Why Doesn't Contemporary Jazz Get Any Respect?

ya Detlof those times are gone and they were short too! You mention Monk, Coltrane, Armstrong, Davis, Ellington, Bley, Hodges, Bechet and Parker. Where are the likes of those now? If you take Bley out of the list they were all born within a generation (Bechet is a bit early at 1897 and Coltrane and Davis bring an end to it in 1926). Like watching a flower bloom or some other miracle. But doesn't this happen all the time? One generation plows the field and several others spend their time weeding and seeding there until well... it's fallow.

That being said I admit I listen to some of the weeders with some real respect. After all .. not everyone can be an Einstein, Edison , or Freud...right.

Maybe we can use your comment as a new thread. Was it "mindless bickering" or "required reading"? (we've had both responses).

But lets all be careful,

"Once you ignorance is gone you can never get it back"
Carla Bley

Sincerely, I remain

Clueless, I'd go for "required reading". The post expresses straightforward opinion, on subject, and offers arguments in support. So, one can agree or disagree, and refute or uphold the arguments... or use different arguments and personal experience.

Further, one person's not choosing to like the musical preferences of another person does not mean the latter's personality, raison d'etre, existence, etc, is on the line!

I don't like smooth jazz -- what LITTLE I know of it. That doesn't mean I won't speak to someone that does, and does NOT listen to classical. Rather, why not share differing experience between us? Cheers!

Clueless, you are right of course, to me you make excellent sense. Tis nothing but the lament of an old man. Cheers,

...sometimes the post becomes a chat where we continue to share and can be redirected by us off the topic which is OK imo. That's what the chat is here for.
Someone said that smooth jazz is good for background music which is complete true. If I'm sitting in the cabaret and having dinner before the party hearing some smooth jazz --that's where I want to hear it -- not rock not classics... I never remember SJ musicians except David Benoit or George Benson.
As an expert on musical experiences I can say that the smooth jazz listeners can "jump" to listen to something more sophisticated later on. It's good that kids listen to the SJ. Maybe later on they'll be listening to Carla Bley or Ornette Coleman with their dads and/or moms.
For NY area 101.9 listeners I strongly recommend from time to time to switch off to 88.3 public jazz radio for REAL jazz.

There was a time when jazz was America's popular music. It was THE music of young people. The tunes were straight forward, easy to listen to with hummable melodies and above all you could dance to them. Bebop essentially destroyed these popular elements of jazz. Less than a decade after bebop, Miles and Gil Evans even tried to take the swing out of jazz. Do I need to remind you of what Chuck Berry said about modern jazz? It's not surprising that right at that time young people starting to listen to rock n' roll. After all, you can dance to rock. I don't know the exact date, but real jazz died along time ago. That stuff played by Dizzy, Parker and Coltrane is okay and it probably sounds good in a concert hall or some other place where you sit down to listen to music, but real jazz was meant for dance halls.