WHAT IS JAZZ?

IS Merriam-Webster’s definition of jazz, “American music developed especially from ragtime and blues,” valid in South Africa or Brazil? Is the first sentence of the National Museum of American History’s “What Is Jazz?” essay (which was the first thing that came up when I Googled “what is jazz”), “Jazz is a kind of music in which improvisation is typically an important part,” valid for Billie Holiday’s music? Is the last sentence of that same essay, “Jazz is one of the United States’ greatest exports to the world,” accurate and comprehensive enough in this era of global connectivity and instantaneous communication?

Looking at these questions, it’s tempting to invoke the parable of the blind men and the elephant and say that no one person has the answer because each person attempting to answer can only touch a small part of the music. But doing this ignores the fact that the definers have eyes that work, eyes that can enable them to see the full totality of the music. The blindness of those giving insufficient explanations is blindness they’ve chosen.

The cultural arbiters of the United States of America are currently engaged in a controversy over the true arc of American history. This controversy is a battle between those who defend the presence of the American caste system and those who see America’s reliance on that system—like reliance on fossil fuels—as untenable, and have decided that now is the moment to transition to a new cultural fuel.

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