'80s Jazz? Hear it on AccuJazz.com

[AccuJazz]

AccuJazz Internet Radio continues its weekly roll-out of creatively programmed jazz channels today with the launch of "Decade: '80s," a streaming channel playing hundreds of songs from jazz albums recorded in the 1980s. The channel is completely free to use and available 24 hours a day.

While many consider the '50s and '60s to be the golden age of modern jazz, it is no mystery that musicians have continued creating worthwhile jazz into the 21st Century. The '80s was as interesting time for jazz. There was a very pronounced return to the older jazz styles of classic bebop and hard bop. A new generation of "young lions" led by the Marsalis brothers (Branford and Wynton) demanded a great deal of attention for their straight ahead sound and slick suit-and-tie wardrobes.

This wasn't the whole story in the '80s, however. The innovations of the '60s and '70s, such as avant-garde jazz and fusion, continued to flower throughout the '80s. Jack DeJohnette, Paul Motian and the World Saxophone Quartet were among the jazz veterans looking forward and creating new sounds in the avant-garde, while fusion groups like Weather Report, the Yellowjackets and the Pat Metheny Group innovated in the relatively young fusion style.

"Decade: '80s" is the 6th channel in AccuJazz's "Jazz by Decade" category, joining a channel devoted to Pre-1940 jazz and a channel for every decade from the '50s through the '70s. It brings the total AccuJazz channel tally to 43, including such popular channels as "Piano Jazz," "Decade: 50s," "Straight Ahead," and "Jazz Fusion." As with all AccuJazz channels, listeners can customize their experience by pausing, skipping songs, and "deselecting" artists they would rather not hear. Listen now at AccuJazz.com.

[Pete C]

It took '80s jazz to show us how great '70s jazz was!

[Gary Sisco]

So tired.

[Pete C]

Originally Posted by Gary Sisco

So tired.

Tired of waitin'?

[Gary Sisco]

Shit is just so irritating for anyone who was already a jazz guy in the 70s.

[Ron Thorne]

I'm trying to figure out why someone decided to name this site AccuJazz. What's the Accu portion signify? Accurate? Is the site owner's first name Accu?

[Monte Smith]

I was going to contradict you guys and say how important 80s jazz was to me as a listener, but after about a hundred words (deleted), I realized I actually meant 90s jazz. Which was probably worse? I really only have contemporary jazz records from maybe 1988-1992. Otherwise, I stick with the cold and the dead.

[Gary Sisco]

I don't have anything against 80s jazz -- or any jazz. And I heard a huge lot of jazz in the 90s, live and recorded, that was top shelf. My only complaint is about absurd hype and marketing campaigns becoming "history" through endless repetition. That's all. But we've been through this enough times to make a reasonable man climb a tower with a rifle.

For me, the best working jazz band of the last 30-something years was the Adams-Pullen Quartet and it gets just about no mention at all.

[AccuJazz]

My only complaint is about absurd hype and marketing campaigns becoming "history" through endless repetition.

Check out AccuJazz.com. We aren't focused on the history aspect of jazz as a fossilized art form. We're really more about new music than anything else. And we have channels devoted to young artists, "cutting edge" jazz, Avant-Garde jazz, and plenty of other stuff that's outside the jazz mainstream. And, yeah, our music library might be influenced in part by the folks running the marketing campaigns, but we have a lot of more obscure, less commercial music playing. Just because Wynton Marsalis is in the photo doesn't mean he dominates the channel.

I'm afraid I'm guilty of not having the Adams-Pullen Quartet in the AccuJazz collection -- I'll try to remedy that.

[AccuJazz]

Oh, and Accu- comes from our parent company, AccuRadio, which, I guess, stands for Accurate? Like, "AccuRadio" almost sounds like "Accurate" when you say it fast? I really don't know, I'm sorry. I should know, shouldn't I?

[Mike Schwartz]

Originally Posted by AccuJazz

Check out AccuJazz.com. We aren't focused on the history aspect of jazz as a fossilized art form. We're really more about new music than anything else. And we have channels devoted to young artists, "cutting edge" jazz, Avant-Garde jazz, and plenty of other stuff that's outside the jazz mainstream. And, yeah, our music library might be influenced in part by the folks running the marketing campaigns, but we have a lot of more obscure, less commercial music playing. Just because Wynton Marsalis is in the photo doesn't mean he dominates the channel.

I'm afraid I'm guilty of not having the Adams-Pullen Quartet in the AccuJazz collection -- I'll try to remedy that.

Thanks for coming on to answer these inquiries.

Can you see why the perception might be that the multiple channels divide the music into all these separate little cookie jars?

Why all the individual stations?
Is the idea behind it following a Satellite radio example in the sense that if you want classic rock, or sports talk, or any given single thing you can dial it up to the exclusion of other things?

I've done FM radio for about a dozen years (what's that? ), and there are long time listeners that would have me do nothing but big bands if it were up to them for instance.

[AccuJazz]

Why all the individual stations?
Is the idea behind it following a Satellite radio example in the sense that if you want classic rock, or sports talk, or any given single thing you can dial it up to the exclusion of other things?

Well, AccuJazz was created by AccuRadio, a relatively popular Internet radio website, which has as its format the individual stations -- you can listen to an all-oboe concerto station from the classical programming, for instance. The individual stations are not meant to limit people's listening experience, but expand it.

For instance, a new visitor to AccuJazz may not know much about Avant-Garde jazz, so they go to the Avant-Garde channel, and now they've heard something they've never heard before. Maybe they'll click on the album art in the player and buy Spiritual Unity. If they would have listened to the Main Channel (modeled after a slightly left-of-center FM station), maybe they'd hear one or two tracks bordering on Avant-Garde, but the odds are obviously lower.

Our intent isn't to just offer the Big Band channel to the Big Band fans, so they won't have to deal with all that annoying non-Big Band music, but to give people more ways to feed their curiosity about unfamiliar types of jazz. For instance, a lot of people might have foggy ideas about what jazz was doing in the '80s, so they can listen to the '80s channel and get a better picture. Of course, if a big band fan logs on to AccuJazz.com every morning to listen to the Big Band channel and never clicks on the "Other Channels" tab, I can't do anything to stop them.

If you don't like the cookie jars, then listen to our main channel -- it happens to be my favorite. I just heard Fletcher Henderson follow up Cecil Taylor.

[Lois Gilbert]

I think narrow casting has pro and cons and internet radio can appeal to a divergent audience. I also like the idea you can skip tunes and the technology is advanced to know exactly what you're listening to, It's become about individual choices instead of what is fed to me.

[CraigP]

Is there an iPhone app for AccuJazz?

[baksheesh]

fusion groups like Weather Report, the Yellowjackets and the Pat Metheny Group innovated in the relatively young fusion style.

Sorry, but Weather Report died in the 80s. Night Passage was their last great album and that was 1980.

[Lois Gilbert]

Originally Posted by baksheesh

Sorry, but Weather Report died in the 80s. Night Passage was their last great album and that was 1980.

yeah I agree - it was more fuzak in the 80s... now the mid-70s that was the time for fusion.

[baksheesh]

Originally Posted by Lois Gilbert

yeah I agree - it was more fuzak in the 80s... now the mid-70s that was the time for fusion.

It certainly was - Weather Report, Mahavishnu, RTF, Headhunters, and most of all - Miles at his unparalleled peak. My dream gig would have been either at the Osaka gig that yielded Agharta and Pangaea, or at the Cellar Door (every single night if possible!).
BTW, here's a link to a good site i found that discusses Weather Report's discography, using a lot of interviews. It's pretty in depth and insightful.

http://www.binkie.net/wrdisc/index.html