Five myths about jazz - debunked

An amusing article in the Wash-Post:

Jazz is more serious than other genres - jazz requires exactly as much or as little expertise to listen to and appreciate as anything else, all you really need to appreciate jazz are open ears

Jazz was born in New Orleans - it emerged almost simultaneously in a number of different communities from Jacksonville to Kansas City around the turn of the century

Jazz must swing - jazz artists are prone to experimenting with unusual time signatures

Jazz musicians were (or are) on drugs - this myth has its roots in early propaganda designed to paint black communities (and their artists) as dens of iniquity, and create reasons to arrest them

Jazz is dead - it’s integral to hip-hop (just listen to A Tribe Called Quest or Kendrick Lamar) and vibrant jazz scenes in Los Angeles, Chicago, London and Montreal/Toronto (like Colin Stetson, pictured)