Creativity Generativity and Jackie McLean

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

In a description of his musical evolution in Downbeat Magazine, McLean offered the following modest self-appraisal: “I have never been in the forefront of any new style, but I have been able to align myself with [different styles] and maybe add to them”

i first came across Jackie McLean on the West End Stage in The Connection; and the Blue Note lps but especially Let Freedom Ring ... then he dropped from my sight for decades

i had read that he was teaching, working as a community activist with the drugs and young people programmes and playing but knew little of him or his playing in later years


this excellent essay gives a great overview of his life and contributions to jazz, African-American culture, the community and education .... in a phrase ... a major figure

what strikes me in the essay and in the clip below is that he plays with his son .... hence the generativity ... a figure who sustains and improves society to build a little on Erik Erikson's view of generativity

another hero of mine - a certain Mr Tracey - plays with his son, but seeing him last year playing with son and grandson at the Y in Leicester was a deeply moving experience [great gig too] .... but i had first seen Stan at Scott's when i was a kid; i doubt either of us could have dreamed that we would be in the same room again, he in his 80s, playing with his son and grandson ... when we say jazz comes of age we might be meaning a lot more than we at first though we did in terms of acceptance and air time and other superficial thoughts ..... as an art it runs through families and generations ...

i love the thought of Jackie hanging out at Bud Powell's house; the attention of such young musicians must, we hope, have given that genius some solace and esteem in an otherwise bleak world of police, psychiatry and ECT ... Jackie certainly built on that experience in his own life and contributions as an educator .... nor is he alone in that contribution .... Kenny Barron and Ran Blake are [were] very active in the educational field, and here for example, Stan Sulzman teaches at the Royal Academy and Django Bates also at RAM and now in Switzerland ...

an improvised art must of necessity be an apprenticed art, a griot art; it has moved beyond the early fellowships of the road and the cellar bars to institutions, families and concert venues .... this is what the MJQ tuxedos were for .... long may it prosper ...

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

i first came across Jackie McLean on the West End Stage in The Connection; and the Blue Note lps but especially Let Freedom Ring ... then he dropped from my sight for decades

i had read that he was teaching, working as a community activist with the drugs and young people programmes and playing but knew little of him or his playing in later years


this excellent essay gives a great overview of his life and contributions to jazz, African-American culture, the community and education .... in a phrase ... a major figure

what strikes me in the essay and in the clip below is that he plays with his son .... hence the generativity ... a figure who sustains and improves society to build a little on Erik Erikson's view of generativity

another hero of mine - a certain Mr Tracey - plays with his son, but seeing him last year playing with son and grandson at the Y in Leicester was a deeply moving experience [great gig too] .... but i had first seen Stan at Scott's when i was a kid; i doubt either of us could have dreamed that we would be in the same room again, he in his 80s, playing with his son and grandson ... when we say jazz comes of age we might be meaning a lot more than we at first though we did in terms of acceptance and air time and other superficial thoughts ..... as an art it runs through families and generations ...

i love the thought of Jackie hanging out at Bud Powell's house; the attention of such young musicians must, we hope, have given that genius some solace and esteem in an otherwise bleak world of police, psychiatry and ECT ... Jackie certainly built on that experience in his own life and contributions as an educator .... nor is he alone in that contribution .... Kenny Barron and Ran Blake are [were] very active in the educational field, and here for example, Stan Sulzman teaches at the Royal Academy and Django Bates also at RAM and now in Switzerland ...

an improvised art must of necessity be an apprenticed art, a griot art; it has moved beyond the early fellowships of the road and the cellar bars to institutions, families and concert venues .... this is what the MJQ tuxedos were for .... long may it prosper ...

p

Funny you should raise this but I was watching a video of Jackie playing at a 80s Japanese festival a few nights back with Wallace Roney and his drive and invention was just amazing. Right up to the end. In similar thought there is clip of Art Farmer dueting with Roy Hargrove. And fine tho Hargrove is, and I'm a fan, Farmer totally outplays him with an effortless grace. Again there's an entire set on line with Max Roach playing with his younger qrt. and hardly breaking a sweat. And looking in his 60s? remarkably like Obama!

The point being that once that mentoring/ living example is lost then a lot of the core goes out of tbe music as a living and lived tradition. Maybe it already has.

BN.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

funny you should mention that video i was watching it yesterday and nearly linked to it as well ...

nope i do not think the core has gone at all; i was lying abed this morning imagining a Brit Jazz At The Phil tour with, amongst others, Tims Whitehead & Garland, Andy Shepherd and the Beloved Trio of Django Bates all in a monster jam blues etc ... and Trish Clowes and her band with Empirical sharing a string quartet .... not to mention Stan's new quintet from his latest release ...pigs might fly eh ..................

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

funny you should mention that video i was watching it yesterday and nearly linked to it as well ...

nope i do not think the core has gone at all; i was lying abed this morning imagining a Brit Jazz At The Phil tour with, amongst others, Tims Whitehead & Garland, Andy Shepherd and the Beloved Trio of Django Bates all in a monster jam blues etc ... and Trish Clowes and her band with Empirical sharing a string quartet .... not to mention Stan's new quintet from his latest release ...pigs might fly eh ..................

Too much cheese last thing at night Calum...nightmares!

Stick to hot milk and dream of Kenny Dorham and JR Monterose at the Bohemia!

BN.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

at the Bohemia? only Oscar Pettiford will do!

[Ian Thumwood]

Bluesnik

I share your enthusiasm for McLean's work and especially the quintet with Grachan Moncur and Bobby Hutcherson. Picking up the comment about "the living in / lived in tradition" I seriously recommend Jason Adasiewivz's quintent called "Roll down" and have been playing their CD "Varmint" all weekend. The album takes it'c cures from albums like Hitcherson's "Oblique" and the leader admits in the liner notes that he was very much thinking of Andrew Hill's music when he made the recoding.

Aram Shelton is a player who sounds like a cross between Dolphy and McLean whereas his front line partner Josh Berman has a style on cornet which seems to embrace more traditional elements with extended techniques. I love the leader's vibes playing but the band is elevated to a higher level by Frank Rosaly's drumming. This is a terrific album and essesntially picks up the baton from the superior records Blue Note were putting out mid-sixties.

Check this out:-

. i think I've posted some of their music before.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Bluesnik

I share your enthusiasm for McLean's work and especially the quintet with Grachan Moncur and Bobby Hutcherson. Picking up the comment about "the living in / lived in tradition" I seriously recommend Jason Adasiewivz's quintent called "Roll down" and have been playing their CD "Varmint" all weekend. The album takes it'c cures from albums like Hitcherson's "Oblique" and the leader admits in the liner notes that he was very much thinking of Andrew Hill's music when he made the recoding.

Aram Shelton is a player who sounds like a cross between Dolphy and McLean whereas his front line partner Josh Berman has a style on cornet which seems to embrace more traditional elements with extended techniques. I love the leader's vibes playing but the band is elevated to a higher level by Frank Rosaly's drumming. This is a terrific album and essesntially picks up the baton from the superior records Blue Note were putting out mid-sixties.

Check this out:-

. i think I've posted some of their music before.

Ian, good stuff. A hint of Walt Dickerson also in there with some of the more melodic trio sides (Youtube)? Worth watching out for.

Re Jackie...Im a huge fan of the Hutcherson sides and that entire approach and group sound but don't forget how much Grachan Monchur contributed esp with the writing. His Evolution and Some Other Stuff are well worth checking.

And for those who like me wonder what Jackie would have sounded like with Miles second quintet...try High Frequency with a young Jack D'J et Larry Willis doing his Herbieness licks. Played it again this morning. Glorious.

BN.

BTW, have you seen that Utube video of Lennie Tristano playing a solo concert in Copenhagen in the early sixties? Fascinating. I imagine even more for pianists because the camera is following his hands.


BN.

[burning dog]

with herbie and tony very early on. I guess it's when HH was with Donald Byrd.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Vertigo is a fine album. Not as strong as what was to follow but some exellence all round. And Donald Byrd is strong...hes a strange one. Sometimes he can be as boring as hell, if nicely turned out with his licks, and then even on the next album he

can really get involved and rise to it. Like Grant Green he needed the company to give him a kicking.

Less coast, more roast.

BN.