Recently saw a lecture from pianist John Beasley. in the lecture, he got onto the subject of jazz, and its barriers to entry by inexperienced musicians. Specifically he talked about how "even getting a seat at the table" meant one had to take lessons and study music across many different styles for many years.
This got me to thinking about this recurring origin story that happens often in rock and pop music, of we as listeners praising the "naive" musician who "just bought a guitar and started writing". I don't say "naive" as a pejorative, just to mean that it's music that doesn't come from academia (it's a more common term in the visual arts). I really like a lot of these "naive" bands, like Nirvana, Minute Men, Shamir, Toro y Moi, who found a niche and a source of creativity from themselves, without learning the craft-oriented processes normally taught in a formal music education setting.
This led me to wonder:
Are there any Naive Jazz groups that you know of? Groups of people who said "we don't know how to play jazz, but we're just going to do it anyway". I know you could argue that many of the jazz greats of history "just jammed until they could play" but that's not exactly what I mean. I feel like for a music form that's meant to be as creative and boundary breaking as possible, i'm hearing the same rhythms, the same quoted figures in solos, the same everything. I want to hear people who don't even know what a 2-5-1 is play some jazz.
