Is jazz growing increasingly tedious? And if so, why? Often when I go out to hear music—as I did last week—I often find I'm disappointed and bored by what I hear. In many cases, there doesn't seem to be much advance planning on the part of the musicians, and engaging audiences no longer seems to be on the agenda. [Pictured: Blues in Green by Bill Matthews]

As I've argued in the past, part of the blame for jazz's slide away from cultural relevancy rests in large part with the universities, where many professors teach students not to worry about what audiences think and encourage them to "just do your own thing." I strongly doubt that there's a single course offered today that addresses strategies for winning over and holding onto audiences.

The other problem is the large number of graduating musicians who have been deluded into thinking that doing your own thing leads to a decent living and that jazz is somehow superior to all other music forms. I increasingly hear jazz musicians complaining about everything from record companies and club owners to an inability to find work, the low values of our culture, and even the validity of the word "jazz."

Much of their beefs and resentment, I suppose, stems from a general frustration over jazz's diminishing popularity and the sub-minimum wage now paid out for playing it. There's also a superiority complex that generally implies that seats are filled with saps and more commercial forms of music are worthless. For example...