Michael Fehling <fehling@aids-unix.ARPA> (11/20/84)
Bob, Try the following explanation for why jazz musicians seem less interested in covering country material than country musicians are in covering jazz. The focus of country music is (for the most part) much more on the lyrical aspect of music than is the case for jazz. In other words, country tunes are often musically simple and/or conventional with the focus on using the music to tell a (usually very personal) story in the lyrics. On the other hand, to many jazz musicians the melody and/or harmonic structure of a piece is more important than the words. This is even true for jazz vocalists, as is evidenced in the technique of scat singing. So, the country tune is often just not as interesting to a jazz musician because neither the changes nor the melody of the tune challenge the performer with interesting and novel "musical problems". In contrast, country musicians are often quite interested in doing certain jazz "standards" (e.g., Willie Nelson doing a tune like "All of Me") because such tunes have interesting lyrics as well as good changes and melody. (Although some jazz musicians can be accused of getting too hung up on the non-vocal aspects of music, not all jazz musicians ignore the lyrics. Some singers like Sara Vaughan have styles that are very lyrical, as compared to more "instrumental" singers such as Anita O'Day. Even some instrumentalists try to play off of the lyrics of a tune and the mood that those lyrics suggest. An acquaintance of mine named Ted Dunbar (a quite excellent jazz guitarist) claims that when he studies a tune he always pays a lot of attention to the composer's lyrics as a source of ideas for improvisation.) Regarding the "jazz fans' lament that jazz isn't as popular as it should be", I suspect that for many of us jazz fans the notion of popularity is somewhat different than that held by major music producers (or even much of the record buying public in this country). To the record producer the notion of popularity is defined in terms of top ten ratings on the charts and sales in the millions. There are other notions of popularity. An album by the pianist Bill Evans might not have sold a million copies in its first year of release, but there will likely be a market for that album for many years to come. In contrast, look at where many top pop albums end up after their wave of "popularity" has ended (i.e., in the bargain bins). I think that the lament of many jazz fans is often over why the marketing strategy of the major record companies is so singularly geared to only "fad marketing". I dispute the claim that the only profitable way to market recordings is to use this mass market approach. (One point I recall from Simon's message was that for some reason the classical recording industry seems to be an exception to this rule of fad marketing.) -- michael --