I'm not as into modern jazz as I was a few years ago...but apparently there has been some dust-up over the usage of the word "jazz"? I didn't catch this blog posting, "An Open Letter To My Dissenters On Why Jazz Isn’t Cool Anymore", but it seemed to spawn a movement. Its now apparently racist to use the term jazz in reference to...well, jazz. It's now Black American Music...or BAM!, which had its first conference in January (Video Here)

So, it'll be interesting to see how this goes. Will the Grammy's now have a jazz category and a Black American Music category...or will it go the way of the Latin Grammys? How will the old guard adopt this? Are the Utah Jazz now as racially dividing as the Redskins? Interesting.

Interesting WSJ essay from a day or two ago: When 'Jazz' Was a Dirty Word

I don't dispute his premise outright that "jazz is dead" or ceased to be cool a long time ago or whatever but,

A. Renaming something is not going to suddenly make it relevant again.
B. "Black American Music" is a stupid fucking name.
C. Isn't renaming Jazz "Black American Music" patently offensive to other people who play other non-jazz styles of Black American Music (ie Blues, Soul, Hip Hop, Funk)?
D. I never thought of jazz as being a pseudonym for the n-word but I will take it under advisement

Is calling Pat Metheny's music jazz racist?

The Dixieland Jazz Band was white.

Applying a race to jazz is stupid.

I'm shaking my head while rhythmically snapping my fingers.

What about other black Americans who make music? Like Kanye, TV on the Radio, The-Dream, Beyonce, Bad Brains, Killer Mike, Cee-Lo. Are they also making Black American Music?

If you think the name "Jazz" marginalized and separated black music from the mainstream, how does it help to continue segregating the music you make by labeling it as "black music"?

I actually really do make an effort to be sensitive to issues like this and to try as much as possible to not offend with my words in many of these situations. (personally anyway even though I do often find theoretical arguments on both sides interesting) But this can fuck right off. No way this catches on.

Being 1/64th Walloon I'm offended by the term Black American Music and think any Jazz featuring the saxophone should be refered to as Belgian Instrument Music.

wow, this is just plain RACIST!

http://jalc.org/

this is ridiculous

The saxophone crack reminds me of having dinner with a black girl and a song came on in the background and she is all... "oh, I love this song." Then after a short pause, "I know, all you white people think black folks just love the saxophone."

And here I thought I knew all about all of the ways in which white folks stereotyped black people and I was missing this important one.

But seriously, has anyone ever heard of that as a stereotype? That just confused me.

One thing I do notice through work is that black people love I Can't Go For That by Hall & Oates and they go nuts when the sax solo comes in...

they also like Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins (but not Genesis)

Black people like "In The Air Tonight" not Phil Collins. I've known this for approximately 25 years now since back to when my brother played high school football.

Actually, shit more like 27 or 28 years.

Tyson

they also like Sussudio....

Might as well be a Klan meeting



That was my thought as well.

there are lots of words that started as an insult and at some point lost the sting and then came to be embraced. Mormons no longer consider it an insult to be called Mormon, and most people don't realize it was ever an insult. Same with Quakers. And of course, same with Christians.

Reading more, this looks to be an attempt to get more black folks back into Jazz, playing and listening. While I cant help but think this is a good goal to have, I also can't at all see how this name change is going to make the slightest bit of difference. I'm not saying I have an answer to that issue. But, changing a name everyone knows and identifies with the music to a somewhat silly sounding acronym cant possibly be the solution.

Holy shit this was stupid.