This is a well written well considered piece IMHO.
However the guy completely blows it in the last para where he says “let’s play shorter solos, and let’s play the right notes”. Gawd, no, wrong! It’s entirely possible to engage with the audience without placing those kinds of limitations on what you play. However what you play must first of all have meaning for you, and you need to want to communicate with the listener.
OOAA
nickduvet says
Indeed, having argued for jazz in all its form to be considered in the proper context, he falls at the final hurdle.
The principles that guide jazz musicians to improvise and innovate are as clear and strong as they ever were. What that may mean in this post-classic (Miles, Coltrane, Corea, McLaughlin) era is an increase in music that is difficult to love because it’s (perhaps) too far out (e.g. John Zorn). But those who have studied the music of the past will know about the arguments that were generated by the early work of Ornette Coleman and Eric Dolphy. So this argument about playing the right notes is nothing new.
Apropos of nothing, my brother-in-law and I share a love of jazz and over Christmas I put on the Keith Jarrett/Jan Garbarek album Belonging. Because we were in mixed (family) company we turned it off after a while, because Garbarek’s sax warbling was , we agreed, not very good. That’s not a new album, admittedly, and I still really like it, but sometimes when you are in mixed company, the notes can be the wrong ones.
Twang says
It comes down to what “the right notes” are – I don’t read that as “conventionally pretty and accessible to the casual listener” – I think it means “what the player meant to play” – after that it is whether you like the idea or not. But I think it excludes aimless noisemaking made by randomly hitting notes by chance, which may be fun but ain’t jazz.
I just found this little doc by one of my more recent finds – Mrs.T took me to see this duo of my birthday a couple of years ago in a cafe bar and they were sensational. Tigger’s verdict was “challenging” – I love it.
Tiggerlion says
“Challenging” is good, isn’t it, though not for the weak-hearted? Mrs T sounds wonderful!
Jazz doesn’t fare well in the Album of the Year poll, Melanie De Biasio’s EP performing best. However, there is a lot of great Jazz about and there were a lot of scattered votes from individuals. There is little consensus over the best Jazz albums of the year, even among the critics. The best outcome from keeping the score was discovering that JD Allen has a new LP out. I was thrown by its title, Americana. It’s a trio, just JD and bass and drums. The feel is laconic, almost lazy, but it is mesmerising.
Here’s Cotton.
retropath2 says
A similar fate for the “Country for Old Men” hitmaker, John Scofield, who, when I posted an appreciation thereof,
tumble weeded a response of next to nul, I seem to recall. (Thanks, Fatima) So I wrote about it some more elsewhere:
http://www.covermesongs.com/2016/10/review-john-scofields-country-old-men.html
And didn’t Snarky Puppy get a fair few votes? Yet I can’t see em in the list?
Tiggerlion says
Who is Seurus Og?
retropath2 says
It’s the gaelic for retropath. Or for one of my names. With an A, SeurAs.
mikethep says
Ah! *sound of penny dropping*
Colin H says
Sure as ogs is ogs.
Tiggerlion says
Snarky Puppy got twelve points from three votes, putting it just outside the top two hundred.
Mousey says
Bill Frisell also does the Americana/country music/jazz combo rather beautifully. Actually BF does just about everything rather beautifully
nickduvet says
Liked that McCormack and Yarde material very much Twang. Will check them out.
And I’m sure the name of the club they were filmed in was not lost on @johnny-concheroo
duco01 says
Just a quick message for all jazz fans on this board:
The redoubtable Dave Sumner, who runs the Bird Is the Worm blog, has started to post his 30 favourite jazz and jazz-ish albums of the year. As I write, he’s counted down to no. 14. He finishes on New Year’s Eve.
http://www.birdistheworm.com/
Every year, Dave’s selection features brilliant records from all around the world that I never see mentioned anywhere else on the entire T’intenet….
Colin H says
Not even by you, Duc?!?
Kaisfatdad says
That Dave Sumner list looks really interesting and wonderfully eclectic. Thanks.
Mike_H says
Excellent shout Mr Duco.
A pitiful few names I’m familiar with. Alison Miller I’ve seen clips of and enjoyed. Cyro Baptista is a wonderful percussionist (most often with John Zorn) and someone I’ve admired for ages. A couple of others are just names I’ve either seen somewhere in print or heard mentioned somewhere.
Jazz is in reasonable health. The luckiest of it’s practitioners get a living from it, the rest persist anyway because it’s what they want to play.
I like listening to good jazz on record/CD/download/stream and I especially like to see it created live. I’m fortunate to have a decent live jazz venue nearby where I can get my jazz fix fairly regularly.
ernietothecentreoftheearth says
In fairness, I think that jazz includes all the right notes, albeit in the wrong order, on the wrong instruments and in the wrong songs.
Freddy Steady says
Arf!
Junglejim says
Thanks for posting that Mousey, it’s a thoughtful piece with a couple of decent exchanges in the responses below it.
More and more I find Jazz to be the only form that regularly stretches & satisfies me in equal measure. There is such a wealth of ‘old gold’ that I’m very unlikely to ever exhaust it & I’m actively enjoying finding treasues that may be familiar to many but are brand new to me. By way of an example one of my favourite albums of 2016 was The Thelonius Monk Quartert with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall. It’s ancient in one sense & an historical document, but it’s totally fresh to me & I was blown away by it. A real thrill.
Jazz to the public at large probably has an image problem. The cool be-bop cats are long dead by & large & the impeccably stylish vibe evoked by Blue Note covers has been subsumed into ad copy – Jazz probably makes most casual listeners think ‘old’ or ‘dull’ & if its’ main champions appear to be the likes of Branford Marsalis, it’s not surprising however unfair.
As a form, I get the feeling it’s in pretty rude health, there’s exciting contemporary stuff all over & an obvious hip hop connection very much alive & kicking – but perhaps the days of singular giants are gone & it will continue to persist & evolve as a form mostly for music nerds rather than the world at large. If so, so be it – it’s not dying, it’ s just not universal. No need for obits any time soon.
Kid Dynamite says
I think jazz is on bit of an upward swing at the moment. Kamasi Washington played to almost a thousand people here in Bristol over the summer, after playing to less than half that in November 2015. He’s an outlier of course, but I’ve seen more attention paid this year to people like Dinosaur or Get The Blessing than I did for pretty much any jazz act in the last twenty years. I suppose it helps that I live in hipster central, mind you. The (probably correct) idea that it’s not getting so much traction in the mainstream is, I think, down to the ongoing atomisation of popular culture, not so much a jazzcentric problem.
Mousey says
@Junglejim – people have been saying jazz suffers from an image problem for decades. Unfortunately it’s true. People’s eyes glaze over when I say my band consists of jazz musicians (I don’t say “plays jazz” because we don’t). I just think if only, if only they could hear some of the amazing music with that unfortunate moniker. I agree, it’s in pretty rude health, all over the world. There’s jazz played in Australia that’s the equal of anything in the northern hemisphere.
Junglejim says
Perhaps the very use of the word ‘Jazz’ contributes to the problem – though I’m at a complete loss to know what else it could possibly be dubbed – but it does come with tons of baggage -everything from Satchmo to Jamie Callum(!)
We kind of all know what we mean by the term yet it has been disavowed in the past as a limiting label by folk including Miles & The Art Ensemble of Chicago -they preferred ‘Great Black Music’.
This was addressed in the terrific AW Jazz podcast of course, when the guys wrestled with the definition – & it is a real toughie – it’s no longer an exclusively American (or African- American) form, & can’t be defined by the instruments deployed. When all’s said & done, it’s music, but unlike say classical, which can be almost anything, Jazz seems to come with sufficient pre-supposition that it can almost be a handicap.
What a pity, when freedom of expression is really what is its’ most rewarding trait.
Mohair-Sam says
I got the DVD Tubby Hayes a man in a hurry for Christmas from a mate who has got seriously into jazz lately.
its narrated by Martin Freeman apparently. I’ll give it a go in the next few days. Anyone else come across it ?
Colin H says
Yes. You’ll find a review of it in the Features section here. Ditto the Tubbs biography – to save you time: just buy it. 🙂
Tiggerlion says
Seconded.
duco01 says
Yes, I really liked A Man in a Hurry. I could quite easily have watched another hour’s worth.
Sniffity says
Have any jazz buffs here seen La La Land?
How is the sort of jazz being played and evangelised about in that film regarded? I couldn’t help wondering, while watching it, whether the music worshipped and performed was some dinosaur style long since played out, a reflection of its current state, or some kind of “movie jazz” that never existed in the real world…?
Artery says
It took me a while to appreciate Jazz. Listening attentively to the instrumental interaction in Grateful Dead concert recordings helped, as did seeing a hot Dixieland band in the Grey Horse in Kingston as a teenager in the early seventies. This led me to seeing George Melly, finding Bessie Smith and eventually to Kind Of Blue (which remains the best LP to start with). Also, reading Jack Kerouac as a teenager piqued my interest. Miles Davis and Charles Mingus have many easily accesible recordings. Not all Jazz is good of course. Beware extreme avant garde stuff and “light” jazz.
I think jazz is often used as background music, which is unfortunate, as it demands close attention. It is spectacularly unsuccessful as party music for that reason. You really don’t need to be a musician to understand it as many people I think assume, although you do have to be a very accomplished musician to play it. Two chords and the truth ain’t enuff baby. Just listen to the instruments individually and enjoy the interplay.
Actually, jazz is a very varied form. Dixieland and swing, which seem to have fallen from favour in recent decades, may well be the easiest entry point. Or something highly melodic like Kind Of Blue or Take Five by Dave Brubeck.