Jazz gives me the blues

[Guest]

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=39805

This review of the new Billy Jenkins' album by Chris May raises interesting questions about the state of jazz. Billy is a bit of an old curmudgeon but he may have a point.

[Serial_Apologist]

"We need creators, not curators": Keith Tippett's very phrase.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

"Life is one long process of getting tired" ~ Samuel Butler

Or "Revolt into Style" as George Melly said/wrote in 1970.

BN.

"I ain't tired, I been drinkin'!" - Roscoe Gordon.

"Oh, where are the girls of yesteryear?" - Duke Bluesnik.

[Rumbaba]

I sometimes look around at the audience at jazz gigs and think, 'these are all middle aged, middle/professional class white blokes (like me I suppose): how did jazz travel so far from it's roots? Even in my favourite jazz club in New Orleans (Snug Harbour), there may be some black faces on stage like Donald Harrison, Charmaine Neville, Ellis Marsalis, but the paying public is the white middle class. Maybe we should congratulate ourselves on 'preserving' jazz, like white, British kids rescued the blues in the 60s ?

[burning dog]

I'm suspicious of the whole concept of rebellion and "being a rebel" as it is used in modern times.


The jazz gigs round here seem to have a fair number of working class patrons, unless you use a very narrow defintion ie Blue Collar (who are more of a protected species than social class these days.)

Moving on to age group, most concerts sans dancing, whatever the genre, are for the middle aged now. Ironically, old fashioned Jamie Cullum is likey to get a younger audience than most 'real' jazz.

PS
This crowd in New Orleans are mostly black, but they are participating, not just being passive listeners. Maybe it's the venues that appeal to middle class Anglo Saxons rather than the music?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIEXRRDAqBU&feature=related

[Rumbaba]

I don't necessarily buy the 'rebel' thing either and, to be fair to Billy, this is Chris May's interpretation.

Your remark on venues is interesting and I think it can make a big difference. I saw Taj Mahal many years ago at a gig in Munich (ok, not strictly jazz) and he was great. It was a student type gig, no seats, stage at one end, bar at the other. I subsequently saw him at The Lincoln Centre in New York and it really didn't work at all. It was part of some po faced 'roots of the blues' thing. It's probably a great place for watching a string quartet and the context probably stifled Taj's natural exuberance. After enduring the first two acts; Corey Harris and Randy Weston, I kept assuring my wife the Taj would be brilliant (I had seen him live and loved his albums) and then he introduced the kora player and my heart sank. At this point my wife said 'Oh God, not more plinky plonky stuff, when are we going to get some blues?'. Even though he did one or two classic numbers, it just wasn't there. The audience, in their tiered seats listened politely and applauded appropriately at the end of each number. Taj can work an audience on his own, just with an acoutic guitar but this was like attending a lecture.

Here's the flyer for the gig.

"Blues ambassador Taj Mahal meets jazz innovator Randy Weston as they explore the music of North Africa that helped shape the sound of the blues. Contributing that night will be blues singer/guitarist Corey Harris, Sengalese percussionist/kora master Abdou M'Boup, and Malian griot and kora player Mamadou Diabate. Mr. Majal expresses a brotherhood between jazz and blues, "The blues is the rhythm, flavor and the body of jazz. I can't think of a better place to express those feelings than Jazz at Lincoln Center."

However, I have seen Sonny Rollins, Dr John, Billy Jenkins himself and many others work seated, concert venues to great effect. Part of the problem is the balance betwee getting enough paying customers to make the gig viable and having the intimacy of a jazz club e.g. Ronnie Scott's. I haven't been to New Orleans since Katrina hit but my impression is that the live music scene is very dependent on tourism (not just the Bourbon Street bars but the 'real' clubs too). I recall going to see the Wild Magnolias at The Funky Butt on North Rampart Street (sadly closed since Katrina) and being amazed that they were playing in the bar downstairs and not on stage in the club upstairs. There were less than a dozen people for the first set. They were excellent and had the whole Mardi Gras thing with the Big Chief and dancers in full costume. I asked the barmaid why it was so poorly attended and she said that it was Wednesday night in New Orleans and anyone who wanted to see the Wild Magnolias had already seen them loads of times.

[burning dog]

I thikn the problem is Jazz musicians rightly wanted to be taken seriously, like Classical, but this got converted into wanting to have Classical type concerts. The LCJO concerts I have attended had people who never normally go to Jazz but to Classical (quite a few go to both as a matter of course) The best bit, the only section that gained an informal natural response (of approval) was when Wynton played with just piano and bass, and and one other time when Joe Temperly did a couple of numbers with minimal backing. I suspect the "Classical" audience didnt go to another Jazz gig until the next LCJO or similar heritage gig.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

For the attention of Conmrade B.Dog.

"Blue Collar"
"I been down in Pennsylvania,
Where I was working in the mine.
And I been down in Cincinnati;
They laid me off the assembly line.
Yeah, they got me looking everywhere,
But I ain't too proud of what I found.
And you can't name where I ain't been down.
'Cause there ain't no place I ain't been down."
- Gil Scott Heron (the late)

Down...but NOT out. Don't believe the hype. Or the Guardian.

BN.

[Rumbaba]

I thikn the problem is Jazz musicians rightly wanted to be taken seriously, like Classical, but this got converted into wanting to have Classical type concerts. The LCJO concerts I have attended had people who never normally go to Jazz but to Classical (quite a few go to both as a matter of course) The best bit, the only section that gained an informal natural response (of approval) was when Wynton played with just piano and bass, and and one other time when Joe Temperly did a couple of numbers with minimal backing. I suspect the "Classical" audience didnt go to another Jazz gig until the next LCJO or similar heritage gig.

Joe Temperley is from my neck of the woods (Fife in Scotland). He must be over 80 now. I didn't know he was still alive, never mind still playing!

[burning dog]

He hepled found a Fife band (drums as well) for teenagers. Not sure if he's still playing, he was in the mid noughties and the video below seems to be from 2009

An interview on Scottish TV

[Byas'd Opinion]

As far as I know he's still active, although based in the US and not over here much. I heard him about a year ago when he was featured soloist with the LCJO during the Glasgow Jazz Festival, and he was over later last summer for the Edinburgh Jazz Festival.

From the reviews of the LCJO tour I've read, they seemed to play different sets almost every night, and the Glasgow one struck me as being treated almost as a homecoming show for Temperley: he probably played more solos than anyone else, and was the only player other than Wynton Marsalis to be featured in a small group setting. Review: http://living.scotsman.com/jazz-revi...oln.6388347.jp

Oh, and here's a little something from later that night: Wynton Marsalis sitting in with a Michael Janisch group: