Let’s Talk About Problems With The Jazz Solo Grammy

“The heroic stand-alone solo is an interesting lens for how jazz is popularly understood, but not necessarily how it is practiced. Jazz is about context and collaboration; it really is about bands. (For that reason, it’s a good thing that most of the solos in this year’s crop come from records made by working bands.) If the way you listen to jazz is to wait for the sustained passage of individual heroism, you may be missing a lot.”