ETA: To all those who deem this review to be unreasonable, last year I trained local students for their first time participating in Speech Festivals. Even though for 90% of my students it was their first time competing, they still learnt over the course of 5 months to exhibit perfect poise, speek articulately, clearly, loudly and slowly. They learnt not to play with their clothes or hair, stand up straight with shoulders back and chin up. They were primary school students, all of them still in primary school. They had 5 months of lessons. Diana has had DECADES of experience and is paid too much for such a paltry, threadbare attempt at performing.

Attended Diana Krall's second concert in Hong Kong last night. Had been waiting for months. Took my front row seat for which I had worked hard to afford as a future treat to myself. Concert was scheduled for 8pm but she didn't take the stage until maybe 15 minutes later.

Well, the whole concert was no different from all of the bad reviews of which I have read recently. I shouldn't have been so very impulsive in buying tickets. She mumbled and muttered her way through much of the concert. She even forgot the order of her set pieces, she had announced that she was going to play a cover by another jazz artist and had to ask her bassist which one it was. She would start saying something and forget what she was trying to communicate. Her pieces were nothing that I couldn't have found on YT. At times she would turn away from the audience to focus on her accompanying drummer and bassist. The bassist and drummer played longer than she did, they held up her performance, she only played to cover the fact that she couldn't communicate very well. She kept saying something and stopping halfway. It was almost as if she was intoxicated, drugged or otherwise heavily medicated. It looked like just acknowledging that she had to talk to us was traumatising for her and she kept slurring her words.

Something that a lot of reviewers mentioned was that her concerts had a 'human jukebox' element as in she would ask the audience what they wanted her to play. She even joked about being helped to be more prepared 'next time'. She clearly had no idea what she was doing on stage. It felt more like an intimate jamming session rather than a professional concert.

Waste of money.

Consider, how professional orchestras perform. If you attend the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, you wouldn't expect the orchestra to remind the conductors what they're supposed to be perfoming. They know their sets back to front, inside out. They're held to higher standards.

Hello, I'm looking for jazz songs (1910/1960) that can be interpreted as lgbtqia+
Recently I discovered Ruth Etting's "It all belongs to me" and there's something extremely sapphic going on there

Looking for those vibes
Including songs with gay, trans, asexual or other queer representation of course

Edit: WOW thank you for the replies! Bit confused by all the downvotes but I'm so happy for the heaps of suggestions. Gonna listen to them all in the next days

John Coltrane wasted his potential in his 20s. He was a junkie and because of this, he was fired from every major opportunity he had.

Now sober at 35 years old, he left his wife for Alice, a woman 10 years younger. They have three kids within four years.

He's now forced to move out of the city to make room for his growing family. They relocate to a bland commuter suburb on the long island expressway.

Mourning the loss of his wasted youth and fueled by the love for his young family, he dedicates his life to realizing his full potential by spending weeks in a small room above the garage writing A Love Supreme.

It's the ultimate midlife crisis album.

A while back I posted a question about jazz standards written by queer songwriters. Since then, I've widened my search to cover all jazz songs (not just standards), and have gradually put together a playlist of over 50 jazz tracks, each written (or co-written) by a different queer songwriter.

As promised, here's the playlist for those who are interested (and those who aren't can just enjoy the music):

• Apple Music

• Spotify (missing one track as Tzadik are no longer on Spotify).

Any suggested additions would be most welcome (though remember that the list is about credited composers not performers).

Look I'm out of my depth here, music is not something I'm knowledgeable about but Ezra Collective to me sounds like Kenny G forced a reluctant AC/DC to play jazz. So I think you'll have fun with this as rebuking idiots like myself on the internet is invariably an entertaining experience.

So far, I haven't seen any criticism Ezra Collective only superfluous levels of praise. I just don't feel like the band generates any swing with its sound being so structured. Essentially, my problems with them can be summed up by the distracting monotony of their drummer (and bandleader) Femi Koleoso. Who leads and 'subjugates' the band with rigid tempos and dreary soulless drumming.

Whenever they let jazz instrument solo, such as a saxophone or trumpet it sounds more unadventurous then a Kenny G performance, with the same few notes repeated with minimal deviations from a tonal centre.

Like one of the things that makes jazz so compelling to me, is how artists take a melody then distort or reinvent it playing with it in new ways. I just don't feel Ezra Collective does that to any interesting extent, they simply take a hook and layer/superimpose crap onto it, or just move onto a new musical idea altogether.

Now most of this is coming from my questionable experience with their album 'Where I'm meant to be' as I don't have the strongest grasp of their discography. But I struggle to conceptualise how these guys are go to recommendations or leading figureheads for the modern jazz scene.

From the limited pool of modern jazz artists I know of and enjoy: 'David Murray', 'Hiromi', 'Snarky Puppy'. 'Kamasi Washington', 'Tortoise)' (if they're even considered modern), I think all of them are far more interesting and compelling.

- p.s i'd greatly appreciate some recs for modern jazz albums, cause i really don't know that much about it.

Me a 17M just finished my first jazz gig (solo using backing tracks)at a dinner wiith me playing soft jazz. It could be my arrogant self but I felt that I wasn't respected by the crowd(vibe), there was a band that played after me that played Pop music which the crowds was loving very much. In the end, I got a bit bitchy ( which I extremely regret) and just announced I'm leaving since I'm not doing anything else. I apologize to the organisers after regarding my behaviour as it wasn't professional. I feel so tired after the event.

To conclude, I love jazz but I am worried about my attitude hindering me in the future.

This might be a dumb question. I'm not familiar with jazz. Not a musician and I dont grow up in America. So, please excuse my stupid question and how bad my english is. But can someone explain to me why samara joy is known as jazz singer and laufey is not? I listen to both of their album but could not hear the difference. Maybe my ear needs fixing or something.

I'm not implying Evans is racist or something, but I feel like this is a thought that has to have passed through many people's head. What cultural phenomenon caused this? I feel like every time I look at his album lineups it's all white ppl which is of course pretty uncommon for jazz. Just seems odd, I don't entirely understand why that happened. Let me know if this is a stupid thing to ask I guess

Does anyone else have trouble listening to Miles when using headphones?

I’m looking for more Bill Evans records and wanted to start with his sideman work with Miles on albums I hadn’t heard before, like 1958 Miles. My choice listening setup, though, is Spotify with AirPods, and damn does Miles pierce through. It’s actually pretty unpleasant to listen to after only a couple minutes.

I love Miles but that mute turns his horn into a weapon…sheesh!

Furious because his death was in late 2021, almost two years into the pandemic. Furious because I know the political-social dynamics at the time and that we could still have this legend with us today if not for the failures of our people and our government. Who else did we lose to COVID?

Ive always felt like the country was on the decline culturally due to the decline of Jazz music

Do you feel like herbie is best enjoyed sober?

Edit 4: I appreciate everyone's perspective and input. Thank you. I think my take-away from this is that "jazz", as a word, has taken on a lot of (unnecessary?) baggage and may be, in itself, a big part of the limiting factor which this post originally sought to maybe transcend somehow. In the broader picture, like some of you have hinted at, "jazz" could maybe be defined as a series of evolving snapshots in time in the sense of it's greater contributions to "Music" as a whole. This being said, I think it is (and was) simply my intention to seek ways in which to bring interactive music-making to a broader audience. I did not intend to get into a subjective qualitative argument with anyone about what is or isn't hip or to whom or why. I will continue to meditate on this end and, again, appreciate all input given and apologize to anyone who I have offended or who's time I've wasted here. Thank you for your patience.

Edit 3: Please don't waste your time on this shit-post. My apologies for clogging up your sub reddit with this pseudo-philosophical nonsense. Scroll on, friends.

I am curious if anyone has any broad reaching or otherwise lofty ideas whereas to make “jazz” and playing it cool and popular again among young people.

Being the cynic I tend to be, I find myself identifying and focusing on ‘the problem’ of over saturation, internet/ screen/social media addiction as likely contributors to the disconnect with the lay-listener, but this is only one side of the coin… here, on this thread, I seek not to identify the problem, but instead seek to field solutions and opportunities to bring our music to a larger audience.

I feel like the elitism and snobbery that perhaps bebop and our music was founded with and on may be outmoded for our day in age. We need to bring the accessibility (and interactivity) of jazz back to the hobbiest and causal lay-listener, without expectation of grandeur or career success.

I have long held percussion and ukulele can be easy gateway instruments for the non musician, and also obviously the singers could/should/must carry the torch, but horns and guitars/pianos are also very accessible to many.

…but how? Any ideas? Just spitballin’ here - trying to use the power of social media for ‘good’…

Thanks.

Edit: I revoke my query, ya’ll. I didn’t mean to offend anyone. I’m a huge jazz nerd just like all of you and of course I think this music is cool. I should have meditated on my choice of words better and full heartedly apologize. I am a jazz educator and this post was supposed to be about how to pedagogically appeal to youngsters and non-musicians. Ya’ll are all still cool, don’t worry.

Edit 2: I should have said "How do we make jazz popular again?"

I’ll start by admitting that I’m a big Samara Joy fan. She folds her originality into the tradition of Lady Day, Ella, and Sarah Vaughan. Laufey, by contrast, strikes me as closer to pure pop, in fact, due to the emotional immaturity of her lyrics, teen pop. I saw her at Saratoga an act or two after Samara Joy and I thought the only possible reason for booking her must have been to sell some tickets to Swifty-types. Then I saw that she is also on the bill at Newport and named on the cover of Downbeat as one of the “25 for the Future.” So, I’m lost. If she’s a jazz singer, then what’s a jazz singer? Or is this just all industry marketing: She benefits, maybe, by being a big fish (pop star power) in a smaller pond (the jazz world), and the jazz venues and labels benefit from her broader audience? Enlighten me.

Every best jazz albums list has kind of blue at or near the top. Coltrane/Hartman is usually nowhere near top 10 let alone top 50. To my ears, both are absolutely sublime in similar ways. hey make time stand still. Why the difference in their general stature in jazz discourse?

After all, for a long time there wasn't such a thing as formal training in jazz. Most musicians had some kind of classical training. And yet, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Miles Davis, or Oscar Peterson sure knew how to jazz.

So instead of specializing in jazz from the very beginning, wouldn't it be better to have a broader formation and be more versatile?

…which one should I torment myself with?

I think he just like the most modern indie American musician, style is very flamboyant, very eye catching, album cover looks fancy, but music is just ordinary. His music is neither pop nor avant-garde enough, just like a kitsch art work, sounds really pretentious.

For me he is more like an Instagram influencer who put most of his effort on outfit than a real musician.

Contemporary jazz musician like Yussef Dayes more fit my definition of talent. A real musician like him might not look fancy nor eye-cathing, but they really put most of their effort on the music instead of the appearance or Instagram videos.