JAZZCHORD ARTICLES

Between 1993 and 2002, 53 editions of the bi-monthly magazine JazzChord were published as part of the National Jazz Co-ordination Program. This folder includes a selection of articles from those editions. Articles published in JazzChord appear on this site also in the JOHN CLARE, JAZZ CO-ORDINATION, BOOK REVIEWS, CONTRIBUTIONS and OBITUARIES folders. Readers can click on the INDEX button for a list of articles in this folder.

ART, JAZZ AND UNCLE TOM'S CABIN

by Bruce Johnson

JazzChord, May/June, 1993

Since jazz emerged from its folk and geographical origins in the 20s, it has travelled back and forth across the disputed terrain between high and low culture. At various times and in various places it has been referred to as a folk form, as popular music, as art music. Its position within this field makes it a fruitful vehicle through which to study the matrix of cultural politics, by which I mean the balances of power which determine which cultural forms carry authority. Among jazz followers there has been a general tendency to advance the claim that jazz is an art form, supposedly in order to give dignity and legitimacy to its aesthetics…

GAIL BRENNAN QUERIES BRUCE JOHNSON

by Gail Brennan (aka John Clare)

JazzChord, Jul/Aug, 1993

I'm not sure who it is who "desperately asserts" that jazz is an art form, but Bruce Johnson is right: they should be stopped. In pop and rock they have the right attitude. Rock writer Nik Cohn asked, “Who needs art when you've got superpop?” In this ethos it is irrelevant that Elvis was actually a good singer. His prime virtue was to have embodied a powerful archetype of the teen imagination. The teen imagination may have been well-prepared by decades of commercial activity, but what are you going to do? - debrief them all in order to achieve a level playing field? Rock has clearly asserted its indifference to the values of "art"…

THE MYTH OF ‘THE CUTTING EDGE'

by Bruce Johnson

JazzChord, May/Jun, 1994

The editor of JazzChord has invited me to open up some debate on the subject of 'the cutting edge' because it is central to discussions of mainstream funding and support for the arts in this country. When words like 'excellence' and 'quality' are deployed in relation to contemporary performance and composition, much is made of music which is at the 'cutting edge'. What it is the edge of, and how the idea of a single edge can define the parameters of a multi-dimensional cultural field, are not disclosed or reflected upon. The purpose of this brief essay is to suggest that it is almost entirely without validity as a way of deciding which among a range of projects is likely to enhance a culture. Like so many putatively objective artistic criteria, it actually functions politically, to consolidate an existing power base…