Crisis of Jazz

CRISE SUR LE JAZZ AUX ETATS-UNIS, said the headline in Paris' Combat. French zazous (pure-jazz bugs) who think of the U.S. as a land paved with Louis Armstrongs and Sidney Bechets got a depressing firsthand report on the "crisis," far from new, of U.S. jazz. Wrote French Bandleader Jacques Helian:

"The evolution of jazz styles has bored the public. The big bands find it hard to live and many of them have dissolved, reforming only for specific jobs. Count Basie works with a small combo . . . Duke Ellington has no following."

Inquiring around, Helian also found that "in general the American public isn't much interested in bop and progressive jazz . . . The famous Bop City on Broadway is closed up ... I met Stan Kenton and listened to him one whole night . . . Kenton has abandoned his own style* and is playing dance music to keep his orchestra together and alive ... He said, 'You're lucky [in France], You can play jazz. The public understands you.'

"For a minute," wrote Helian, "I could hardly believe my ears. Then I had to explain to him that we were a French dance orchestra [not a jazz orchestra]. The public, I had to explain, is the same everywhere. The true initiates are rare."

*Not permanently. Kenton plans to return to his "Innovations" concerts next fall.

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