Home Music Lane

It's all about the music, dude! Sit down, relax and listen to some tunes.

That isn't entirely reflective of my experience

Yes, there are plenty of jazz gigs (probably the vast majority) where the mean age of the audience is probably in their 50s or 60s but it isn't always the case. I've been to a number of gigs where the mean age was probably more like 35 or even younger. The younger demographic performances were almost all in non-"jazz club" venues, the exception being the late Fred Anderson's old Velvet Lounge in Chicago which was anything but staid. I do think it helps to attract this audience if the musicians are closer to their age but I've also heard them roar with approval for guys like Peter Brotzmann.
People from NYC, Boston, Hartford, Philly and Chicago need to weigh-in but my sense is that the audience for Mary Halvorson, Jon Irabagon, Adam Lane, etc. is not entirely and perhaps not even mostly, old white guys.

Much as I hate to acknowledge it I'm starting to think that old white guys (like me) may be part of the problem: if you're twenty or even thirty a venue populated mostly by paunchy old guys with grey hair doesn't exactly seem like a place you want to be.
"There are political consequences to remembering things that never happened and forgetting things that did." Ariel Levy



Edits: 03/21/11

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