ONE OF THE AGE-OLD QUESTIONS FOR JAZZ ARTISTS HAS TO BE ‘HOW DO I GET MORE PEOPLE TO HEAR MY MUSIC?” BACK IN THE SWING ERA, JAZZ ATTRACTED MILLIONS OF DANCERS. LATER, MOVIES FEATURED STARS LIKE HARRY JAMES AND FRANK SINATRA. SHORT 5-10 MINUTE FEATURES, POINTING TO THE AGE OF YOUTUBE, HAD CLASSIC CLIPS OF DUKE ELLINGTON, CAB CALLOWAY, FATS WALLER AND LOUIS JORDAN.
WHEN TELEVISION FIRST CAME ONTO THE SCENE IN THE 50S, VARIETY SHOWS SHOWCASED ARTISTS RANGING FROM COUNT BASIE TO BILLIE ECKSTINE TO ELLA FITZGERALD TO EVEN LESTER YOUNG! THERE WAS A CLASSIC SPECIAL CALLED ‘THE SOUND OF JAZZ’ THAT HAD BILLIE HOLIDAY, PREZ, BEN WEBSTER, THELONIOUS MONK AND OTHERS PLAYING VARIOUS FORMS OF THE BLUES. IT WAS THIS PROGRAM THAT GOT ME HOOKED ON THIS MUSIC. I CAN STILL SEE THE SMOKE LITERALLY BLOW OUT OF JOE NEWMAN’S TRUMPET ON THE OPENING TUNE!
MILES DAVIS IS CAUGHT ON TV WITH HIS QUINTET THAT INCLUDED JOHN COLTRANE PLAYING ‘SO WHAT’ JUST BEFORE TEAMING WITH GIL EVANS’ ORCHESTRA ON SOME COOL TV PROGRAMMING FROM THE LATE 50S.
SOMEHOW, JAZZ GOT FORGOTTEN ABOUT AND IS NOW ESSENTIALLY IGNORED, EVEN DURING THE GRAMMYS.
THAT IS ABOUT TO CHANGE
LOS ANGELES RADIO BROADCASTER AND PROMOTER LEROY DOWNS HAS MADE A LIVING OUT OF KEEPING THE JAZZ FLAME ALIVE. HE HAS RECENTLY TEAMED UP WITH CBS PRODUER FRED SMITH, AND TOGETHER HAVE COME ACROSS AN INGENIOUS WAY OF PRESENTING JAZZ TO THE MILLENIAL GENERATION. IT’S CALLED THE JAZZ COLLECTIVE.
DEBUTING ON THE ASPIRE TELEVISION NETWORK IN FEBRUARY, IT FEATURES MUSIC AND INTERVIEWS WITH JAZZ ARTISTS BOTH NEW AND ESTABLISHED. IT HAS THE ABILITY OF PUTTING JAZZ ARTISTS EITHER INTO YOUR HOME, OR ON YOUR IPHONE.
WE’VE RECENTLY MET UP WITH THESE TWO GENTS, AND THEY SHARE THEIR VISION
WHAT WAS YOUR IMPETUS BEHIND GETTING INVOLVED IN THIS PROJECT CALLED JAZZ CREATIVE
FRED-I’ll give you my history, LeRoy can talk about the show. I’ve been in the major network level of television for 38+ years and I’m very close to retiring. Of those 38 years, about 20 of them have been in the entertainment division working mainly with David Letterman and The Late Late Show. The previous 17-18 years I was in the world of CBS Sports covering everything that CBS covered, from 1977 to 1996.
My background is working in production and engineering at a major network doing everything that there is to do in television. During all of this time I have been a big fan of music, particularly jazz! Growing up in Philadelphia, my parents were playing the music and passing it down. I came up in the early 70s with Stanley Clarke and all those guys during the fusion era, I guess you would say. I started with Stanley, Chick, Weather Report and all of those kinds of artists. Then I started doing my homework and diving into the roots of it all. The music really “spoke to me” as they say.
During these years at CBS with all of the things that I’ve done, I’ve been involved with all kinds of music. On the Grammy’s I’ve seen all music represented except jazz.
So, a couple years ago, after starting a couple companies in the tech industry, sports business and start up networks, I just decided that there has to be some way to bring this music to the medium that I have been into for 40 years. The only time I’d ever seen jazz on TV was for those three minutes on the Grammys, during breaks on our (David Letterman) show where all of the musicians were great! It was all very frustrating.
So I started thinking that there had to be a way to bring this music to a larger audience. I took all of the things I’ve learned in television and on sports, entertainment, broadcasting media and thought to myself “let me take all that I’ve learned, bring in the people that I’ve met and try to create a vehicle to promote and celebrate jazz on television.
Everything else has been celebrated; country music, hip hop, gospel, rap and even smooth jazz. You name it, it’s all been celebrated the past 30-40 years except jazz. People came to me and said, “Well jazz isn’t popular“, but I tell them that jazz used to be THE most popular music!
We’ve gotten away from that popularity for a lot of reasons, and one of those reasons is because it wasn’t on regular television like everything else . It was my goal from the beginning of this venture to bring regularly scheduled television programming of some kind that featured the music, and particularly the artist, because their story is sometimes more amazing than their music!
That was the impetus for literally creating a “jazz television show”; as a broader picture, we’re also in the process of creating a music television network called “All Music Television”, of which this jazz show is the first entry.
Obviously, the internet has grown up around us. But, I also believe that while (jazz) music, in the past 4-5 years has been reaching a little bit of a younger audience than it has in the past (other than in the 40s and 50s when the young people were jazz fans), a lot of our audience is still watching television. They’re getting a lot of their information from television; not that smart phones, Youtube and DirectTV and all those other things aren’t popular; we all use it. For the Millennials, it will be normal for them to consume this information on those devices. However, a lot of the traditional jazz audience still wants to watch it on television.
So our goal is to distribute this great music and these great musicians in ALL of the platforms, and not neglect television. That’s where my experience lies. Actually, you get more bang for the buck (with television) because everyone is going digital, local television (except for big events like the Super Bowl) are starving for content.
We want to create a regularly scheduled television show a la “Daryl’s House” with Daryl Hall from Hall and Oates, shows that have been staples on television, but have never done jazz. That’s the impetus behind The Jazz Creative. So, fans who know about jazz can enjoy it, and people who don’t know anything and can be curious and may be able to learn a little bit more about it and the artists. And, those new fans that are coming on board behind the more popular jazz artists of the day can watch it with their parents, or go to their Smart Phone and watch it on Youtube.
OBVIOUSLY, THE BIGGEST CONSTRAINT WITH TV IS TIME. BACK IN THE 30s, 40s AND 50s YOU HAD THESE MOVIE SHORTS WITH LOUIS JORDAN, DUKE ELLINGTON OR FATS WALLER WHICH GAVE PEOPLE JAZZ IN SMALL DIGESTIBLE INCREMENTS. NOW, WITH COMMERCIALS AND LONGER SOLOS, HOW ARE YOU GOING TO KEEP THE MUSIC COHERENT AND STILL INTERESTING?
ARE YOU GOING TO LIMIT THE LENGTH OF EITHER THE SONG OR THE SOLOS?
LEROY– We are going to let the musicians play and edit it into a proper format.
FRED-I want to answer that directly, as it involves technology again. LeRoy’s right; we’re not going to stop the musicians. But now, because of the technology, in a lot of the cases where there’s a lot of music involved, we will start the music on television and then the viewer can go online to see the full version song.
BEAUTIFUL!!!
We’re friends with Kamasi Washington and some of these other cats out here. He goes 20 minutes on a solo; well, of course, that’s jazz.
I relate it to my sports experience. The hardest thing CBS ever had to cover was soccer, because soccer didn’t have natural commercial breaks. So, they ran advertising within the game. It’s still hard, and they’re still trying to figure it out, but that was the constraint within that sport, not having any time outs or quarter breaks.
In my mind I applied that to jazz, and so I have asked myself in terms of the technology, “What’s better, not having jazz at all, or having 7 minutes of it and then being redirected to online to see the rest if I’m really interested!
My guess is, if you’re interested, you’ll go online and watch the rest of it, where there will actually be even more music. So you may watch 6 minutes of Christian McBride, Kamasi Washington, Terrace Martin or Robert Glasper, and then you’ll be directed online for the rest of that performance plus ten more that we’ve shot.
Television becomes somewhat of a promotional and marketing tool for the music, but I think it is the way to get eyeballs on it and drive them online to follow the artist, find out more information, Google and research them to buy their music.
THAT’S A GREAT WAY TO EDIT THE MUSIC!
FRED-That’s the reality of it, but it doesn’t diminish the music. We are just finding a way to bring the music to television where no one else has.
WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT FORMATS YOU ARE USING? YOU HAVE THE JAZZ CREATIVE, THE BLUE WHALE CONCERTS. WHAT ELSE?
LEROY-We’re actually taking the music everywhere. We initially started out naming the show “Live From the Blue Whale.” We changed it because we plan on filming in every possible scene that we can! Whether it’s at a jazz club, a private home or at a concert venue, we’re going to catch these musicians wherever they are! We’ll get the interviews and capture some of their “live” performances that we believe need to be seen!
People have the opportunity to learn who these musicians are by hearing what the musicians have to say about their music, and then enjoying some of their performance.
HOW DID THE BLUE WHALE SHOW COME ABOUT? WHO APPROACHED WHO?
LEROY-The Blue Whale is the epicenter of all things that are happening for jazz in this town. That’s where the creativity for music lives. I’ve been friends with (owner) Joon Lee for a long time, and have been going to the Blue Whale and of course enjoying performances . I’ve always wanted to do something that honored him and his club, so I approached him with the idea and he thought it was great.
We shot the first episode there and we launched it across the country. We called it “Live From the Blue Whale” but, the name sounds as if it’s streaming live, so a lot of people got confused. We ended up changing the name to “The Jazz Creative”.
WHAT HAS BEEN THE RESPONSE FROM THE MUSICIANS?
LEROY-Every musician needs the opportunity to express themselves on every format that they possibly can, and television is a great format to do that. They are just as excited about getting their art heard and seen, both musically and verbally. It’s a platform that they haven’t been offered before.
ARE YOU GOING TO TELEVISE THE CLUB ATMOSPHERE?
We want to show a lot of intimate environments, but the emphasis is going to be on the musicians and what they have to say about their lives. Yes, we will capture them in many situations. So far, we’ve shot footage at Monterrey, the Blue Whale, in private homes at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza and in June, we will be backstage at the Playboy Jazz Festival. We’ll captures the musicians and what they have to say about their work and their art and we will have a chance to see and enjoy their live performances.
FRED, ARE YOU DOING THE INTERVIEWING, OR ARE YOU STAYING BEHIND THE CAMERA?
FRED-I’m doing everything behind the camera. Why would I do the interviewing when I have the best guy in the business for that? I’m a behind-the-scenes guy.
YOU’VE DONE “THE JAZZ CREATIVE, LIVE FROM THE BLUE WHALE, AND A CHRISTMAS JAZZ.WITH LEROY DOWNS”, WHAT DO YOU SEE SO FAR AS THE STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF THE PRODUCTIONS?
Fred-The strengths are the music, the musicians and the excitement that they’ve generated. They are involved and they all want to do it. There is no question that there is a hunger out there for the music.
I think the weakness is just … the realities of where we are with the technology involved in the digital age.
These days people have such a short attention span. Everybody wants everything yesterday; no one wants to spend any time with anything. The same problems that affect everything! We are working to change that.
LEROY-We love the music and we actually are coming from the musicians’ state of mind. The shows we produce are very music-oriented, but, we also have to realize that there is an audience out there with short attention spans, and they don’t quite believe it yet. They don’t quite yet understand the concept of jazz on television because they haven’t seen it!
Even if I tell somebody “Hey, we’re going to do jazz on television” I still get the “deer in the headlights” look because they can’t grasp it yet. It sounds great, but they need to see it first in order to feel it.
KEY QUESTION: HOW ARE YOU GOING TO FINANCE THiS?
FRED-At the moment it is self-financed. I’ve made a few investments over the years and, while I won’t say “I’ve done well” I have survived.
I am taking the experience that I’ve had in two previous companies, called Hoop TV (which was an online basketball recruiting service channel) and Sports Network, which was the predecessor to ESPN3 and Watch ESPN. That was my previous life. I learned how to raise money. I raised $3 million dollars for those companies through fundraising. Through NBA former athletes, friends that I’ve known-I’ve got some independent investment. I haven’t done the crowd-funding route, haven’t done the VC route yet.
I think that the reality of it is that we’re going to let it grow organically.
We’ve toyed with having support through donations, because people have come up to us and want to give us money to see this thing work. We appreciate those that have contributed and have donated to the cause., but I don’t want people to think “charity” they need to think of us like any other business that promotes its product.
LEROY-I think that there have been some misconceptions about the music. One, that jazz can’t survive on its own. Two, that it’s a charity that you always have to donate to and Three, the concept of “free concerts” has subliminally put in the peoples’ mind that they do not have to pay any money for this music. That is all incorrect.
Someone has to pay; it needs and deserves to be supported. I think that at all of the different “free” venues people should at least pay $5 just so they can get accustomed to paying for music.
There is a misconception now amongst the entire music community that people can just go to hear music to listen for free. We have to change that.
ANY PROBLEMS WITH MUSIC COPYRIGHT LAWS?
LEROY-We’re only having musicians that will play their original music. We’re not interested so much in Standards. We want to hear music from the musicians expressing what they are doing. It’s their voice that we are interested in; not re-doing someone else’s work.
FRED-Also, the first thing people want to know is whether “you’ve got ‘skin in the game”. I can show them that I do, approaching 6 figures. But it’s ok; I’ve been through this, and that is what is required to launch anything.
Like LeRoy said, the entire music industry suffers from this mentality, but particularly jazz. In my former life at the other job, I work with the biggest musicians in the world. This week I even worked with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian. So, while I do that on a regular basis, I can’t wait to get back to what we’re doing. I’ve seen how it works, so I’m trying to apply those same principles here.
LEROY-Fred just sees what’s happening with all of these big name players that he works with every day and, he sees all of the money that goes to the big name musicians. None of it goes to jazz; we’re just trying to balance out the game, to put us on the same platform, and give jazz and other musicians the same opportunities that some of these popular folks have.
I don’t think that there will be billions of dollars. But at least we have the opportunity to broaden the whole scope and platform of jazz.
IN THESE DAYS OF VACUOUS TELEVISION SHOWS THAT GLAMORIZE THE TRIVIAL AND TRIVIALIZE THE IMPORTANT, IT’S REFRESHING TO SEE TWO MEN WHO ARE DEDICATED TO ADD SOME DEPTH AND JOY TO OUR CULTURE.
I HAVE MANY FRIENDS WHO ARE DIE HARD COUNTRY FANS, BUT WHEN THEY ARE TAKEN TO A JAZZ CLUB, THEY ARE AMAZED AT HOW MUCH THEY LIKE THE MUSIC. ALL PEOPLE NEED IS A LITTLE EXPOSURE, JUST LIKE WE ALL HAD AT ONE TIME, AND THE FIRE CAN CATCH.
CHECK OUT THE JUNE EPISODE of THE JAZZ CREATIVE ON THE ASPIRE TELEVISION NETWORK ON JUNE 24 AT10PM PST/ 1AM EST AND PASS IT ON TO A FRIEND, OR EVEN A STRANGER. IT’S SOMETHING WORTH GETTING EXCITED ABOUT. YOU CAN CATCH THE REST AT ALLMUSICTELEVISION.NET.