According to therecently released Nielsen’s 2014 Year-End Report, jazz is in a bad way. Themusic now accounts for a mere 2% of American music consumption. To illustrate:in comparison with the 5.2 million albums sold by jazz artists in 2014, TaylorSwift’s 1989 sold 3.7 million copiesin November and December alone.
Sadly, Americandisregard for its native art form is nothing new. Early critical reception ofthe music often demonstrates a distressing blindness to its merits: “noisy,corrupt, contemptible, and displeasing to the ear,” complained a tin earedcritic in the late ‘20s, “Louis [Armstrong] will learn in time to come thatnoise isn’t music.” European audiences, on the other hand, responded with suchenthusiasm that a gang of jazz’s greatest practitioners relocated to countriesin which their financial prospects were enhanced, their artistic genius wascelebrated and their skin color was irrelevant.
In certainrespects, jazz’s birthplace has caught up with the rest of the world. The artform is safely ensconced in institutions such as New York City’s Lincoln Centeras well as in college courses on music appreciation and jazz history. Thesedays the danger is that the art will become a musty museum piece instead ofremaining a living force brimming with artistic potential.
By conducting Jazz Week @ The Rita the music department at the University of Wisconsin-Parksideis doing its part to keep jazz in the ear of the public. From March 23-27, UW-Pis celebrating the music and culture of jazz with a slew of performersincluding the internationally-celebrated vocalist Cyrille Aimee and the up-and-coming talents of local high school jazz ensembles. The schedule is as follows:
- Monday, March 23 | 4-6 p.m.
- Kneebody performance and master class
- FREE
- Tuesday, March 24 | 4-6 p.m.
- Matt Ulery's Loom performance and master class
- FREE
- Wednesday, March 25 | 4-6 p.m.
- Andy Milne's Dapp Theory performance and master class
- FREE
- Thursday, March 26 | 4-6 p.m.
- Cyrille Aimee performance and master class
- (Sponsored by the Kenosha Community Foundation)
- FREE
- Thursday, March 26 | 7:30 p.m.
- Cyrille Aimee
- (Sponsored by the Kenosha Community Foundation)
- $20 Adults/$10 Students
- Friday, March 27 | Noon-1 p.m.
- BMO Harris Noon Concert featuring UW-Parkside Faculty Jazz Ensemble
- FREE
- Friday, March 27 | 1-4 p.m.
- Workshop with Kenosha Unified School District high schools (Indian Trail, Tremper, Bradford)
- Friday, March 27 | 7:30 p.m.
- Concert with Kenosha Unified School District and UW-Parkside Jazz Ensembles
- $10 Adults/$5 Students
Tickets are available by calling the Box Office at 262-595-2564 or by visiting uwparksidetickets.com.
