Jazz may be the surest way to starvation, but it is still a form of music that lets you be you


Q. What is the difference between a pizza and a jazz musician?
A. A pizza can feed a family of four!

What is it about jazz that makes a jazz musician stick to a form of music that most A&R managers have scientifically and suspiciously proven to be a musician's surest route to death due to starvation?

One good reason would be the fact that jazz allows me to be myself as opposed to pop that wants me to be Maddonna. I would rather be me than strut onstage in conical jocks. I remember our genius A&R managers releasing a male Indipop star album titled 'Mai Bhi Maddonna'. Jazz as you will see, and if you've heard about 'Mai Bhi Maddonna', helps me retain my individuality and what's left of my sanity in this big mad world of music marketing.

Jazz, the most open, alive and evolving form of music, is the medium I choose to communicate and to express myself musically. I know a lot of people in the audience may not understand my intense shoobee-doo-wop, shoobee-doobee-doo-wop and emotive twidlee-didlee, didlee-doo-dah along with some sensitive chaka-chaka, shaka-dish-boom-thaak. But there's always the few who can 'feel' what they can't figure. Most of the time the message I communicate may read 'Hey brother, how about a loan... I'm broke again' but when I have someone in the audience enjoying my music, I become a millionaire.

Colin D'Cruz
www.hullocheck.com

Published on 10 November 2002

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