Jazz heads look at it as a fluid, more organic kind of music, in general. When you talk to serious jazz players, they talk about it the way some writers do in fiction about magic and forces of nature.
There’s even a movie, “Soul” that gives a great example of the way the jazz players I’ve known think and talk about the music.
And that’s the key. Jazz is about the music, the performance, not the players (though there’s fandoms). And you can’t capture that, then plaster visuals over it. Most jazz fans I’ve known wouldn’t watch videos, per se. They might play a video, so that they could hear it, but if it isn’t essentially a recording of an actual performance, they wouldn’t give two shits about what they see. Hell, they might not give any shits at all.
There’s exceptions, of course. And there’s branches of jazz that are more visual friendly. There’s some jazz that’s meant for dancing, as an example. You could likely do videos of that and the fans would enjoy it.
But there’s also the fact that videos that aren’t just one camera recording someone playing are expensive to make. Jazz isn’t as popular as it once was, which means that you aren’t going to get much return on that investment. You’re better off just recording a performance and leaving it at that, if you want a visual of your music.
And, as someone that isn’t into jazz, I also don’t think there’s any point to videos for jazz. Go look at some Kenny G videos. That’s about as mainstream as jazz has been in a long time, and his videos really only worked a little in getting him fans. It gave him a tiny bit of crossover, but he was also a pretty guy marketing himself as much as his music.
Jazz heads look at it as a fluid, more organic kind of music, in general. When you talk to serious jazz players, they talk about it the way some writers do in fiction about magic and forces of nature.
There’s even a movie, “Soul” that gives a great example of the way the jazz players I’ve known think and talk about the music.
And that’s the key. Jazz is about the music, the performance, not the players (though there’s fandoms). And you can’t capture that, then plaster visuals over it. Most jazz fans I’ve known wouldn’t watch videos, per se. They might play a video, so that they could hear it, but if it isn’t essentially a recording of an actual performance, they wouldn’t give two shits about what they see. Hell, they might not give any shits at all.
There’s exceptions, of course. And there’s branches of jazz that are more visual friendly. There’s some jazz that’s meant for dancing, as an example. You could likely do videos of that and the fans would enjoy it.
But there’s also the fact that videos that aren’t just one camera recording someone playing are expensive to make. Jazz isn’t as popular as it once was, which means that you aren’t going to get much return on that investment. You’re better off just recording a performance and leaving it at that, if you want a visual of your music.
And, as someone that isn’t into jazz, I also don’t think there’s any point to videos for jazz. Go look at some Kenny G videos. That’s about as mainstream as jazz has been in a long time, and his videos really only worked a little in getting him fans. It gave him a tiny bit of crossover, but he was also a pretty guy marketing himself as much as his music.