Jazz Now, Right Now

Your very own AccuBlogger appeared on another, slightly more high-profile, jazz blog today: NPR's A Blog Supreme. I'm one of 11 young jazz enthusiasts, including ABS editor Patrick Jarenwattananon, contributing to a project on the blog called Jazz Now.

The point of the project is to single out 5 albums that you'd recommend to people interested in getting into modern jazz, to make it clear that jazz is a thriving, vital, exciting art form. It's partially a reaction to the gloomy results of a recent NEA survey, pointed to by arts critic Terry Teachout as sure signs of the death of jazz.

By offering up examples of excellent, youthful jazz, we say to the doomsayers, "do you realize how much great music is still being created right now, as we speak?" But we're also doing our part to build the young jazz audience, hopefully avoiding the apocalypse scenario that Teachout and others predict.

So, go ahead and read my post, and listen to the 5 music samples. If you like them, buy the records, tell your friends, and find similar artists that you dig. Search out live jazz in your area and experience the joy of in-the-moment music making! Then, write about it on Twitter with the hastag #jazzlives (more info about that last bit here.)