JAZZ AND BEYOND
by Bob Pomeroy
I’ve been watching Ken Burns’ new documentary JAZZ on PBS. I think the
series will be good for the music. A lot of people who have never been exposed to jazz will see and hear it for the first time. People who considered the music boring might catch some of the enthusiasm of the show’s commentators. People who only know jazz from the easy listening background music played on most radio stations will get a chance to hear some music played with passion. The series has already spun off a 5 CD box set, a big book of JAZZ and a series of “best
of” compilations of featured artists.
As enjoyable as JAZZ is, there are still a few things that bother me. No one will question the major contributions made by Louie Armstrong and Duke Ellington. They were unquestionably major talents. As a narrative device, telling the story of jazz through two of its major figures works. Unfortunately, that means that once Ellington and Armstrong are gone, the story is over. JAZZ ends in the 1970’s, which might leave the impression that the story of jazz ends in the 1970’s too. The omnipresence of Wynton Marsalis contributes to the “jazz is a dead art form to be preserved in a museum” mentality. As an advocate
of jazz by living artists, I’m bothered by Burns shortchanging the last 40 years of the music’s development. So let’s spend the rest of this column looking at some innovative jazz artists who didn’t die thirty years ago.
Matthew Ship
I’d be very interested in hearing what Matthew Ship thinks of JAZZ. He has been very critical of Wynton Marsalis in the past and is quite outspoken about jazz being a living art form. He actually retired for a short period of time to protest the domination of jazz by traditionalists who he felt were trying to codify the music and turn it into some kind of holy relic. His protest poses the philosophical question- should jazz be reduced to a set of techniques and scores
in the same manner that European classical music has been reduced to technique and interpretation of scores?
Ship is both an innovative composer and a vibrant pianist. Most of what I’ve heard from Ship is spiky and angular free jazz. Matthew Ship’s most recent release, Pastoral Composure (Blue Series/Thirsty Ear), is very different. Sometimes titles have little relevance to the music on a disc. Pastoral is very descriptive of the sound of these compositions. The music has a very composed, chamber jazz feel. Ship’s playing is elegant and soulful while retaining a distinctive edge. Trumpeter Roy Campbell Jr. is one of the more lyrical players on the scene today. Pastoral Composure is really quite an accomplishment. Shipp doesn’t abandon the complex timbres that defined his earlier, more aggressive work. Rather, he weaves those elements with purpose and restraint. The result is a disc that shouldn’t terrify hardcore jazz purists but still has plenty of edge.
Cuong Vu
Cuong Vu is another musician taking the jazz in interesting new directions. Born in Viet Nam, raised in Seattle, and educated at the New England Conservatory of Music, Cuong Vu is rapidly making a name for himself on the New York downtown scene. He is a player adept at jazz who also draws on other traditions. He’s played in groups as varied as Israeli free jazz saxophonist Assif Tsahar’s Brass Reed Ensemble, and Sylvie Courvoisier to Myra Melford and Gerry Hemingway. He’s also done session work with pop artists like David Bowie and Laurie Anderson.
While he has played on many recordings, Cuong Vu has only a few out as leader. Pure (Knitting Factory) is the second outing for Vu’s trio with drummer John Hollenbeck and bassist Stomu Takeishi. Like Pastoral Composure, this disc is deceptively calm. Vu’s develops his melodies slowly. The trumpet lines sound like distant ships passing on a foggy night. Percussion rumbles in with exotic rhythms while the bass swoops down and flies away. This is meditative jazz that rewards attentive listening. Cuong Vu’s music is unmistakably jazz, yet it is not simply restating the themes of the past. Pure is jazz moving into the future.
Dave Douglas
Jazz fans are very familiar with Dave Douglas. Since 1994 Douglas has won numerous critics’ awards. His albums have earned best of honors from the Village Voice, New York Times, Boston Globe, Seattle Times, Jazz Journalist Association, Jazz Times and Down Beat. “The music that I’m aiming for is beyond category,” Douglas told Charles Gans. “I try very much to break down the given rules and barriers that are taught… and set up new sets of rules in order to break them too.” You can see that rule-breaking in action in the groups Douglas leads. The Tiny Bell Trio plays music that draws on Balkan folk traditions. Witness explores the interface between jazz and electronic music. The Dave Douglas Quartet and Sextet explore traditional jazz terrain. When Dave Douglas makes his only Florida appearance at Clearwater’s Club More on January 30th, he will be bringing his Eastern European-influenced group, Charms of the Night Sky band.
The Charms of the Night Sky ensemble is a unique sort of jazz band. Douglas is joined by Guy Klucevsek on accordion, Mark Feldman on violin and Greg Cohen on bass. The music made by this ensemble is very elegant and very pretty. Douglas uses sounds and themes from Klezmer, Tango and European folk tunes when which he combines with a jazz sensibility. The Charms of the Night Sky’s latest release “A Thousand Evenings” is a fascinating blend of restful, meditative compositions spiced with superb playing. While the disc has a very wistful, nostalgic feel, it avoids over-sentimentality. “I’m very suspicious of the sentimental and of the obvious,” Douglas told Connie Blaszczyk, “so I try to find beauty in unusual places, and in unusual ways. I think the same could be said for the emotions of anger and love and a lot of the emotional areas that you hear my music go. I feel like if I get there in too obvious a way, I’m dissatisfied.”
Ken Burns has said that jazz helps us define who we are. Looking at the history of jazz makes us look at questions of race, equality and who we are as a people. One of the thorny issues Burns would have to struggle with if he brought his documentary up to the present is the internationalization of jazz. Jazz no longer lives only in America. Jazz is still a music rooted in the African American experience, but it has spread to the far reaches of the planet (and if Sun Ra is right, beyond). We’re seeing jazz coming back to us now interpreted through the European, South African, Vietnamese and Brazilian experience. I think that’s a good thing. If we’ve learned to play together, maybe we can still learn to live together.