The Future of Jazz Music in Hungary and Abroad

Within the frameworks of this essay, I will examine this subject from the perspectives of the men in the street and of professional musicians, giving my own views on the status of jazz music today in Hungary compared to the rest of the world.

As a matter of fact, there are two kinds of people in the world: those who love jazz, and those who do not. As for the ones who find pleasure in listening to this intricately-composed sort of music, they are diverse themselves, ranging from fans to addicts. But what about the other side that turns away from it? It is my firm belief that they do so because they are not aware of what they refuse. They do not know that, for instance, pop and rock music evolved, either directly or indirectly, from jazz. Some of the songs that they croon day by day were jazz standards in the days of long-ago. Apart from this, there is no point in blaming them, since it is their private matter.

Nowadays, music is more available to us than ever before, hence so is jazz, even in Hungary. It is a pity that its tradition is, alas, rather poor. It is a fact that our country is full of great and world-famous musicians, although the majority of people do not know it. Let me demonstrate this with the help of a couple of examples.

In 2006, one of the best fusion-jazz bands in Hungary, Kaltenecker Trio, played in Kaposvár. Since that is my homeplace, and they are my favourite group, I was not going to give it a miss. The concert attracted around 50 people, which is, to tell the truth, quite a shame. A few months later, they played in Pécs, where they played to a full house. In Budapest, even more people are interested in them. So can we say that the bigger the city, the bigger the audience? Yes, but only in Hungary. However, we still cannot talk about tens of thousands of people. It is sad that numerous so-called ”top performers” in pop music, often with  playback concerts, attract that many people and thus get along with a lot of money. I am not saying that they do not deserve it, but their musical knowledge is nothing compared to jazz instrumentalists’.

In contrast to pop artists, jazz musicians do not play for money. They do so just for fun. Therefore they cannot make a living by their passion. This is the main reason why, to my mind, they go to another countries where this kind of music is much more popular and appreciated, such as Germany, The Netherlands, France, Switzerland, or even to the USA to become famous there, where this particular genre comes from. At this point, a question inevitably arises: Why is this so?

 As for the US, the answer is rather obvious: jazz originates from New Orleans.

However, in spite of the aforementioned fact, by the beginning of the 1970s, radio stations gradually stopped playing jazz, musicians got the boot from their record labels, and so did the music publishers by their executives. From that point, they had to stand on their own feet and start everything almost from scratch. By the eighties, they succeeded, and this genre was revived again. It started to spread, ”infecting” almost every part of the world, much to the delight of many people.

            Nowadays, there are numerous brilliant jazz artists and bands all over the world, and

festivals are perfect events where these musicians can meet one another, learn from other artists, or even play together. Not only is it a great opportunity for musicians, but also for those who just go there to abandon themselves to the pure enjoyment of music.

 Regardless of where they come from, they have a common ground: music. Music breaks down the language barriers, although it is a language itself, too. It is such a language that everyone understands. It makes people come together, get to know and have mutual respect of each other’s cultures.

In these days, this sort of music attracts an entirely different audience than it used to a century ago. Since its revival, it has undergone a lot of changes. It emerged with other genres, creating various styles, including bebop, classical jazz, fusion jazz, acid jazz, smooth jazz, nu jazz, authentic jazz, jazz-funk, jazz-rock, and the list could go on. It has changed so much, actually, that if, say, a jazz musician from the 1920s listened to some contemporary jazz, he probably would not even recognise it.

All in all, jazz is on its way to conquer the world, and even Hungarian artists of the kind are very optimistic about the future of this peculiar style of improvisative music.