January 19 2009
Remember the song Where Have All The Flowers Gone? Well. today's question, ladies and gentlemen, is Where Are All The Flowers Going? Jazz flowers, that is.
Canada has some of the greatest jazz players anywhere. (Normally, I would list some names as examples here. But why do I want to go and tick off the colleagues of mine who I leave out?) My home town of Toronto is one of the top jazz cities in the world. (Ditto.)
Many of the gifted jazzmen here teach in jazz programs. There are a number of programs in Canada. Three major ones in Toronto.
Upshot: 1000 players graduate in Canada with degrees in jazz performance. 1000. One. Thousand.
Where do they all go? How do they make a living? Where do they find gigs?
One of the twists in Canada's jazz fate, is that as these graduates come on the market, as it were, jazz clubs keep closing. More players, fewer venues. How's that for market forces?
What to make of this? Is the market absorbing as many of the musicians who want to persist in music after graduating, while others look elsewhere to make a living? Or is there a growing underclass of diploma'd players, waiting to explode into no-loner supressable rage one day?
I don't know. I do know that every year I hear a few of these graduates, and while some are cookie-cutter by-the-book players the system at its worst puts out, some are inspiring creators who point to a great future for jazz.
There's probably lots a room in the jazz garden for these new blossoms. Just remember not to cut down the older ones. Where Are All The Flowers Going? Well, The Answer Is Blowing In The Wind.
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