"Jam sessions are almost non-existent now," Benny Golson, the 75-year-old veteran of Dizzy Gillespie's band and Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, said.
"With the new breed on the scene, it's a new mentality. It's definitely all about record sales."
Another problem, critics say, is that big record labels brand everything from the insipid tunes piped into hotel lobbies to electronic lounge music as "jazz," an attempt to reach the widest possible audience which ends up diluting the art form.
But in the bars of Saint Louis, ensemble playing still rules, with spontaneously-formed bands tearing their way through tunes as local youths drum themselves into a frenzy. "In terms of jamming with the local guys you just don't find it elsewhere," said Sibel Kose, a singer from Istanbul. "Here there's still the tradition of playing together, it's like a melting pot of musicians."
RSS