoke the anger of part of the traditional jazz audience.

It didn’t matter that Esat repeatedly emphasized that this all referred to his taste and that “for him” it was that way. He even says that he enjoys listening to American jazz. Anyone watching the video in good faith could clearly understand what the artist wanted to say. And what he actually said.

However, the amount of insults that poured in was unbelievable. I don’t want to recount them. In the end, I felt compelled to lock the comments because I couldn’t successfully moderate them in real time. There were also a few thoughtful comments and attempts to engage in an argument-based discussion (thanks Jason Marsalis), but all of that was buried under banal one-liners and personal attacks.

We all like to say that jazz is music for open-minded people, music of freedom. But how true is that really?

The history of jazz is a history of resistance to new music and constant clashes between “traditionalists” and “modernists,” as well as different factions within the genre. Just think of the emergence of bebop and the way that music positioned itself in relation to what came before it.

And what about free jazz! A musician from the Big Band RTS, the national Serbian jazz orchestra, once told me that the history of jazz ended in 1959 and that everything after that is “not jazz.” That’s just one of a million examples.

Just when audiences got used to the avant-gardists, the jazz-rock revolution arrived. There’s no need to elaborate on the kind of split that happened at that moment – among musicians, audiences, and jazz journalists and writers. Then we all gradually got used to this music as well, played by some of the greatest jazz legends.

Then came Kenny G and smooth jazz, which was one of the greatest tests of tolerance for all those who consider themselves open-minded. How do you love jazz without hating Kenny G and mocking him?

On the other hand, it’s interesting to consider what exactly this musician did wrong. He didn’t steal anything from anyone. He didn’t insult anyone. And above all, he plays music that brings joy to millions of people. Music associated with romance, love, and making love. With positive emotions.

Of course, I myself hated Kenny G for a long time and gladly mocked him from the condescending position of a “jazz connoisseur,” considering his music shameful and so on. But all of that matters only within our small bubbles where jazz obsessives clash and argue. When we step outside our little jazz wars, a different perspective opens up.

Moving on – the era of Wynton Marsalis arrived, followed by the “young lions,” and the “new traditionalism” struck back. Yet another historical phase in which we divided into trenches. Those divisions remained in place over the following decades, and the conflict between traditionalists and modernists became a kind of constant.

Sometime in the 2000s, there was also the famous case at a festival in Spain when a jazz festival attendee called the police to complain that the concert he was listening to “was not jazz.” So he wanted his money back. At that moment, the seasoned avant-garde saxophonist Larry Ochs was performing on stage.

Wynton Marsalis later responded by asking the Guardian journalist to connect him with this jazz purist so he could send him a gift and thank him – which, admittedly, we can also view simply as a good PR move for his audience.

Do we have a new “jazz war” today, with American jazz on one side and the kind played in other parts of the world on the other?

Judging by the reactions to Esat’s interview, as well as several texts and panels on similar topics here on Substack and, for example, at the jazzahead! trade fair, it seems that there is at least a “glitch” in the mutual understanding of people who play or love a music nominally based on freedom, improvisation, and creativity.

From what I can see in the responses circulating on Instagram, part of the jazz musicians and jazz audience in the USA (but also elsewhere) are bothered by a kind of “cultural appropriation” of jazz as an African-American musical form, that is, by the feeling that reinterpretations of jazz in other parts of the world do not sufficiently acknowledge the socio-political and cultural context in which this music was created.

I notice a narrative that “jazz” is only the music that originally emerged in the USA, and that its variations performed elsewhere represent some music that is “not jazz,” and therefore has no right to claim this genre label, which carries not only musical but also broader social and cultural implications.

I understand this position. In fact, I understand it more, the more I read about it. On the other hand, I keep coming back to the idea that the fundamental quality of jazz is that it is a music of freedom. A music that pushes boundaries, celebrates improvisation and creativity. A music that has spread across the entire world, planted its seeds, and inspired millions of musicians and ordinary people.

So how and why did we arrive at a point where we fiercely “defend” this music from those who are not attacking it at all? I do not exclude myself from this “protective impulse” either – I just do it from my own position, from my own bubble.

Someone in the comments on Esat’s remarks about American jazz noted that Miles Davis would surely have been totally cool with all of this, that he would have liked this double bassist. Maybe that’s true, and maybe it isn’t – we’ll never know. But it’s not a bad idea to recall Miles’s career and worldview, in this year when we celebrate his life and work.

Miles Davis always pushed jazz forward and expanded its boundaries, disregarding conventions, the breaking of bridges with tradition, or the hate he attracted. Today we celebrate him as probably the greatest jazz musician of all time. Think about that.

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