I strongly disagree with this statement, the music is out there if you were to look.
Jazz has moved past the standard 'swing and ballad' forms that were popular throughout the late 20th century, and most listeners can't shake the roots of the genre from what defines the modern equivalent; It would be akin to die-hard old school rap fans denying that rap in it's current state should even be considered rap.
>That is what makes singing and rapping unique, you are able to tell a story combined with music.
What makes jazz (particularly the instrumental kind) unique is being able to invoke emotions and tell a story without being bound to some language barrier, an abstraction that transcends spoken word, that speaks to the pattern matching automata of the language part of our brains, regardless of race, language, or background.
I mean, that's not really saying much. Jazz moved past the standard stuff with Ornette Coleman, Coltrane etc in the late 50s and early 60s. Miles Davis' Bitches Brew led to the whole jazz fusion thing a bit later.
I somewhat agree with the GP about no groundbreaking new jazz artists. There are many great musicians great at their instruments today, for sure. But I just don't hear anything radically new happening. Although I do admit that it may be due to my own biases.
Here is just one example out of the hundreds: https://stevelehman.bandcamp.com/track/bamba
Stylistic change isn't meant to be groundbreaking anyway, I believe it is from the gradual stretching of boundaries over time that leads styles to be unrecognizable from their origins that inspires new styles to be developed.
With Instrumental music, the challenge becomes conveying ideas over a non-verbal medium, a challenge which is non-existent in music with heavy lyrical emphasis.
I strongly disagree. A voice is so limited in every single way. There is so much more that can be done with a proper musical instrument, especially those capable of multiple simultaneous notes. The piano is a good example.
Even if you not thinking about "exotic"(at least for westerners) scales, but simple&clear western accords like just intonation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_intonation#Singing_and_sc...
edit - music recommendation:
Now that I played my role as captain obvious, fuck it, piano is really the best! (No sarcasm)
For the uninitiated: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ughAVo2ZAag
This is a song whose musical substance is conveyed through the lyrics. This is a perfect example of a song that cannot be played on the piano alone.
Saying that any particular instruments or styles are the measures of ‘musical substance’ is equal to asking that there be less of different music—which is the ultimate arrogance that you can apply to music.
I don't mean to sound pretentious, but if you just look at the popularity of different instruments, voice is the runaway favorite. The majority of the world listens to mostly voice as the primary instrument.
To call it the ultimate instrument is not a stretch at all since it is the oldest and most popular instrument in human history.
Although now that I think about it, the only instrument that can really compete with throat singing is the Jew's harp. So in that limited respect I think you might be right.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Egauj-7RnJc
(with 120 upvotes 384 downvotes at time of posting).
I'm not sure about critical acclaim, but it seems many youtube watchers at least don't like it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9fN-8NjrvI&list=PLu4sMtaJ7f...
Billboard, Rolling Stone, and Pitchfork's No. 1 of 2015. Grammy nominated for Album of 2015, Grammy won for Rap Album of 2015.
It features jazz musicians such as Lalah Hathaway, Robert Glasper, Kamasi Washington, Thundercat, Ambrose Akinmusire, and Terrace Martin.
Robert Glasper deserves a mention in his own right: he's released albums spanning jazz, R&B, and hip hop and often crossing between genres.
True, but Herb Alpert comes very close to making a trumpet talk! Maurice Andre has a better tone, but Alpert's beats everyone in expressiveness.
Speaking of ignorance...
> [rap] literally incorporates and uses so much jazz.
It incorporates a lot of jazz via sampling, but otherwise unless we're talking about freestyling then it's missing the central component of jazz.
No it doesn't. Rap uses a lot of the same vocal licks that jazz uses, and uses a lot of the same rhythmic ideas too.
Also, rap's focus on the improvisational aspect of their work is very much related to jazz. So many of the best rap songs in the world were partly improvised on the spot. You even have rappers like Jay-Z and Lil Wayne who don't write down their lyrics, they just go into the booth and rap.
Amy Winehouse
I wouldn't agree she had a beautiful voice, either (Julie Andrews has an incredible voice). It was the way she used it that was new and great. She wrote her own music, I don't think she was a tool of the music producers. I haven't heard anything like her take before or since.
Thanks to biology, not everyone can sing.
Barring physical disability, musical instruments are accessible to a much wider audience. Not to mention that there are a wealth of instruments to choose from.
According to this, nearly everybody can, with training. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/02/everyone-...
I used to be a singer when I was younger, and I was good. But then I gave it up and without the continuous practice, my ability to carry a tune tunefully has severely diminished - my biology remains the same (well, add a few years), but my level of skill has dropped off, and hence so has my singing.
The level of ignorance and pretentiousness in this sentence is mind boggling. The human voice is the ultimate instrument, not the piano. Hell, we have not even had the piano for that long. Words can not be expressed on a piano. That is what makes singing and rapping unique, you are able to tell a story combined with music. Strange Fruit would not have the same meaning or significance without the words attached to it, neither would many songs.
Also, Miles Davis himself loved and embraced rap. He literally made a jazz/rap album.
Jazz is a dying genre in the united states, because American audiences are tired of hearing it, and there have not been any groundbreaking new jazz artists in the last 30 years.
Rap is one of the most interesting and innovative genres of music now, and literally incorporates and uses so much jazz. To Pimp a Butterfly is a great example of a rap album that is heavily influenced by jazz. It was also a wildly popular album and one of the most critically acclaimed rap albums ever.