Thanks for your comments! I appreciate you taking the time to read and respond to my posts. My hope with this blog is to get a dialog going and I’m glad you’re along for the ride.

You are right that it’s not only the emotion that draws the casual listener in. There are many other factors. What’s worked for me is engaging the audience. But it sounds like what works for you is keeping sight of melody, which is a great way to hook the listener in. They don’t call ‘em “hooks” for nothin’! What I’ve heard of your music could certainly be challenging to the casual listener, but even before your post I was struck with your use of hooks and melodies. Yours are the kind of songs that leave you with something to sing, even after one listen! That’s no small feat. Especially since sometimes you have counter-melodies going too.

One other thing I think you have going for you is that your band(s) are different. The instrumentation, the compositions, and I sense your shows are all unique. But through it all you write and play beautiful lines with a sense of fun to them. As cerebral as your compositions may be, the performance of them is filled with life and, yes, emotion!

Keep the responses coming!

I’ve been obsessed with the question of the things that are possible with (and the things that make possible) a large audience for music that is ostensibly “out” or “complex.” I see this as a practical question: a large project like mine needs a big audience to be sustainable — not to mention the fact that we play better in that context (as I’m sure most people do)!

Is emotion really the key to that sort of crossover? It definitely plays a role, I agree. Then again, most jazz musicians will probably tell you they work hard to invest their performances with emotion.

“Hooting and hollering” (by which I presume you also mean general “physical interaction” with a performance) is definitely part of it too — and yet, to take two of the examples you gave (Miles and Coltrane) I’m not aware of any footage of those guys doing that sort of thing. So is it the kind / intensity of emotion that comes through in their music that makes it work so well for the “average” or unschooled listener?

There is another element to this, I think, and I suspect it *does* have something to do with *what* you play (or, in my case, what I ask other people to play). To me, much of the fun of being a “postmodern jazz composer” (whatever that means) is to get as thorny as I can without simultaneously losing sight of my love for a pretty (or yes, even “hook-y”) melody, or a danceable beat, or a form that is succinct. This approach hasn’t exactly brought us fame and fortune yet, but it has resulted in people interacting with us in a way that I don’t often see at other “jazz” shows. So who knows…