Oscar Peterson and the State of Jazz in 2007

We have lost yet another jazz great today, as master pianist Oscar Peterson died due to kidney failure. Peterson, in his day along with bassist Ray Brown, led a fiercely solid and grounded trio that defined the sound of the standard piano-bass-drum jazz combo for years to come.

Peterson literally wrote the book on jazz seeped in the swing tradition of Count Basie and Duke Ellington but spun it a tightly woven, self-contained sound. While it was certainly stripped down, they were far from simplistic, finding nuance in highly contrapuntal call-and-response playing that still lingers in the vernacular today.

In a year that has also seen both Max Roach and Joe Zawinul die, it is becoming more and more apparent that there is a lack of new upcoming jazz greats to replace those from previous generations. The last few years have been relatively weak for jazz releases, and the genre becoming increasingly fringe and safely placid.

It’s a shame the only time people discuss these days is in the context of the passing of a jazz legend or when they make a entirely bland duet album (see Herbie Hancock’s Joni Mitchell album). One would think the crumbling music industry and an ever-maturing and music-hungry audience (those looking to fill their new shiney iPods) would provide a healthy environment for emerging jazz musicians to expose their music in ways the major labels have failed. But where indie rock and underground music have thrived with fan blogs, word of mouth internet exposure and creative radio programming, there has hardly been a dent when it comes to jazz.

This is especially strange considering the obsessive fandom and niche nature that jazz easily lends itself to. It surely could inspire the same types of internet over-analysis and discussion that music blogs can offer. Has jazz become the unobtrusive background at our cocktail parties when we try to act ‘classy’ or ‘adult’ or a cliche of cheesey piano lounges and elevator schlock? Could it be that the ways in which jazz is introduced to us now is as this hollowed intangible and archaic form of music and not as a living breathing entity?

Sure there are guys like Joshua Redman, Brad Mehldau, Bill Frisell, Christian McBride, Charlie Hunter, Dave Douglas, Robert Glasper, Nels Cline, Chris Potter or Jason Moran, it is unclear where the next generation is hiding.

So do we spend too much time focusing on the roots of jazz, while glossing over the countless musicians who are creating music in our own lifetimes? Or do we just lack the perspective yet to judge which musicians in the present are worthy of our praise in the same way we turned Coltrane or Miles into artistic deities?

So while a great like Peterson is now gone, I am not so much saddened by his passing (he was 82 and lived a full and robust life, playing with most of the all time greats and contributed heavily to the jazz canon), but more because it’s difficult to see where jazz is headed. Jazz is certainly not dead, but it certainly could learn new ways of exposing itself to those who long ago mourned and moved on.