Where have all the jazz composers gone? Where are the modern day Ellingtons, Monks and Brubecks – musicians as well known for their compositions as for their playing ability? When it comes to it, has there been any serious contribution to the canon ofstandard jazz repertoire in the last 50 years? Can it be true that the last generation of musicians to contribute standard tunes to mainstream jazz repertoire was that containing musicians like Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter?
I ask because it occurred to me the other day that, although many jazz musicians are writing their own material these days, there seem to be ever fewer instances of modern musicians performing material written by their peers or contemporaries. This is despite the fact that there is a seemingly endless parade of musicians interested in recording the music of other jazz artists – as long as they're dead!
I wonder how many 'tributes' to the music of, say Thelonius Monk have been recorded in the last 20 years? Steve Lacy, Paul Motian, EST, Jessica Williams and Tony Kofi are just some artists off the top of my head who have recorded tributes to Monk – and the list goes on.
Additionally, check out the program for any mainstream jazz festival these days and you're likely to find at least one 'tribute' concert in there. It seems that jazz musicians have no problem playing other jazz musicians' music from the past, so why not from the present?
It seems to me that more and more jazz musicians are composing their own material these days and yet they're the only people who are ever likely to play it. My guess is that this is the reason that there aren't more contemporary tunes being absorbed into the standard repertoire – they're just not heard or played by enough people. If you are the only artist playing your tunes, the only people who will hear it are your fans, whereas the number of people who get to hear the tune rockets as soon as even a couple of other musicians start playing it.
Put the name of pretty much any standard tune composed by a dead jazz musician into spotify or last.fm and you'll find a plethora of versions – many recorded by the composer's contemporaries. That's how the tunes of the past found their way into the repertoire – because there were plenty of people playing them. It's not surprising the pool of standard jazz repertoire is now stagnant.
Interestingly enough, this reluctance on the part of most musicians to play material composed by their peers is restricted strictly to jazz tunes. It is becoming increasingly fashionable for jazz musicians to re-interpret material from other genres such as pop or rock – Brad Mehldau's Radiohead covers, The Bad Plus playing Nirvana or Blondie, Pat Metheny covering Sting and Christian McBride doing Steely Dan are again, just a few examples that spring to mind.
I'm not sure how or why any of this matters (after all, we're not exactly short of tunes to blow on at jam sessions and gigs), but I can't shake the feeling that it does. It probably also says something profound and illuminating about the culture in the 'jazz community' and the modern attitude to music and art – but I'm not sure what that is yet.
I'm going to be pondering this for a while and, should I draw any conclusions, you will of course be the first to know. In the meantime, if you have any suggestions or thoughts on this then please do share them in the comments.
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