Jazz is Dead is Keeping Jazz Alive

Despite the eulogistic name, Jazz Is Dead is dedicated to keeping the legacy of said jazz maestros alive through the lens of hip-hop and a combined cocktail of all-analog production, strikingly sophisticated packaging, and an influx of international tour dates.

“The name came from frustration,” Lojero elaborated from the label’s offices when asked about the project’s origin story, citing low ticket sales at their first show six years ago at the Lodge Room in LA’s Highland Park, headlined by trumpeter Keyon Harrold. “The more I played with this name and sprung it on people, the more of a strong reaction it got.”

“It’s a provocative statement that represents those in the know,” Younge echoed from the control room of his all-analog Linear Labs Studio, where all of the label’s releases to date have been tracked. “The heads know that this is their community. When we’re doing a concert for an artist that you thought you’d never get to see because you didn’t know how old they were, or if they’re still performing, we’re doing it with a point of view. What starts to happen is that these artists become new artists again — it’s a real resurgence.” 

“We’ve developed a family relationship with pretty much every artist that we’ve worked with. We’re even learning Portuguese for our Brazilian artists,” Younge continues. “It’s not about money because there’s none to be made. It’s about what they get back.” 

The pair would later join forces to score the Marvel Netflix series Luke Cage and eventually cut a collaborative duo album, The Midnight Hour, an orchestral soul jazz opus informed by the Harlem Renaissance that boasted features from Cee-Lo Green and Raphael Saadiq. Younge attributes both of these projects as paving the way for the trajectory of the label.

While Muhammad is credited as a co-founder, Younge does the lion’s share of the technical work when it comes to production. “Ali’s more involved with the preliminary side of writing and creating the stuff — sometimes he’s there at the end — but when all is said and done, I’m the one finishing everything and getting it all together.”

After a few years of live events at the Lodge Room, the label side of operations launched in 2020 with the compilation Jazz Is Dead 001. Released at the onset of the pandemic, the inaugural release gathered the fruits of Younge’s studio sessions the year prior. It offers a taste for full-length albums to follow from the likes of Brazilian jazz-funk ensemble Azymuth and soul-jazz pianist Doug Carn. Upon pressing play on Roy Ayers’ “Hey Lover,” it’s easy to mistake its smoky, slow-burning synth-addled production landscape for the one he cultivated on an earlier magnum opus like 1976’s Everybody Loves The Sunshine. According to Younge, this is no accident. 

When it comes to the label’s visual language, the team wanted to create something akin to an encyclopedia series with an interconnected symmetry between all releases of the catalog. “It encourages people to buy more than one,” Hicks offers. “I often get emails from listeners who say that their OCD makes them want to pick up more than one without missing the whole set.”

So far, the label has produced three series of releases of ten records — these begin with introductory compilations and wrap up with a set of instrumentals and remixes from the crew’s contemporaries. “The focus of the first series was making the dream come true,” Younge replies when asked about the distinction between these sets.

“The second series was more about how we could expand the scope of the music, getting deeper into different kinds of songwriting and composition,” the producer continues. “I’ve never really been a fan of jazz where you have two little licks and the rest is improvising — composition and improvisation need to work together.”