Segment (2) of (5) shares the story of the inception of TRY JAZZ among founding partners Derrick Gardner, Brian Lange and Sharen Lange; as well as describes the concept of using roots genres such as the Blues, Funk, Soul & HipHop to introduce Jazz to new audiences.
TRY JAZZ has a distinctively unique format for music outreach and performance. It is a street roots concept taking Jazz to the people, rather than playing it above them. A deep project with eclectic support, TRY JAZZ hears the question 'What IS Jazz?' and responds with four bold experiences that affirm: 'Jazz Is Blue'; 'Jazz Is Soul'; ' Jazz Is Funk'; 'Jazz Is Now'
The TRY JAZZ vision spins the dial on the relationship between Jazz and other popular roots music. Although Jazz is the foundation of most modern genres, in propagation and performance the trend has been segregation of form versus unity of origin. Project Director Sharen Lange explains, \"Jazz has been portrayed as the musical tree of life, but as a singular genre it tends to push up into the sunlight of instrumental creativity and can become disconnected from the sprawling growth of its limbs.\" Lange continues, \"Imagine the forest floor below covered with people. You can see how the far reaching canopy of popular music covers more of us and how that impacts Jazz sustainability. Rather than try and convince novice listeners to gather around the trunk of that tree, we highlight Jazz as the fruit already hanging within reach on its branches.\"
