I’m definitely not an expert on jazz, but just to give my 2 cents, I think somewhere along the line the upper echelon of jazz musicians forgot that music is supposed to be musical, aka “pleasing to the ears”.

While there’s nothing wrong with challenging the listener occasionally, you’re not going to grow or even maintain a fan base if everything you play is so far outside the lines that people grow weary listening to it.

Highly skilled musicians like the top jazz players obviously want more challenging material just to keep themselves interested, but unless they bring the audience along for the ride by playing music that their listeners can comprehend and enjoy, ...... they’ll just be playing for the amusement of the others in the band.

You can call that “dumbing down” the music if you like, but it shouldn’t take a Masters Degree in Music Theory to enjoy a song. The old jazz songs pulled you in with melody, harmony and the musical ability of the players while a lot of newer stuff dares you to get close enough to listen.

This is just the musings of an old flatpicker that’s always loved playing jazz influenced acoustic music, aka New Acoustic, Newgrass, Jazzgrass, Progressive Bluegrass and Dawg music.

Bob
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http://soundcloud.com/bobcflatpicke/music-in-the-mountains