Interesting interview--Thank you for looking at the issue of jazz as a cultural component. My take on that: the attitude in our society toward Art is worth renovating. Whereas it is bandied as an afterthought at large, can we consider it as central as basis for quotidian health? While it wouldn't guarantee the perpetuity of jazz as a commercial staple, it's probable that would open the Collective to a more profound, more participant appreciation of complex expression. That the recognition by a general public of elementary connections between older music and newer music is so faint; that the receptivity to music different from which what one's peers share an attraction; that the capacity to cherish the good artifacts of our bygone music while withstanding self-conscious doubt or allowing for individuating curiosity, promises to hamper the proper tools and toil for reaping the harvest of original thought--notwithstanding the flexibility of ingenuity. However, I don't really give much credit to polls seeking to measure the popularity or acceptance of jazz; the word "jazz" itself has shown itself to be an enemy meme to common peeps of today, prone to anything from crucifixion to exaltation, the point being that complexity of the profound kind tends to pale in popular thought (for that matter, it always has) and tends to elicit strong defenses and over-compensations. It is the SPIRIT of JAZZ that truly matters. I'm overboard with passion when I say, "This country was BUILT on it.".
