Jazz music has been so appropriated that we forget the origins of one of the most influential genres in music.
Robert Glasper, Esperanza Spalding, Epic 92, Aaron Diehl and Kendrick Scott. If we left it up to watching La La Land or The Great Gatsby, we would definitely be suffering from misconception mixed with mis-education. While everyone is entitled to perform whatever music they love, I find it hard to accept it when I watch a jazz concert or see a jazz event with no faces of color. I mean, the popularity of La La Land, with no critique of the lack of diversity was problematic.
In La La Land, here was a couple trying to make it in the jazz world with no historical context or correlation to the innovators of jazz, who helped propel the genre forward at a time when they couldn’t enter through the front door because of the color of their skin. There are magnificent jazz musicians all over the country struggling to get the recognition and platform they deserve. Mainstream music is great and everything, but I hope that we don’t get to a point that we move so far away from jazz, that this exemplary form of true musicianship becomes a faded memory.
There is something organically soothing and settling about jazz. Try listening to it through your day and see how your response to things will be different and much more calm. Jazz takes us to a place of serenity that is not easy to find in our fast paced lives. So why aren’t we trying to save it?
In explaining her frustration with the lack of support for jazz music, YouTube user Jennifer Monk said, “This is a genre of music that has been pushed out the way to make way for all this other distracting non-sense that is being played on the radio and on the TV. I don't listen to the radio or look at these stupid videos. I take my time and find good music like this to help keep me focused on the important things: LIFE AND FAMILY.”
With that said, Here are a few jazz artists you should look out for!
1. Esperanza Spalding (as detailed from her personal site)
"Whether you want to see it as devolution and evolution, and the place where they co-exist without one diminishing the other, or…barely having the tools that you need, but having to move forward, and having to keep moving," Spalding explained to NPR in a recent interview, the album conceptually addresses the always exciting, sometimes messy process of reconciling the aspects of ourselves that are in conflict. Exploding with literal and proverbial electricity, this album’s complex but immediate compositions were committed to tape partially live, and partially in front of a control room packed full of 20 or more onlookers. The trio of Spalding (fretless electric bass and vocals), Matthew Stevens (electric guitar) and Justin Tyson and Karriem Riggins (splitting drum duties) often decided to use the first take–a testament to the project’s particular energy and Spalding’s virtuosity. Many of the compositions on Emily’s D+Evolution were, after all, incubated onstage during the rigorous live performance schedule that preceded it. Armed with the entity of Emily flowing through her, Spalding’s visionary performance of the album is an experience to behold and an integral part of the project itself. “
2. Epic 92
Imagine the softness of Amel Larrieux’s voice, mixed with the smooth baritone style of Anita Baker, and you would get one half of Epic 92. This is best way to describe Epic 92’s lead singer. Xanthe (ZANTHE) , a North Carolina native, has a distinct sultry voice uniquely blended with soul and jazz overtones. K-Tabbs vast musical ability is the core of their production, but he still carries his own in multiple songs as a vocalist. They have a cosmopolitan mix within their sound but the core of their influence is jazz based. “We were both music majors so we take our artistry seriously and sustaining real music in our world today is important to me. People love to hear instruments and a band with live music. We are very influenced by all the jazz greats, and I think jazz is important to the musical spectrum.” Along with their musical work, Epic 92 has an upcoming TV show, Soft Love Happy Hour, slated to hit this fall. They have endured trials and tribulations and are now able to share their story of love and faith interlaced in alternative jazz melodies. After almost losing their lives in a traumatic accident, the duo found solace and rejuvenation through their work. Their story is captured on their current EP, Atlanta Lights. Epic 92 will be on The Love is So Funny tour coming this fall. You can check out when they're coming to your city on their website.
Robert Glasper has long kept one foot planted firmly in jazz, and the other in hip-hop and R&B. He’s worked extensively with Q-Tip, playing keyboards on the rapper’s 2008 album, The Renaissance, and co-writing the album single “Life Is Better,” which featured his label mate Norah Jones. Glasper also serves as the music director in Yasiin Bey’s touring band and has toured with the multi-platinum R&B singer Maxwell.
The Los Angeles Times once wrote that “it's a short list of jazz pianists who have the wherewithal to drop a J Dilla reference into a Thelonious Monk cover, but not many jazz pianists are Robert Glasper,” adding that “he's equally comfortable in the worlds of hip-hop and jazz,” and praising the organic way in which he “builds a bridge between his two musical touchstones.”
