Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences University of Zagreb Department of English

Contemporary Jazz in the Context of Jameson's Theory of Postmodernity and the Popularity of Contemporary Jazz Styles

Manuel Manzin

Sven Cvek, PhD

Introduction
Jazz is among the best known products of American Culture. Its sound defined an entire era. With Blues being its immediate predecessor, Jazz, with its wailing of the saxophone, the groove of the drums and the bass, and the melody of the piano, epitomized the sound of the Jazz Age, but also of the black people. No one can dispute the importance of Jazz in American culture and music history. However, in this paper I will not deal with the history of Jazz or its heyday from the 1920s to the 1940s. In this paper I will write about Jazz from the 1970s till today and compare some of its characteristics and processes through which it went with the characteristics of Postmodernism presented by Frederic Jameson in his work Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism in order to determine the position of Jazz music in the postmodern culture or if it can even be placed within the confines of the postmodern narrative and considered a postmodern musical genre. I will also deal with problem of the diminished popularity of Jazz music in the postmodern era and try to determine the reasons of it being such.

The Effacement of the Distinction of High and Mass Culture

One of the most important characteristics of Postmodernity, according to Jameson, is The effacement the distinction between high and mass culture. Today we have a popular belief that Jazz belongs to high culture, to intellectuals, to avant-garde places, and small concerts. However, this was not always true. In its beginnings jazz was never considered high culture, Jazz was created in the slums of New Orleans, by the still oppressed African American people. Not even after jazz caught the interest of white people did it become to be considered high culture. Jazz wasnt considered high culture not even when bebop was created. This is important because bebop is one of the first sub-genres of jazz and in its complexity surpasses styles like Swing which epitomizes the jazz era. I believe the key factor that caused jazz music to be considered as a part of jazz culture is the appearance of genres like RocknRoll, Pop, and genres that contributed even more like Rap, and Electronic music which, create a pattern of musical simplicity that jazz simply doesnt belong to. Considering this shift we can say that one of the consequences of Postmodernism, that may not be important globally or even in an overall study of the postmodern era, but that is very important for this paper is the elevation of Jazz music from mass, or low culture to high culture. If we take into account this shift and disregard the fact that jazz was not created as a form of high culture, but as a type of African American Blues sub-genre, and think of jazz as a style that really is a part of high culture, we can find several examples of contemporary jazz music linking and interweaving with other music styles that can be considered low culture in order to create numerous sub-genres. So we have the mix between jazz and Rock music called jazz fusion, the mix between jazz and Rap called jazz rap. We also have Acid jazz as a style mixing jazz, funk and the electronic aspect of Hip-hop music, and various others which I will further explain in the rest of my paper. However, an aspect that defies, I believe, this

effacement of the division between high and low culture in jazz music is the division of styles within the genre itself. That is why Smooth jazz, jazz rap and other jazz sub-genres are regarded as a representation of low culture within jazz, as opposed to free jazz, neo-bop.

Commodified Jazz and the Problem of Popularity

Connected with the effacement of the distinction between high and low culture within jazz music is the concept of commodification which is all pervasive within Jameson logic and narrative of Postmodernity. For the commodification of culture Jameson says that in the postmodern era culture has become a product in its own right (x),which in the musical context would imply music being made for the needs of the market, the type of music which is created solely to be bought and to amass money for the people who made it. Thus in jazz music we can create a dividing line between jazz genres that follow the trend of popular music and strive to retain, or maybe even regain the popularity it once had, and jazz genres that set themselves apart from the dominant perspective of consumerism. A thing that certainly comes to no surprise is that this line divides almost the same sub-genres of jazz as does the line that divides representations of high and low culture within jazz. The first thing that can be used as an example of jazz music trying to follow the trend of popular music is definitely the song Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia) by the jazz rap group Us3. It was released in 1993 to great commercial acclaim being certified gold by the RIAA for sales over five hundred thousand copies (Wikipedia.com), and ranking 9th on the Billboard Hot 100 (Wikipedia.com). The song uses one of the most famous themes in jazz history; that of Cantaloupe Island by Herbie Hancock released in 1964. Cantaloupe Island can also be perceived as jazz music trying to keep up with the trends of popular music of its time by

blending a funk groove and calm rock rhythm with jazz harmonics and improvisational style. But to analyze the changes which Cantaloop has done to its predecessor, while adding a jazz inspired trumpet solo, the song also added a faster rhythm and rap lyrics to a song which, originally, has no lyrics. Another good example of commodified or, shall we say, commercial jazz is the sub-genre smooth jazz with its most famous proponent Kenny G who was named the biggest- selling instrumental musician of all time (Wikipedia.com). Despite its popularity, smooth jazz is a much maligned genre within jazz circles because of the prevailing opinion that except for jazz instruments and the occasional improvisation it has lost all ties, melodic and rhythmic, with jazz music. This can be proved merely by hearing the song The Moment released in 1996 by Kenny G. One of the features of the song is that it uses an electronic, almost synthesizer-like sound for the rhythm section also it features none of the of the blues scales which make the essence of jazz sound. Instead it uses a very simple melody inspired primarily by the adult contemporary genre. However, despite these attempts of commodifying jazz music and bringing it to the masses, jazz is not considered a popular style or music of the masses. The reason for that lies, I believe, in the fact that people do not perceive these popular jazz styles as a genre of jazz music, as genres of rap (Cantaloop) or adult contemporary (Kenny G) that using certain jazz characteristics. What is today perceived as true jazz music are the very genres that stand in almost active opposition to Jamesons notion of postmodern culture as being commodified, styles like neo-traditional jazz. In his book A History of Jazz Music, Italian-American mathematician and music historian the Piero Scaruffi writes that at the end of the 1970s it almost felt like jazz was merely a word for instrumental music as opposed to rock music that was mostly vocal. The music itself

was not all that different from progressive-rock (thanks to the style of jazz fusion which in trying to keep up with the trends fused characteristics of jazz and rock music), and, in general, less adventurous. The jazz world was living in denial. The neo-traditionalists called the bluff. Instead of trying to move away from the jazz tradition, they staged a massive and shameless revival of it (Scaruffi.com) A good example of neo-traditionalist jazz music is saxophone player Joshua Redman whose debut album simply called Joshua Redman consisted predominantly of covers of well known jazz standards like On the Sunny Side of the Street, Body and Soul and Salt Peanuts. To further describe the difference in popularity between the genres of jazz that try to keep up with the trends of popular music and neo-traditional jazz and to better point out the utter noncommodification of the latter I would like to use a something that may not valid in academic terms, but that has been widely used as a measure of popularity in this highly evolved postmodern world- the number of Youtube views. So, in comparison, The Moment by saxophone player Kenny G has over thirteen million views (Youtube.com), as opposed to the most popular video featuring Joshua Redman which has about a million views, with other videos barely reaching the fifty thousand mark (Youtube.com).

Pastiche in the Context of Jazz Music

Another defining characteristic of postmodernity offered by Jameson that can by analyzed in the context of contemporary jazz music is the notion of pastiche. Jameson defines pastiche as a well-nigh universal practice engendered by the disappearance of the individual subject, along with its formal consequence, the increasing unavailability of the personal style (16), or, to explain it in a simpler way pastiche is the practice of pasting together, a patchwork or medley of borrowed styles (Wales 286) in which, as I have gathered during the class on

American Postmodernism by Sven Cvek, PhD , the person using them looses its originality and the styles being used lose their meaning, and thus can no longer be linked with their own history. Before I continue to analyze the notion of pastiche in the context of jazz music I feel obligated to express my disagreement with the notion of pastiche as it is defined in Jamesons work. My first problem with Jamesons definition of pastiche is that it is derived only from the opposition to parody, and so he continues to say that pastiche is, like parody, the imitation of a peculiar or unique, idiosyncratic style, the wearing of a linguistic mask, speech in a dead language. But it is a neutral practice of such mimicry, without any of parody's ulterior motives, amputated of the satiric impulse, devoid of laughter and of any conviction that alongside the abnormal tongue you have momentarily borrowed, some healthy linguistic normality still exists. Pastiche is thus blank parody (17). I feel that with this definition Jameson defines all practices of artistic hybridity, every attempt to connect modern and old, Western and Eastern, and other various styles in the postmodern era as dim-witted mixing, which, opposed to parody, has no subjective input and motive other than, if we connect it with his overall theory of postmodernity, commodification. Furthermore, it seems to me that with the notion of pastiche, Jameson totally disregards the subjective meaning that the mixing of various stylistic features holds to the artist creating this mix, and that this it may not be as nonsensical and meaningless as it may seem because it may have spun out of the artist interest, emotional connection and understanding of the various styles that create the mix, and it also may not be without any motive because the motive need not be a critical and often cynical approach to certain styles, as it occurs in the practice of parody, but a more respective and nobler motive, to expand the horizons of the styles being used. With this in mind I will try to give several examples of mixing different styles in contemporary jazz music that may seem

as a practice of pastiche, but that hold a much deeper meaning than mere pasting together (Wales 286) that makes the personal style unavailable (Jameson 16). A good example of pastiche as the practice of using older and different styles and thus emptying them of their meaning in the context of jazz music would be the already analyzed style of jazz rap with its famous song Cantaloop which blends traditional jazz and rap music. By merely listening to jazz rap songs we could say that, in them, traditional jazz is reduced to nothing but samples and the occasional solo improvisation by the saxophone or trumpet. However in its article about jazz rap, Allmusic.com describes jazz rap in a way that inadvertently refutes this application of the notion of pastiche to modern jazz. Jazz-Rap was an attempt to fuse African-American music of the past with a newly dominant form of the present, paying tribute to and reinvigorating the former while expanding the horizons of the latter (allmusic.com). If we take into account this definition of jazz rap, we can see that the use of traditional jazz styles with rap music was not a random practice that would strip them of their meaning and its connection with their historical context, but a way to explore and expand the horizons of both styles. Also with this definition it is apparent that, unlike in the practice of pastiche where the style that is used is showed no respect thus resulting in bad handling of it, in jazz rap, traditional jazz is treated with reverence. Another example for a practice that could resemble the notion of pastiche is the musical style of saxophonist John Zorn. He has been described as having created an influential body of work that draws on his experience in a variety of genres including jazz, rock, hardcore punk, classical, klezmer, film, cartoon, popular, and improvised music, and defies traditional academic categories (Columbia.edu). If we take, for example, the song Gevurah, which is the product of a collaboration between various artists and Zorn himself resulting in the ensemble called Bar Kokhba, we can, merely by reading the title, notice the influence of Hebrew culture. Also in the song itself, various styles are mixed together; there is a distinct

latin jazz rhythm, the melody is inspired by klezmer music, i.e. traditional Jewish music, however the melody is not played by a characteristic instrument of klezmer music, e.g. the clarinet, but by a single guitar emulating the sound of a popular rock genre from the 50s- surf rock. This mix finally results in a song with an almost Tarantino-like feel and ambience to it. Taking all this into account we could very easily place Zorns style in the domain of pastiche. However we must also take into account what Zorn himself said about his music. All the various styles are organically connected to one another. I'm an additive person - the entire storehouse of my knowledge informs everything I do. People are so obsessed with the surface that they can't see the connections, but they are there (Guardian.co.uk). In this we can see a clear defiance to the notion of pastiche as a practice that makes the personal style unavailable. (Jameson 16) If anything, it could be said that his music is a representation of his own character and the representation of the subjective meanings Zorn gives to these various styles thus creating his own personal style.

Conclusion
In conclusion, we can see that it is difficult to make a complete and clear analysis of jazz music in any context because of the great differentiation of jazz styles which makes it very difficult to even define jazz music. However, I believe that through this paper I was able to show that, in the context of postmodernity and late capitalism, the great majority of jazz styles do not follow and share the characteristics of the postmodern as given by Fredric Jameson. I believe the main reason for the differences between the postmodern culture and jazz music is that jazz has long passed its commercial era, and now with its lack of popularity it is no longer defined by the needs of the consumers, but by the interests of the artists thus becoming a way

to explore and not to sell which is why contemporary jazz music can be perceived as one of the most individual and personal music genres of today.

Works Cited: Jameson, Fredric. Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Durham: Duke University Press, 1991. Print. Wales, Katie. A Dictionary of Stylistics. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited, 2001. Print Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia). Wikipedia. n.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2013. Kenny G. Wikipedia. n.p., n.d.Web. 29 Jan. 2013. Kenny G- The Moment. Youtube. n.p., 25 Oct. 2009. Web. 29 Jan. 2013. Joshua Redman- Jazz Crimes (Live). Youtube. n.p., 21 Jul. 2006. Web. 29 Jan. 2013. Jazz-rap. Allmusic. n.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2013. Scaruffi, Piero A History of Jazz Music. Scaruffi. n.p., n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2013. Composer John Zorn Garners William Schuman Award. Columbia News. ColumbiaUniversity., 02 Mar. 2007. Web. 31 Jan. 2013. Service, Tom. Shuffle and Cut. The Guardian. The Guardian., 7 Mar. 2003. Web. 31 Jan. 2013.