JAZZ IN NEW ZEALAND

New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 896, 5 October 1956, Page 5

JAZZ IN NEW ZEALAND

Sir,-Unfortunately, everything in Mr. Austin’s letter on jazz in New is very true. From practically — station in New Zealand at times can be heard these horrible discordant sounds, artificially blended to give "music." The worst offenders, of course, afe the commercial stations, but

YA stations present, for the greater part of their broadcasting time, sheer trash, Our leading station, 2YA, is expected to give some classical music, but we very rarely are treated to it. Such programmes as The World of Jazz and The Guy Lombardo Show are surely nothing but ignorance, sheer ignorance. The YZ stations, in my opinion, present a far better and more cultural programme. Our own 4YZ here ‘in Invercargill gives us a considerable amount of good music, and one shudders to think of the popularity of this great station being lessened by the advent of 4ZA-our new commercial station. In conclusion, I should like to commend The New Zealand Listener on its high standard over the years, I suppose it is inevitable that jazz topics should be introduced periodically, but the less we see of them the better. I should also like to thank the NZBS for the YC stations, which are a great cultural asset

to our country.

M.

E.

(Invercargill).

Sir.-Without wishing to join in the controversy about the musical ranking of jazz, may I insert a news item and a theory that may be interesting to the various parties? In the American Saturday Review of July 14, is- an account of a visit paid last year by a picked American jazz band to eight Middle East and Balkan countries. The American National Theatre and Academy and the State Department assisted. According to the writer, who was lecturer with the band, the music was "received with wild enthusiasm and the musicians treated like heros." Why? the audiences "definitely associated jazz with the cheerful, informal, and generous side of American life and they were bowled over by its spontaneity and vitality. The stereotyped notion that jazz is lowbrow never got in the way of their enjoyment." Jazz was fun, they said. The writer has no doubt that the tour created much goodwill, and we know that there is surprise and disappointment in America at the general difficulty of engendering this feeling, but perhaps the most surprising and important part of his story is the conclusion, which I give without comment. Listeners said to him that they knew America had many bathrooms, skyscrapers and motor-cars, but they had real doubts about American culture. American literature, opeta, symphony, and painting are derived from Europe, and Europeans judge them by their own high standards. Jazz, born and reared in the United States and nowhere else, is considered a new and impressive contribution to culture, and "the concrete example of one good jazz band may communicate more of the sincerity, joy and vigour of the American way of life than several other American creations inspired by Europe." A European composer remarked to him that jazz was inne nf America’ea heet loved artistic

5 exports:

A.

M.

(Wellington)

Sir,- Among some _ correspondents there seems to be a confusion between true jazz and ephemeral musical rubbish which has borrowed from _ jazz idiom, and which nobody pretends is of permanent value, Ryt true jazz, especially in its modern developments, involves a study as systematic and demanding as oe ee music, if it is to be understood. It becomes more difficult to define music in words when modern pragmatic methods of thought increase the flexibility of their meaning, but my opinion is that true music is an art form into which beauty, as a universal, has

entered. The various musical forms which have been evolved are expressly designed to show off the universal, beauty, in the best way, by endowing the artistic creation with unity and balance. Some composers, like Mendelssohn, have _been masters of musical form, without possessing that insight into the universal form.of beauty which makes music sublime, participating in something which is eternal. Other composers, like Schubert, possessed the artistic soul capable of apprehending beauty, but their expression of it was hampered by their lack of mastery of the forms of unity and balance. Before music can be great jt must have that divine spark of intuitive artistry which is insight into the form of beauty. Modern jazz has its forms too, of course, though they are much more loosely defined than those of music. I must explain that I do not class jazz as music in the sense that I do, say, Beethoven’s fifth symphony (which approaches perfection of form).-I do not dislike jazz-indeed I am very interested in its more tecent developmentsbut very little jazz so far has shown true artistic perception of beauty, and though we may be fascinated by jazz as we are by some modern painting and sculpture, I think that whatever it may be we cannot claim it is music. It is very clever and intricately designed; it has an "intellectual" interest. I enjoy listening to jazz, because it is interesting, but I do not listen to it as I do to music, I think a new age is dawning which will be devoid of the cultural influences we have known. It is likely that before long the process of artistic creation will be in a situation parallel to that in the centuries following the collapse of Greek civilisation. History repeats itself. The golden age of music is already almost over.

FLAMINGO

(Nelson).