Hello everyone,

Here in my country Japan, there seems to be less people love contemporary jazz and, because of this situation, a lot of great artists (including Russ!) find it impossible to come to perform here. And also, one of my American friends, who plays some musical instruments for living, says it is really hard to earn his living only by working as a (contemporary) jazz musician , because the number of people who love that kind of music is decreasing even in the US.

Is that really true?

I thought that contemporary jazz was in a difficult situation only in my country.
(And that's because Russ and the Ripps have never come to Tokyo since 1995.)
I can't believe !!

Mayumi

The problem with contemporary jazz not being as popular as it should be goes back to the radio stations and their limiting formats. People are not exposed to the really good jazz, because the program directors of these so-called "smooth jazz" stations constrict the playlist to a few current jazz hits, and then fill up the rest of the time with old standards and some "easy listening" and "pop" songs that should be played elsewhere.

Part of this problem, at least where I live, is you have several stations in the same market owned by one conglomeration or individual, who either doesn't know or doesn't care about the difference between jazz and country, rock or whatever.
He's programming stations for the advertising dollar, and the music format is secondary. He may make his money in ads, but the listeners suffer in quality of music.

Mayumi,
Here in my country, United States, I like the contemporary sounds from Japan like Vanessa-Mae on violin and Keiko Matsui on piano...........go figure???????????

Amen to djley. smooth jazz in the DC area equals the most mellow tunes an artist puts out. have you ever heard the ripps live in la on the radio? not here.