What happened?

I am inclined to ask what happened to the music I hold so dear in my heart? There are a billion websites with people wanting to sing and play jazz. Yet the clubs aren't packed with the audiences. I have been beating down doors, begging people, writing people, sending out e-mail after e-mail, seeking, seeking, and seeking to find someone wanting to work with me in the field but the numbers say no. A former friend of mine said for me to label my music as R and B and i'd make more money than labeling it Jazz. What?!!? But I am inclined to think he may have been right with all of the musicians out there now who are now calling themselves R and B bands. In Atlanta there are probably 35 clubs that are labeled Jazz Clubs but only 1 of them caters to REAL jazz.

This is not to take anything away from smooth jazz as an art form. It just is what it is R and B. I kinda feel like I'm home when I get to sing Jazz my way. Not yelling or copying the music of someone else verbatim but singing the melodies the way they were meant to be sung. I happen to love R and B but I spent 5 years studying how to create jazz and scat and now I seem to have to sing R and B to appease the crowds. I have several R and B tunes in my rep but not like the Jazz I spent days and hours and months and years preparing myself for.

I hope there are some audiences in the world that still want to hear Jazz even if the name isn't famous. I hope there are some people out there who can appreciate the flavor of jazz and its predecessors and the lovely music they share.

I still do.