Jazz in the world and in Japan

Jazz has become a world music, though it was always a world music. In the 1990s, the debate over the origins of jazz, and what was truly jazz were partisan and heated. The two sides were not so different than they ever had been, but the bad feelings all around seemed stronger. Some jazz traditionalists argued that jazz was deeply rooted in the blues, with the implication that jazz created by African-Americans was somehow more authentic. On the other side, forward-minded jazzers argued that jazz was in a continual state of innovation. The past was fine, they felt, but jazz was primarily a music that made itself new, over and over. This division between jazz as an historical art form and jazz as a method of improvisation is perhaps a false dilemma. Jazz is both.

The implications for Japanese jazz are enormous. If jazz can be thought of as a set of techniques and attitudes, then it is not necessarily culturally bound. It can be created anywhere. The feeling that only American musicians can be real jazz musicians is a deeply rooted one, and rarely spoken. However, jazz now has greatly departed from its roots in the black experience in America. Jazz has blended with many other musical forms, and received influence from everywhere. In fact, it would be hard to think of any type of music that has not been compared to, blended with and set up with jazz. That does not mean the merging of musical forms and traditions always work, but they can happen. Jazz's essential nature is flexible and adaptable.

The idea that Japanese musicians play jazz differently is one of the hurdles that most Japanese jazz musicians must get over. However, that may not be so different from the experience of most young American players. The traditional jazz system of apprenticeship still operates to some extent, but less so than it once did. Now, jazz musicians learn through teachers, schools, books and CDs, not by touring with a big band and playing every night. The system of learning may not be so different now around the world. Aspiring jazz musicians in Italy, Japan, America or Denmark may be using the same textbooks and receiving similar types of instruction. That has its dangers too of course, but really, it means that one can learn to play jazz without growing up in New York City. That's globalization.

Another way to think of jazz is as an approach and a set of techniques. Jazz might be comparable to film. No one would assume that because film was first created in France and America that only French and Americans can now make films. Or, take the novel as a literary form. Simply because the British first condensed a number of narrative forms into the novel does not mean that only novels written in Britain are true novels. What's more, film and novel have expanded into so many different shapes and forms and styles that it is hard to even categorize them clearly. The film as a technology and the novel as a pattern can be exported, imported and created by almost anyone anywhere in the world. In fact, they have been and continue to be.

The same goes for jazz, though slightly differently. Jazz has a form that can be easily copied in a superficial way, but that is the same for film and novel. The musical form of jazz can be created anywhere. The burden of playing jazz, though, still rests with the masters. The brilliant innovations and astounding music of past jazz musicians still stands as the standard for the present. Musicians in any country of any background must still know and respond to the past. They can fake awareness of the past, but not for long.

Musicians should know, too, the incredible suffering and potent cultural experiences that led to the creation of blues and jazz. Without that, they would be missing a key component of how the music works. The techniques of jazz are not entirely removable from their cultural and historical origins, in other words. They are organic, and so, still rooted. This metaphor can be extended a bit. A clipping from jazz can take root anywhere. That does not mean it will flourish, or grow, but that it can, and, as can be heard, often does. Jazz has evolved and no longer is as tied to its original soil as it once was.

For Japanese jazz musicians, who tangle with this insecurity at some point in their careers, this should be a relief and a kind of liberation. The past can trap musicians as much as it can encourage them and energize them. A certain distance is not unwelcome. It can stir creativity and allow other standards to be introduced. It is amazing to see how different sensibilities blend with the vitality of jazz. Interestingly, fewer people would question the idea that Asians can play classical music. Yet, check any orchestra around the world and it will be composed of people from many different cultures. In the future, jazz will be the same.