April is jazz appreciation month. JAM which is short for Jazz Appreciation Month, was created to draw greater public attention to the extraordinary heritage and history of jazz and the important role it has played in American culture and internationally.
Some concert promoters and local city governments have decided to use the term “jazz” to describe what is really R & B /Rock/Pop concerts. I recently attended a concert which had “jazz festival” in the title but did not play “jazz” music at all….everything was Rhythm & Blues (R&B). I don’t have anything against R & B, in fact I enjoy it and dancing to the music as well.
Sometimes we need to call “ thing a thing”. Jazz music is jazz music, it is not R & B music, hip-hop, rock, country, classical or world music. There are serious jazz music lovers that don’t appreciate being misled about what kind of music will be played. It is not fair for other genres to borrow/ hijack the name JAZZ. Other concerts might feature one smooth jazz/jazz group with 6 other R&B group and call it a jazz festival or concert. So what is going on with the misuse and hijacking of the words jazz, jazz festival, jazz concert? Why would a concert promoter run the risks associated with misleading advertising? There have been explanations like:
-They want to attract an older/mature audience
-They want to associate themselves with the word “cool”, jazz is a cool disposition.
-The most common explanation is that the concert promoter is trying to identify with the “mystique of jazz”. The word jazz connotes sophistication, being cool, calm, collected. They want to be catchy. So much abuse of the term has turned it into a catch phrase as in “jazz festival” when there is really no jazz or very little jazz music being offered. I say they should stick to terms like “music festival” and stop the misuse of the word jazz or jazz festival. Maybe the promoters are just not very knowledgeable or respectful of jazz music and its history.
Perhaps it just part of the general “dilution” and “ blurring of the lines” of things in society, things are just getting watered down, diminishing quality of goods and services.
In this case, of the changing meaning of words, the word jazz has taken on more of an expanded meaning or in some cases, a changed meaning; for the sake of marketing and profit, but we true jazz lovers know you cannot change the true meaning of jazz music.