BillF

Certainly there is a consistent flow of young musicians emerging, an admirable fact which in this country anyway I see as almost entirely attributable to the inclusion of jazz in music college curriculums in recent decades. This means that a significant part of the "small and hermetic fan base" for jazz now consists of young musicians. I am sure that jazz will survive in the long term, but only through and in the academies, as has happened with some European classical musics which no longer have a popular following but which have been preserved..

"Small and hermetic fan base" certainly describes the situation of jazz today, but the music is a century old and in the swing era it was a music of mass popularity and even in the "jazz boom" of c.1960, the era of Coltrane, it had a major following among younger people.

Yes, when looking for classic status post Coltrane we need to look to other musics than jazz. I saw the Mahavishnu Orch and can confirm that as a jazz group their music was heavily influenced by the more popular musics of their era, which of course accounted for their success. "Me" doesn't count for much where classic is concerned. It's about something that's universally accepted over time as being of the highest quality.

You could well be right there. After all, things like Hawkins' "Body and Soul' were being mentioned early in this thread.

How many people have heard of these tracks? And how many have heard of Coltrane's "My Favorite Things"? After all, classic status is being claimed for the four listed here.

Now playing:

His record selling started when his ever-increasing collection got so big that it fell off the end of the sideboard in the Manchester house on which it was displayed. The date would be about 1967.

Ed and I were at Leeds University together where he cut his jazz entrepreneur's teeth by getting Ronnie Scott to bring Freddie Hubbard to the campus. Later we lived in the same house in Manchester after which our paths diverged, I staying in Manchester while he, as you know, moved to the London area.