Jazz is Home.

What is jazz?

Jazz is difficult to define.
Ask lots of folks, you’ll get lots of different answers.

When asked for a definition of jazz, Louis Armstrong replied,
“If you gotta ask, you’ll never know.”

Some say jazz is music that swings.
Some say it has a bluesy sound.
Some define it by its syncopated rhythms.
Some say it’s jazz when there’s improvisation included.
Some say that jazz is NOT the music of Kenny G.
Then there’s an old musician’s joke about jazz being “better than sex, and it lasts longer.”

Since its birthing in 19th century New Orleans, one style has followed another - from blues, ragtime, Dixieland and swing to bebop, cool jazz, modal jazz, avant-garde jazz, funk, fusion, hard bop, new bop. Why not simply acknowledge each style separate unto itself? Why do we continue to use the term “jazz” to encompass it all?

In preparing to teach my first jazz history class this semester, I needed to answer this for myself.
Here’s what I’m thinking at the moment.

I’m thinking it has something to do with our primal need to know where Home is.
Jazz is Home.
All the different styles that have emerged are related, like parents and siblings and cousins.
All the different styles come Home to Jazz.
And so we can, and do, say,
All these different styles belong to Jazz.

Because there are so many styles that fall under
the realm of jazz (the Home of Jazz),
the musical vocabulary of jazz (the language of jazz) is a profoundly rich one.

Indeed, Jazz is an extraordinarily expressive language;
this is certainly one reason why jazz continues to be relevant in our world today.
Jazz allows for conversation.
You can have an easy, how ya doin’ kind of exchange, as in a jam session.
You can have a formal, structured sort of conversation, as in an ensemble recital.
You can have a soulful, or sensual, or spiritually ecstatic conversation, beyond words.

Because it is born of a mixture of cultures and traditions
Because so many different styles have emerged during the past hundred years
Jazz is a tolerant language.

Jazz is a tolerant language because,
from the beginning,
it has welcomed individual expression through improvisation.

And because it is a tolerant language,
Jazz embraces change.
It enjoys being used in familiar ways and,
inspired by past innovators,
supports exploration of new paths of expression.

I venture to say that most jazz musicians are grateful to be able to play the music.
We are able to communicate our deepest feelings with others in this world
in a way that transcends verbal language.
As we study the music of those musicians who came before us,
as we continue to acknowledge and honor them,
as we continue to revisit our home,
as we go Home to Jazz,
we keep the music,
and the traditions upon which it is based,
alive and growing.