This Is American Soccer, US Soccer, MNT, WNT, and MLS - Tackling the subject of Soccer in the US, and worldwide.

For those who know me, it is no secret I love soccer and love jazz. For those who follow the two art forms, it is no surprise that neither are popular in the United States.

I recently wrote an essay for GOOD magazine–one of the better magazine launches in the last few years that I’m psyched to be even a small part of–on the state of jazz in the U.S.

On top of my own experience chasing jazz across the country I interviewed several musicians to get their thoughts. One of those I spoke to was pianist Jason Moran. At the end of of our interview I couldn’t help but inquire about what I saw as the existence soccer and jazz share in our country.

As JVC Jazz Fest begins in New York, after the jump we talk about a comparison you may not have thought about.

This is impossible for me to avoid, and I just wanted to bounce it off of you. Jazz and Soccer. Soccer is improvisational; it’s more abstract. You don’t have the balls and strikes of baseball. You have to love of the game beyond the instant gratification of the score, the touchdown, the home run, the hook in a song. The media exposure of soccer in the U.S. is very small, like jazz. It boils down for me that American soccer and jazz have to temper expectations. At some point you just have to do your thing. You can’t fight that popularity battle all the time.

Moran: And that’s the thing for us. A musician knows what he or she has to do. If you want to play with Wayne Shorter’s band you have to be a great musician, and then you have to figure out socially how do I even get within Wayne Shorter’s arm reach, not to mention tempt him into letting me get in his band. Those become the goals maybe, to work with another musician. So some people want to go to LA and play with David Beckham you know. I was also thinking you would ask about the extreme dominance that football has in Europe versus the little coverage it gets here. There are a zillion jazz festivals in Europe and a handful in America. You see jazz on regular television in Europe and on the news! You won’t see jazz on the national news in America unless someone dies or something. If you go to a city, play a concert, say in Spain, they are going to show part of that festival on television, on the news channel. You go to concerts here in New York or in San Francisco, maybe they do some coverage, maybe, but I feel like I would accidentally run into it, and I watch a lot of TV. I don’t see much soccer either. I think I would run into programs a lot more if it actually existed. Maybe that’s why people like watching Youtube so much because then they can form their own channels to watch their own thing that they want to see.

—-

banner photo of Jason Moran at Manhattan School of Music. I took this photo during Moran’s Master Class, open to students and the general public for free. There was maybe 25 people in attendance. Imagine seeing your favorite musician teaching his craft for free for so few people it is almost a private lesson. Jazz and soccer are better than ever. But who is going to know it if they can’t find out about it?