I don't know why it saddens you, but it saddens me because jazz is disappearing. It used to be such a success but now people seem to be no longer interested in music with depth. I am generalizing of course, there are exceptions to what I say, but they are scarce. People seem to only want music that consists of three chords and has a flashy video clip with nudity.

For me, personally, music, be it classical, pop, jazz, ..., is about musicality, feelings, emotions. Not about the lyrics (if any) and not about the way it is presented (video clip, dancers, ...). When a player is playing his jazzy tune in C major but is playing the B chord in major instead of minor with flat 5, that is what strikes me. This is only one example of course. That is what music is about in my opinion. Striking the heart with musicality.

And the guys on this photo, they agreed with me. They knew what music is about. Bach and Mozart and many others agreed with me too. And they were all honored for it.

If I ask around: "do you know who Keith Jarrett is?". I know only one person who would answer "yes" and he is my jazz piano teacher. When you would have asked around in the 50's who almost anyone on that photo was, lots of people would have known and would have added: "I like his music".

This is what saddens me... And it's also frustrating because I am getting very very very good at jazz piano playing. Playing things that is able to strike hearts that are listening, but nobody cares anymore, nobody is interested in listening because their iPod is full of ii-V-I pop tunes that remind them of the video clip they saw, the concert they went to or the party they were getting hammered at.

It saddens me...