I have yet to meet someone authentic who claims to like contemporary jazz, particularly the atonal crap that usually takes the epithets of "modal" or "free" jazz. It seems like the only people who have ever expressed any enjoyment of this so-called music are either bland people who got all "B"s at a B-rate college and are desperately trying to accommodate bourgeois sensibilities and avoid anything with real character, or poseur types like the hipster trash infesting Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

A very strong distinction should be made between authentic "Jazz Age" jazz, which I frequently like and which seems to be generally enjoyed by many, and the more modern forms.

The reason I ask is because it is shown often in movies and television, but yet when I ask people here in NY if they like it no one interesting ever does (or at least they don't express any strong interest - some people are indifferent rather than overtly contemptuous like I am).