Jazz As Americas Music Many historians and scholars call jazz Americas Native Art Form, or Americas Music, or some other version of this title. Basically, since jazz was ?Born in the USA?, and it is pretty uniquewhen compared to other musical styles from other places (like Europe or Asia)these folks claim jazz as our music, as our unique art. I think there is a lot of validity to this claim; jazz is rather uniquely American and it represents a lot of the things that we are (and were) pretty well.
But, of course, its not a perfect claim. There are probably reasons we could point to as to why calling jazz Americas Music is less-than perfect. Among other things, jazz is still kind of elitist and only really represents a small percentage of the American Experience. My cowboy grandpa probably couldnt be further removed from jazz (at least in his own telling of the story). Anytime we try to identi
fy one person or one artistic movement as the thing that represents a huge community, we are going to find things to complain about.
Still, I think the idea of having that one thing to represent something complex is an interesting one. So, what about you? What could you use to represent yourself? What songs, pieces, or artists do you think might some closest to explaining you? Please list two pieces of music that you would pick to represent yourself. Think about a photo slideshow of your life; what two songs would be best to accompany it? Or, if someone was planning your funeral (heaven forbid), what two songs would you hope they picked to fully represent all of the things you were and all of the things you strived to be? Please include a brief explanation as to why these are the two songs you would choose.
Please share links to a playlist and/or videos of these songs so I can hear them. Chances are, I dont know the music you do.