Pluralism & Jazz

I wished I could say that life's a bed of roses; or when I'm driving on the dirty streets of KL, that there were only smooth traffic flow as opposed to gridlocked, deadlocked traffic jams.

Or ponder on that, that the world moves along and operates like a well-oiled, tune clockwork. Yet the 2nd law of Thermodynamics and the Anthropic Principle keeps throwing a dent into that kind of utopian belief.

(So, ok where am I heading with this?)

It has to do with a certain visit to a new jazz establishment, whom I shall refer to by the acronym TTR@TH. It felt really, really good for a jazz purist at heart, like me to be able to really, enjoy some true jazz - finally!

Although, I am not one of the variety that believes that real jazz ended somewhere in the 1950s and that I do enjoy the occasional forays into fusion, latin in its many theophanies of form; afro cuban, bossa nova, samba etc., yet it is arguably justifiable to state that when really knowledgeable ones talks about jazz, the picture is not that of Kenny G puffing a soprano saxophone like a cigarette stuck in his mouth playing pop.

To borrow an element from negative theology, let me define jazz by stating what jazz is not: It is not R&B, rock, pop, reggae and ska. Jazz is NOT simply anything that simply comes to mind whenever one sees a picture of the saxophone, or contrabass (that's double bass) or percussions.

Simply put I do not believe in the popular notion of relativism or pluralism in jazz.

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