Stuff about Jazz

 

BBC 4 did one of its intermittent Jazz evenings last Friday. A repeat of the excellent Miles Davis documentary 'Birth of the Cool' and a revival of the Jazz 625 concert series featuring Sons of Kemet, Nubya Garcia and the rest of what I'm sure will be called the New Wave of British Jazz at some point (NWOBJ?). There was also a history of Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club, and the man himself. You can find the programmes here and they are all worth a watch.

Back in the summer I bought a collection of Jazz CDs, about 400 of them. I bought this on the strength of a pile of Blue Note and similar discs. I'm writing up a longer price about this collection and collecting in general, but for now one of the areas that I knew relatively little about was British Jazz of the 50s and 60s. I had always had this down as very much a copy of American music of the period, and hadn't explored names like Tubby Hayes, Peter King, Tony Kinsey, and Ronnie Scott himself. Wrong. One of the interesting things about British Jazz of the time is that it didn't reject earlier forms of the music quite as completely as the Americans did. Ronnie Scott kept the lyrical tone of Ben Webster and Coleman Hawkins adding it to Be Bop rather than subtracting it in favour of a full-on Parker style note storm. So, I’ve been listening to it, and a lot more of the British Jazz has ended up on the iPod than I thought might.

To connect back to the BBC4 evening, the original creator of this collection had some clear preferences, piano trios, Stan Getz, the West Coast “cool” Jazz of the mid 50s, and trumpeters. Lee Morgan was clearly a favourite and you can’t fault him for that, Donald Byrd, Humphrey Lyttleton, and many others. One name is strikingly absent from the list, apart from one ropey compilation. Miles. Given the breadth of the dark magus’ work surely there must be something that appealed. Anything recorded after about 1970, or sounding like it had at any rate, is missing from the collection. But that leaves the Prestige albums and the early Columbia records all of which he would surely have enjoyed?

Anyway, all this will prompt a few more posts about Jazz, simply because I’m listening to a fair bit of it at present, and this is after all a blog about what I’m playing on the iPod…

  

Giving snobbery the Byrd.

As you may have noticed music snobbery is rife. Extremists shouting in support of their thing, and ready to leap to social media to tell you why your thing is rubbish. I'm not getting into the is X or Y artist Prog debate here because, frankly, I have a life.   

The 70s output of Blue Note Records has been seen, mostly by those for whom Jazz froze in 1962, as way inferior to the "heyday" of the 50s and 60s. My taste in Jazz was largely informed by The Kyle Cathie book 'Jazz on CD' by John Fordham. This introduced me to Hank Mobley, Lee Morgan and many others. What it skipped over was anything that crossed over into fusion, funk or rock. Bill Bruford's excellent Earthworks was dismissed, more seriously so was Miles Davis after 1969. The Mahavishnu Orchestra got a brief mention under John McLaughlin, who himself only merited a 20 word bio and 1 album suggestion, from 1969. Even in the mid 90s there was a healthy cd reissue market so that's not an excuse.

So, until very recently I missed out on the 1970's at Blue Note. I picked up Donald Byrd's 'Street Lady' at a charity shop, and it's great. If you are of the view that Fender killed Jazz with their Rhodes Piano and Precision Bass then try this, and the rest of the Mizell Brothers' productions for Blue Note, and other labels. A friend then reminded me about Quantic Soul Orchestra and introduced me to guitarist Wilbert Longmire, who doesn't rate a Wikipedia entry it seems, but try his 'Sunny Side Up' album. Jazz Funk, or Fusion, or whatever has therefore entered my life giving me something new to look out for. The couple of compilations I have bought suggest the quality is much higher than my previous prejudice would have allowed for. Why Steely Dan never found Longmire I'm not sure he would have fitted them like a glove.

Now, on second thoughts I am getting into the Prog or not thing. The doyen of Prog writers, Sid Smith, has recently pointed out on Twitter some of the hypocrisy surrounding the magazine of the same name, as well as the lack of actual progression in much of the music that calls itself "Progressive". By the numbers Genesis and Pink Floyd retreads do seem to dominate, but that doesn't mean there isn't some good music within the rough confines of Prog. Prog Magazine itself seems to be less worried about the definition than their readers, embracing everything from material that is closer to Folk to electronic music of the Tangerine Dream type.

Duke Ellington is credited with saying "There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind". The rest of the quote from an article called 'Where Is Jazz Going?' in Music Journal from 1962 is ... "the only yardstick by which the result should be judged is simply that of how it sounds. If it sounds good it's successful; if it doesn't it has failed." For me the definition extends far enough to include, if it makes you feel good it doesn't matter what label it carries or what other people think of it.

What makes you think you would like classical music?

This Sunday morning I was half awake and listening to the radio at something called 6.47am and the presenter of Radio 5 breakfast, Chris Warburton, was talking about his cultural new years resolutions. One of these was to learn more about classical music. He had a chat to some violinists at the BBC symphony orchestra, not sure why violinists, probably because they could play clips on the radio easily. They started off suggesting Ravel, on the grounds that everyone knows the Bolero.

The question that didn't get asked was what had made him think he should investigate classical music? The clues were there in the interview. Another of Chris' resolutions was to listen to Jazz pianist Bill Evans. Now Evans, who many non Jazz listeners will still have heard on Miles Davis' "Kind Of Blue", was influenced by some aspects of classical music, principally Bach, as well as by Jazz players like Bud Powell. Having said that this article suggests as do other sources that Evans had a lot in common with impressionist composers like Debussy, and Ravel, and also Chopin from a bit earlier. So it looks like the violinists Chris was talking to got it right for the wrong reasons. I admit to knowing nothing about classical music, but I do understand that the description classical music is a bit like bracketing, Kylie, Napalm Death and Aphex Twin all under 'Pop'. This means that you won't like all of "Classical" any more than you will necessarily like all "Rock" or "Jazz" or "Hip-Hop", so a starting point that relates to what you like already will help your explorations. Chris mentioned recommendations for Brahms and Schubert which even with my limited knowledge seem unlikely  jumping off points for someone who said he likes Jazz, Soul & Funk.

Every form of music has it's snobbery and maybe I detected a hint of this in the suggestion of Ravel to Chris, as it seemed to be based on the assumption that most of us only connect with a violin through ice skating and adverts. I have always thought that I may like modern classical music and my few explorations seem to suggest I would. What I need is a place to start; anyone like to help?





By the way Chris, if you ever read this, Bill Evans, start with the classics, Everybody Digs Bill Evans
Sunday at the Village Vanguard and pretty much anything featuring his trio with Paul Motian and Scott LaFaro. I have a very good compilation of his final years, "We Will Meet Again - The Bill Evans Anthology 1977-1980" and after that you're off on your own.

Jazz - This time it's personal

So far on the Jazz journey I have suggested some labels to start with, and talked about the current state of things. What I haven't done is tell you what's on my iPod. Of 1200 odd albums 267 are jazz, with Jazz Rock, Jazz Funk and other variations on top of that. Here's this weeks top picks, but ask me tomorrow and it will all be different.

Sonny Clark - Cool Struttin'
Clark. like Hank Mobley below was "forgotten" for a long time, but has been found again and is getting his due of praise. This is what Soul Jazz should sound like. Great band with Clark and Jackie McLean particularly bluesey. One of Miles best rhythm sections, Paul Chambers on bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums and Art Farmer on trumpet. 
 
Duke Ellington - At Newport
Ellington was truly the greatest american composer of the 20th Century, and also the best band leader. Paul Gonsalves performance on Diminuendo In Blue And Crescendo In Blue is rightly highlighted as one of the outstanding Jazz solos



Kamasi Washington - The Epic
When a Jazz artist gets a write up in Mojo you know he's made it. Ok there's really nothing that Miles or Coltrane didn't originate but the dense arrangements, including voices, strings and stream of consciousness soloing mean you get swept up in it and suddenly 3 hours have gone by. Epic oh yes. Get it you won't regret it


Weather Report - Mr Gone
Notoriously got a 1 star review in Downbeat, don't know why it has always been my favourite Weather report album. Anything with Jaco on it is ok by me. The Legendary Live tapes album includes material recorded at the same time, and is the best bet for live WR.


Herbie Hancock - Manchild
Better more developed ideas than Headhunters for me. Jazz you can dance to.

Sun Ra - Somewhere Else
Jazz from Saturn. You have to work at "getting" the Arkestra but once you do avoid the "easy" compilations and go for this or Space Is The Place and blast off from there

Hank Mobley, Lee Morgan, Art Blakey and John Coltrane all get regular play across lots of albums, and if you want to try them you are on safe ground with most of there albums. Maybe try Blue Train or Giant Steps as a route into Coltrane.

And that's Jazz. I promise not to mention it for a bit now so it's safe to come out...

Jazz Again - Where are we now?.

Jazz has evolved over the last century or so. When it stopped being a "popular" music in the early sixties it turned to blending itself with other genres and has pretty much stayed that way.

The best known blends are with Rock, Soul and Funk which created Jazz-Rock, Jazz-Funk, and the dreaded Fusion. If you can get it Stuart Nicholson's book on the evolution of these styles is excellent. I pointed you towards the Miles Davis end of Jazz Rock last time. Jazz Funk begins and almost ends with Herbie Hancock's "Headhunters" album. So much of the rest of this and the easy listening that often calls itself Fusion is bland and featureless. For me you can pretty much discard anything on the GRP label, but feel free to disagree! The best Jazz-Funk grew out of  the Hard Bop and Soul Jazz of the sixties. There are a lot of really good Jazz-Funk compilations about, pick a couple and see if it works for you.

Adding world music elements has been happening since before we knew it was called world music. If I'm honest it's an area that I don't do very well. One artist I do like is Susheela Raman who has mixed Indian music with Western styles more successfully than most others, try her.

Western classical music has been added to Jazz right from the beginning, Ravel and Stravinsky were early supporters. The Modern Jazz Quartet have been as described as Chamber Jazz and that style has evolved into much of ECM record's output. You see what I mean about "house styles" for record labels.

With the current generation of artists the blending of styles and genres has been absorbed as they learnt their instruments so there isn't the rather obvious stapling together of different musics. Electric doesn't mean fusion so much anymore and so on. Portico Quartet use ambient electronic styles. Snarky Puppy bring the attitude of that peculiarly American concept the Jam Band to Jazz with a cast of thousands. Live they are a totally different prospect than their albums. Try this.

My new favourites are a London band The Lydian Collective, they can even sound like the calmer bits of Discipline era King Crimson at times. Try their album on Bandcamp, and look at a couple of their videos. Jazz Mandolin anyone?

This post has become quite long enough already so next time I will talk about the Jazz that is actually on my iPod.

Jazz - Don't say I didn't warn you

What is Jazz? The dictionary definition is as rooted in the past as John Thompson's Fast Show character. "Jazz is a music of black American origin characterised by improvisation, syncopation, and usually a regular or forceful rhythm". Perhaps in 1928 it was, since then it has grown up a bit.

I discovered jazz during a brief, ill advised attempt to play the trumpet at school. It was a short step to Louis Armstrong and then on to Miles Davis. The trumpet disappeared but the Jazz remained. For some time I stuck with Miles, almost a genre on his own, but later on discovered all sorts of other stuff. Jazz has drifted in and out for me over the years. Currently it's in.

Jazz is as plagued by category-itis as any other music. I could go on about Hard Bop vs Mainstream vs Fusion and bore myself, and you, stupid. In the past record companies tended to have house styles, often dictated by the label owner producer or engineer.

Blue Note: The obvious place to start as it is the one label that non fans may have heard of.  Reid Miles' artwork has been influencing graphic design since the 1950s, and the music, rooted in "Hard Bop", (a mix of BeBop with R&B, soul, and blues) has been a dominant style for much of that time. This list from Apple Music covers 10 of the really essential bits of Blue Note to get you started.

 

Blue Note's sound was inspired by founders Alfred Lion & Francis Wolff. They allowed artists paid rehearsal time to develop ideas, which competing labels like Prestige didn't, so their records sounded better and bursting with ideas - because they were.

Impulse!: Starting in 1960 Impulse! was Jazz without stabilisers, it could get a bit wobbly on some of the wilder bits of the avant garde. John Coltrane was it's headline act and was followed by a raft of angry tenor sax players. There are also some real gems on Impulse the Duke Ellington/John Coltrane album has some of 'Trane's finest ballads, and there are classic albums from Gil Evans, Oliver Nelson and others that don't require a high tolerance for squalling horn solos. Set up by producer Creed Taylor the label was shepherded through the sixties by Bob Thiele. Impulse! was another label with a strong visual presence, it's orange and black spines translating well to the CD age.

CBS/Columbia:  Home to Miles Davis from 1955 until the eighties Columbia came into its own with Electric Jazz in the seventies. Many of Miles' sidemen found a home here. Tony William's Lifetime, Herbie Hancock's Headhunters, John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra and Weather Report. While not always made from the best quality tapes, the Contemporary Jazz Masters series is worth keeping an eye out for as it is pretty much the best of 1970s Jazz Rock Fusion. Tell them by the red borders and this stamp. Columbia had many great Jazz artists before they plugged in, Erroll Garner, Ellington and Brubeck amongst others. Avoid like the plague the corresponding blue border Jazz Masterpieces series, they couldn't even get the covers right. It's a good reference list of what to buy elsewhere though.

If you are new to Jazz then checking out these labels will give you a fair range of Jazz to explore. One name to keep an eye out for is Rudy Van Gelder recording engineer extrordinaire for Blue Note, Prestige, Impulse! and CTI (Creed Taylor's 70s label). His records have a distinct feel and sound and his RVG remasters for CD are amongst the best transfers to digital. 

With some very cheap downloads available, and Fopp and secondhand shops selling Jazz CDs for £3 or £4 you can afford to experiment. There are also some great books on Jazz, Richard Cook's Biography of Blue Note, any of Ashley Kahn's books and David Rosenthal's "Hard Bop" are good places to explore. Less well served than rock for magazines, Jazzwise is the news magazine and while Jazz Journal has it's good points the semi pro feel is off putting. There were a couple of tries in the nineties at a Mojo style legacy magazine perhaps time to try again?

You may have noticed that I haven't talked about current jazz artists much. They are coming up in part two and also what Jazz is actually on my iPod.