Contemporary Australian jazz, by any measure, is flourishing, writes Peter Rechniewski. More talent, more recording, more audience development, widespread respect for our musicians overseas. So why is the jazz scene sick and likely to die? Why do musicians eke out the barest living? Why do old venues close and no new ones replace them? Why is jazz held in such low esteem by the media? For all its apparent vitality, jazz remains in crisis. Peter Rechniewski is well-placed to diagnose the problems and recommend a cure. In this hard-hitting account he traces the origins of the current crisis and proposes a new National Jazz Plan to raise the profile, increase the audiences, lift income levels and enhance the career pathways of a growing number of musicians. Jazz, he writes, demands an urgent revision of both the public and governmental attitudes if we are to 'liberate jazz from its imprisonment in a permanent underground'.
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