It’s just music they didn’t like. 

Jazz bullying.

There was this belief that jazz was academic. That you had to understand jazz. I have always fought the notion that jazz should be on a pedestal. Jazz should be where everyone can access it. It is such a deterrent when something seems as sweet as music seems inaccessible. I believe this notion is part of the reason jazz continued to  slip in popularity. Why would people want to listen to something that they thought they had to do homework for?

Thankfully, I don’t hear about this anymore. I am encouraged and inspired to see jazz continue to move in a forward direction. Younger generations are making the music their own. I love it. Jazz is alive. It’s not in some dusty prison of time that the jazz police want it, never to break free.

I want to go back and experience the time when jazz was dance music. Even better, I want to go forward in the future and experience this. If everything is cyclical, isn’t this overdue?

Do you need to define jazz in order to enjoy it? Nope. I wish I could have shut off that judgemental noise when I first got into the music. It didn’t stop me from enjoying it but it did affect me, as evidenced that I’m writing about it decades later. 

Don’t deny yourself joy. Listen to the music you want and revel in it. 

The post Beyond Jazz Bullying appeared first on ContemporaryJazz.com.

All About Jazz, the long-standing big jazz site, is now cancelling their relationship with Spotify. I am sending big respect to AAJ. Their message:

“We understand why Spotify is popular from a listener’s perspective. It’s convenient, expansive, and deeply embedded in how people discover music today. But our responsibility at All About Jazz has always been to the artists—and to the integrity of the music itself.

Over time, serious concerns have emerged about how streaming platforms compensate musicians. That issue alone has been widely discussed within the jazz community. More recently, however, additional concerns have surfaced around the attribution and presentation of recordings on the platform—concerns raised publicly by respected artists including Jason Moran and Benny Green. Taken together, these developments have led us to a clear decision: we can no longer support Spotify as part of our editorial ecosystem. As a result, we are discontinuing Spotify playlists from our Song of the Week program.

We originally partnered with Spotify to extend the reach of our Song of the Day selections, using a third-party platform to help bring greater visibility to the music we feature. That goal remains important—but we cannot continue in good conscience under the current circumstances. We also note that Spotify has not provided playlist-level analytics to independent curators in a way that allows for meaningful evaluation of audience engagement—something that has long limited our ability to assess impact. For those who have followed and enjoyed our playlists, we sincerely appreciate your support and regret any inconvenience this change may cause. You can still explore our selections directly on All About Jazz, where our commitment to artists remains unchanged. If you would like to share concerns with Spotify, we encourage you to do so directly.”

The post No to Spotify appeared first on ContemporaryJazz.com.