I received my first print copy of Downbeat Magazine in over a decade this week – thanks to my new membership in the Jazz Education Network.
It got me thinking – there was a time in my life when I devoured Downbeat monthly, cover to cover. I read the features, the reviews, the news items, the Blindfold Tests. And over the months, I moved, unaware, inside.
There’s a value to being inside. You understand the state of the art, and the mindset of the practitioners. You know what’s cool, what’s permissible. What’s a bridge too far. In short: you know what works.
But a decade is long enough to find myself once again outside. The way I was at seventeen, but now with a lot more knowledge, skill, and personal conviction.
There’s value, too, to being outside. You can make innovative connections, push against the status quo. You can make your art without the sometimes limiting confines of what’s acceptable.
So having been both outside and inside, where do I go now?
My plan is this: start reading Downbeat the way I used to: soak up all the rich knowledge in the magazine. But at the same time, I won’t surrender my oustide status quite so quickly. I’ll glean what I can, update my knowledge, but try to let the underlying structure not encompass me too thoroughly.