“The worst thing that could happen,” says Ted Gioia, “is for jazz to end up like the symphony orchestra, where you go to a concert and almost everything they play is 100 years old … History must always be tempered with an understanding of how we use these songs and sounds to revitalize the music ecosystem we currently live in.”
These artists’ influences are still felt in jazz today, even as the genre continues to evolve and grow. “The worst thing that could happen,” says Ted Gioia, “is for jazz to end up like the symphony orchestra, where you go to a concert and almost everything they play is 100 years old … History must always be tempered with an understanding of how we use these songs and sounds to revitalize the music ecosystem we currently live in.”