Attending a Jazz Is Dead show is a retrograde blast into a modern music lover's most resonant corners of nostalgia. You enter a brand new world where art reigns triumphant, overcomes all, and emotion is expressed through a convoluted tapestry of breath blasting out of tubes, horns, and flutes, echoing through the dusty ridges of an old-fashioned vinyl player.
Jazz Is Dead is an international cultural movement based in Los Angeles that seeks to identify and honor a genre of music that has been ignored and pushed to the margins for far too long. Along the way, it aims to bridge gaps between demographic and age differences in its crowds and devotees.
An all-encompassing entertainment company, record label, and live event producer, the organization is dedicated to bringing communities together from all backgrounds, geographic locations, age and tax brackets, and ethnicities, who together share a collective passion for jazz, a musical genre that’s been erasing gaps between cultures for over a century.
At Jazz Is Dead's live shows, which are staged regularly across L.A., from small venues in Highland Park to big theaters in Hollywood, generations of music lovers come together to honor the songs, instruments, and history that define their shared enthusiasm.
“We have homies that are 87 years old,” laughed composer-producer Adrian Younge at The Ford Amphitheater on the evening of Tuesday, July 16th, standing alongside Ali Shaheed Muhammad, the DJ, musician, and producer who is best known as an original member of A Tribe Called Quest.
That night, the duo was interviewed by Tana Yonas, an ‘analog culture evangelist’ and studio program manager, in an inviting, intimate setting on the Ford’s stage. Younge and Muhammad together founded Jazz Is Dead with Andrew Lojero and music industry veteran Adam Block.
Vinyl sounds were heard from Brazilian jazz legends Azymuth and Marcos Valle Ebo Taylor, Pat Thomas, and the Mizell Brothers. Fans in the audience were invited to sit on stage to listen closely to tracks from these artists, provided through a unique sound system courtesy of In Sheep’s Clothing and Ville Sound.
Jazmin Hicks, content specialist and partner at Jazz Is Dead, tells us she finds joy in the sense of collaborative friendship, both timeless and ageless, reached through the series, as well as the unique musical process the team shares as they highlight some of the greatest artists of all time. Even artists who are decades older than they are, who bring forward countless experiences, thoughts, emotions, and contributions to the process.
Younge and Shaheed Muhammad navigated an enlightening, educational conversation alongside Yonas at this vinyl playback session, discussing the origins and future of jazz. A unique thread that the conversation brought to light was the intersection of jazz and hip-hop and its significance, particularly when it comes to the world of samples, sounds, and interpolations.
Hundreds of artists, including Tyler The Creator, Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Kanye West, Lauryn Hill, and many more, have sampled the same jazz musicians and performers who have graced the Jazz Is Dead stage.
One surprise the founders never imagined was how many younger hip-hop fans would be drawn to their efforts, hopeful they’d hear many of the sounds and snippets they grew up catching in rap songs, only in-person and live for the first time.
“Most younger people today get into jazz because of hip-hop,” explained Hicks. “Everyone [we work with] is discovered through crate-digging… this is how we discover new music."
The origins of Jazz Is Dead were serendipitous, to say the least. What began as an simple idea ended up erupting into something more significant, engulfing the city's music fans and setting the tone for a movement that has taken the city’s vibrant and newly renaissanced jazz scene to new heights through vinyl playback sessions, residencies, parties, international concerts, musical projects, and more.
“Without Andrew ‘Dru’ Lojero, none of this is possible," Hicks said of the organization’s tireless promoter. “He’s the mastermind behind the scenes, pulling the strings and bringing everyone together. We have shows all over the country, but it started at Lodge Room.”
Before piloting Jazz Is Dead, Lojero worked in live events, artist management, and music production for quite some time, creating his own company, ArtDontSleep, in 2002. That outfit has been responsible for managing the careers of Younge and Shaheed Muhammad.
“Here in Highland Park, Adrian Younge and his wife, Sherry Younge, have a salon that doubles as a record store,” Hicks explained. The space is called Art Form Studios, and is across from The Lodge Room, a 500-person venue where the organization organizes first started producing its shows at.
“I have to do a show, but it’s not gonna sell, man; jazz is dead,” Dru recalled saying in those early days, when the idea of creating a bigger movement based on the term struck his mind. “Let’s do a series.”
Many of the artists Jazz Is Dead works with are older musicians who have remained relevant with later generations of fans due to being sampled by rap and hip-hop artists. Some of these musical collaborators include legends like Marcos Valle, Roy Ayers, Lonnie Liston Smith, Doug and Jean Carn, Sister Nancy, and the Mizell brothers. Appearances in Jazz Is Dead’s series have revived the praise many of these artists are due but have long been denied.
“Seeing audiences screaming and shouting over projects that were made 50 to 60 years ago… these guys have lived full lives and have not seen their music appreciated in that way,” Hicks said.
Unfortunately, some of Jazz Is Dead's collaborators have passed away over the years, which makes the value of each moment and each show even deeper, special, and more urgent. These beloved performers include João Donato, Azymuth drummer Ivan Conti and Rita Lee, one of the founders of Os Mutantes.
“A lot of people online didn’t think that these shows would even be possible,” explained Hicks. “For example, Ebo Taylor is 88 and lives in Ghana. Most people would never have expected him to travel to the U.S. Most didn’t even know he was still touring.”
“It’s so inspiring,” she continued. “These guys are in their eighties and they have so much energy and life. When they’re here in the studio with us, they become our friends.”
She remains in awe of how this music has drawn so many different generations closer.
“Music just keeps you young, life music is life energy,” Hicks said.
Jazz’s origins are vast and expansive, bridging culture and geography and overcoming decades of stigma and cultural differences. Jazz takes different forms throughout countries like Brazil, Nigeria, and, of course, at home in the United States, where Black Americans paved the way for a genre that continues to bring soothing, serenity, and pride to a divided nation. Jazz has also historically helped many artists, particularly African American artists, variously express anger, frustration, sadness, joy, and fear through the improvisational genre.
While Jazz Is Dead’s roots date back to 2017, Hicks started working with it as the organization began building up its impressive and innovative company resume, around the very start of 2020.
“Vinyl is super important to what we do," said Hicks, who is also a creative in her own right, along with working administratively and behind the scenes at Jazz Is Dead. "We all collect our vinyl, I DJ."
Jazz Is Dead officially launched as a label in 2020, adding a new element to complement the production and event work they do with the artists they’ve cultivated friendships and relationships with.
“Jazz Is Dead is not just a music and event production company - we are also a record label," said Hicks, who grew up in Oxnard. "It kind of got us through 2020 - we were able to release music with the artists we’ve made records with."
The multi-hyphenate label and entertainment company will soon release their compilation album, “Jazz Is Dead 021.”
The album will feature brand new music from Brazilian legends Carlos Dafé, Antonio Carlos e Jocafi, Joyce e Tutty Moreno, Dom Salvador, Hyldon, and Ghanaian afrobeat pioneer Ebo Taylor. The project also features a track with The Midnight Hour, which is actually a duo made up of the founders of Jazz Is Dead: music producers Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad.
“All of our records are collaboration projects,” explained Hicks.
The project’s first single for this release will be Taylor's “Obi Do Woa (If Someone Loves You).” The single will be followed by a full album Jazz Is Dead will drop with Ebo this October, perfectly timed for his tour with the company.
“Every single concert opens with a DJ,” Hicks said, describing that it “all kind of starts with that hip-hop ear.”
The next series of Jazz Is Dead records will have a strong Brazilian influence, said Hicks, telling us, “Since we’ve started our shows, we’ve fallen in love with Brazil.”
Jazz Is Dead has made records with Marcos Valle and begun implementing the sounds they’ve learned from overseas collaborations.
All of their records are released in series. Their first was a compilation that previewed everything to come from the label. Now, they are setting up to release their twenty-first record, also a compilation.
“We do this nostalgic thing where we work with artists in their 80s,” Hicks said about the recording and releasing process. “The world still cares about you. You still have fans. You can still sell out."
Tickets for all of Jazz is Dead’s upcoming events can be found here.
