PLAYING CHANGES

A music critic assesses the current state of jazz.

By the end of the 20th century, some observers of the jazz scene had concluded that “jazz was enshrined in the popular imagination as a historical practice, a set of codes to be reenacted endlessly.” What possible surprises could be mined from an art form that “had already completed a full life cycle of creation, maturation, obsolescence, and revival”? A lot, it turns out, as Chinen (co-author, with George Wein: Myself Among Others: A Life in Music, 2003), the current NPR contributor and former jazz critic for the New York Times, demonstrates in this analysis of the state of jazz in the 21st century. No fan of “an overintellectualized, preciously ennobled, eat-your-vegetables idea of great American music,” the author focuses on artists who are pushing jazz in new directions. These include saxophonist Kamasi Washington, who, with “The Epic,” his 2015 debut album, “emerged as jazz’s most persuasive embodiment of new black pride at a moment when few forces in American culture felt more pressing”; pianist Brad Mehldau, whose solo in one particular track so impressed guitarist Pat Metheny when he heard it while driving “that he pulled the car over to give it his full concentration”; drummer Tyshawn Sorey, composer of the “unclassifiable suite” The Inner Spectrum of Variables; bassist Esperanza Spalding; and more. Chinen gets bogged down with repeated references to the awards many of the cited artists have won, but jazz fans will find much to enjoy. Anyone looking to start a jazz collection will be happy to know that each chapter concludes with five recommended recordings. The author has a gift for memorable lines, as when he writes about D’Angelo’s 2000 album “Voodoo”: “There’s an odd sensation that you often encounter listening to the album, not unlike absentmindedly reaching the top of a staircase and being startled when there isn’t another step.”

As this illuminating book shows, jazz still has a lot to say about the world—and a lot of eloquent artists ready to say it.