Is it appropriate… to call Headhunters a “jazz” album?
Or Weather Report a “jazz” group?” Upon reflection, I’ve concluded that the broad, current use of this term is both inaccurate and confusing. In this same article, I opined: “How this music has been marketed — especially in recent years — reflects the all-too-common penchant to sell the product, even if dishonestly…” If this was true then, it’s certainly true today, given the marketing of Kenny G’s pop saxophone music as a legitimate jazz style. This should hardly come as a surprise; the misapplication of language is (unfortunately) symptomatic of modern American culture. Of the many common words and phrases used these days with little regard for accuracy, two examples will suffice. Exhibit A: the term “constitutional.” For decades now, constitutional rights have been expanded to include an exponentially wider variety of things than ever before — this in spite of the fact that our Constitution itself is a rather short document, mentioning few specific rights. It is only a recent p
