Defining jazz

Definitions cause problems. Democracy conveys different meanings to different persons. When a regime suppresses freedom of expression, penalises dissent and abolishes judicial scrutiny of its actions and yet proclaims itself a democracy, I lament with the poet: “The purity of language is defiled, the meanings have turned traitor in the night”. Obscenity is incapable of precise definition. Justice Stewart of the US Supreme Court confessed that he could not define obscenity but recognised it when he saw it.

I have been fond of jazz in its various forms: Dixieland, blues, mainstream and be-bop. But if you ask me to define jazz, I can do no better than turn to Wynton Marsalis, the legendary jazz trumpeter. On Inauguration Day when Wynton performed for President Barack Obama at a private White House party, he rightly highlighted that, “the essence of jazz is improvisation and jazz is collective music. Everybody does it together”.

When that happens, I have no difficulty in recognising and enjoying jazz with ecstasy.