How (Not) To Listen To Early Jazz

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Jazz listeners may admit that early music got things to where they are now, similar to how the Model T made the Lamborghini possible. Most just prefer not to drive anything too old. For most listeners, early jazz remains an esoteric and even a strange experience. Perhaps it's all that monochromatic footage of tuxedoed fox trotters. Maybe it's those parades of straw-hatted, red suspendered and often white-haired Dixieland groups at amusement parks. It might be the kick lines of pinstriped gangsters and flappers on Broadway, or other images pointing back to some long gone, unfamiliar and seemingly frivolous time. The jazz tradition may or may not be innovation but its past is unavoidable. It's also incredibly productive, whether through a m: Sonny Rollins reissue or the best musicians on the radio today. The question is how far back listeners are willing to look for "new" music. As for those nostalgic, often hokey depictions of jazz's beginnings, they're probably about as accurate as berets, Nehru suits, and other historical stereotypes...

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