Jazz for aficionados

Club Mexicana, Frankfurt,Germany, 1969

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgGHeT9U9g0  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFvLDAU6EhA  

Cheers

I make no apologies to no one for the way I lived; while you ninnies were sitting on the sidelines I was living. Whatever I did, I would do twice as much of it if I had to do it all over again. An old man once told me, you better use it cause you gonna lose it whether you use it or not.


      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRazR0ZSgSc


It was sad for me when that time came, but the handwriting was on the wall.

Jazz is many things musically, but modern jazz is an expression of various emotions and events in life; "So Tired";



        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEFaBKok1jg


I'm "So Tired", but for what ever reason, I got to keep on pushin. "Can you feel it in the beat and the movement of the music?"

To our OP:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heu4YeKpu-c

Great Lyrics.

Cheers

alex, sorry for the delay in replying to your question of the state of jazz in the US when I was growing up.  First, three qualifiers: I don't pretend to have expertise on this so it is strictly my perspective; second I grew up located between Detroit and Chicago, but in a much smaller community so I didn't have the greater exposure either of those cities might have afforded; and third, I was born in 1942 and graduated HS in 1960, so that is my framework for "growing up".

As a pre-teen my musical exposure was mainly recordings played by my parents.  My step-dad was in a small dance band when young and favored popular jazz from the '30s -- Armstrong, Teagarden, Nichols, Hot Club of France (ones I remember).  He would sometimes sit down for a "record session" from his 78 album collection after dinner, just for relaxation.  That's probably where I got my own listening habit.  My first concert was at age 10 or 11 when my parents took my brother and me to hear Louie Armstrong and his All Stars, an experience I still treasure.  All this was during the late '40s and early '50s but I didn't have any exposure to the jazz being produced at that time.  I only offer this for personal background.

By the mid-'50s I became a teenager just as rock and roll was emerging as the dominant popular music, and I became a fan.  However by the time I was in HS my musical horizons were expanding and that included contemporary jazz.  For one thing, there were a few detective programs on TV plus movies that featured jazz-themed scores, "Peter Gunn", "77 Sunset Strip", "I Want To Live", "Anatomy of a Murder", etc.  You might sometimes hear jazz on the radio, "Take Five", "Poinciana", songs from the "My Fair Lady" album by Andre Previn, Shelly Manne, and Leroy Vinnegar (best selling jazz LP for several years).  But jazz remained at a second level in popularity behind rock and roll, pop music, even soundtracks.

Into the '60s, rock became even more dominant in the overall music scene, enforced by the British Invasion.  Jazz slipped in popularity, in both record sales and concert attendance, which forced many musicians to alter their style.  By the end of the decade even Miles changed when he formed a band based on electronics and released "In A Silent Way",
followed in early 1970 by the game-changing "Bitches Brew".  Other musicians followed that lead by forming fusion bands which typically were a blend of jazz and rock.

So the musical style most accredited to America never became considered our most popular or influential music.  In fact a look at popularity by musical style finds jazz perpetually down the list, struggling along with classical to maintain some sort of foothold.  For those of us who love it that is a sad situation.  Yet it is encouraging to find recommendations here for young musicians who obviously are carrying on the tradition of the music.  It may not be overall a strong state, but it seems to retain the strength to be a steady state.

I hope that was of some value in providing answer from my perspective.