jazz in vlaanderen

JazzFlits's first issue of the year brings news of a study on the state of jazz in Flanders commissioned by the Flemish Community. Some of Simon Korteweg's, the study's author, findings:

- most jazz musicians can't make a living playing jazz (no surprise there)
- jazz's audience is increasing steadily and now represents 11% of concert-goers
- in 2007, the jazz sector will get 700,000 euros worth of subsidies, which is 3% of the Flemish government's music budget. Korteweg recommends boosting this share to a more representative 11%, or 2 million euros.

JazzFlits also includes an update on Steve Coleman's activities, written in English by Paul Blair.

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Ben Ratliff's Little Richard concert review drastically shortens the distance between Richards and Pharrell Williams:

"It’s so nice just sitting here, being beautiful," he said. "I feel so unnecessary."
(...)
"My mama had 12 children, and we were pretty but we were poor," he regaled. "All that beauty, and wasn’t nobody on duty. All that honey and no money."
(...)
"Could I get two black ladies to dance?" he ventured. "I’d like to have two fat white ladies, too. Juicy ones. And two Mexicans."

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Belinda Reynolds has an article entitled "Can Jazz Educate More Than Classical?" I think that her argument is a little muddled (or, in any case, I have trouble following it), but some of the comments are particularly outrageous. Jazz's doom 'n' gloom contingent is large, but I'd never yet heard anyone say, as commenter "the people" does, that "jazz, in reality, has little to no impact on modern American culture." Unless modern means "in the last 5 minutes."