We end this week of jazz explorations with an imporant genre of jazz that may not exist. Is there such a thing as “Third Stream Jazz?” In 1957 composer Gunther Schuller proposed the term to refer to the fusion of jazz and Western classical music but the idea of blending these two genres didn’t seem to satisfy either jazz or classical purists. In 1981 Schuller tried to clarify what Third Stream Jazz is by proposing this list of “What Third Stream Is Not”: It is not jazz with strings, It is not jazz played on “classical” instruments, It is not classical music played by jazz players, It is not inserting a bit of Ravel or Schoenberg between bebop changes—nor the reverse, It is not jazz in fugal form, It is not a fugue played by jazz players, It is not designed to do away with jazz or classical music; it is just another option amongst many for today’s creative musicians. If Third Stream jazz is none of these things, what is it? Hmmm. Well, this page in the Jazz Music Archives points you to some examples, including this video of The Westerlies performing “Robert Henry.”
I hope you enjoyed this week’s jazziness. You can spend a life immersed in this extraordinary music — you’ll never run out of jazz.
