M: Excuse me, where is your rock music section?
W: Rock music? I'm sorry, we're a jazz store. We don't have any rock and roll.
M: Oh, you only have jazz music? Nothing else?
W: That's right. We're the only record store in London dedicated exclusively to jazz. Actually, we're more than just a record store. We have a cafe & library upstairs and a ticket office down the hall, where you can buy tickets to all the major jazz concerts in the city. Also, we have our own studio next door, where we produce albums for up-and-coming artists. We are committed to fostering new music talent.
M: Wow! That's so cool. I guess there's not much of a jazz scene anymore, not like they used to be. But here you're trying to promote this great music genre.
W: Yes, indeed. Nowadays, most people like to listen to pop and rock music. Hip hop music from America is also getting more and more popular. So as a result, there are fewer listeners of jazz, which is a great shame because it's an incredibly rich genre. But that's not to say there isn't any good new jazz music being made out there anymore—far from it. It's just a much smaller market today.
M: So how would you define jazz?
W: Well, interestingly enough, there's no agreed-upon definition of jazz. Indeed, there are many different styles of jazz. Some have singing, but most don't. Some are electric and some aren't. Some contain live experimentation, but not always. While there's no simple definition for it, and while there are many different styles of jazz, you simply know it when you hear it. Honestly, the only way to know what jazz is, is to listen to it yourself. As the great trumpet player, Louis Armstrong said, if you gotta ask, you'll never know.