Charles Fishman, 66, is D.C.’s jazz man. A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., Fishman retired from managing such legends as Dizzy Gillespie a few years ago and helped found D.C.’s annual Duke Ellington Jazz Festival. Now 66, Fishman lives in Adams Morgan. He’s already at work on the2008 festival, scheduled to run Oct. 1-7.
How do you rate D.C.’s jazz scene?
It’s an interesting question. One of the things that I’ve discovered since I’ve gotten off the road is that Washington has an extraordinary pool of gifted musicians. We have really exceptional musicians here. The problem resides in that we don’t have enough opportunities for jazz musicians to perform.
There’s only four clubs. It’s sort of sad. It’s something I miss. It sort of stifles musicians because you have to hustle.
Has jazz stagnated? Is it looking in the past?
I forgot who it was who said, you keep one foot in the past and one foot in the present and you keep moving forward. It’s constantly evolving. I think it’s a very healthy scene. Today’s musicians are far more versatile and virtuosic in many, many ways than the older generation because these kids study.
Who’s the best up-and-coming jazz musician?
I’m not going to tell you that. That’s too subjective. There’s a whole cadre of musicians who are forever evolving, growing.
Why do you think rock ’n’ roll displaced jazz so easily?
One of the things that weighs on me … is that jazz in the 1960s ceased to be a danceable music. If you go back to the ’40s and look at the 10 best-selling albums, they were all jazz. And you could dance to them: Tommy Dorsey, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington, Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald.
As jazz developed, somehow the danceable part fell away. It became viewed as a more intellectually demanding kind of thing.
