[pasquinelli]

one of the identifying features of jazz is that the music isn't just the product, but its directly used as material by others.

jazz is a loaded term. i like ahmad jamal's term for what people usually mean when they talk about jazz, "american classical music". when i think of jazz i'm thinking about a certain kind of attitude toward music where the performer is putting life into the music the way you might think of an actor putting life into a script. makes a lot of sense in the modern world, i think, where selling recordings makes less and less sense but live performances are still relevant.