Even since a commentator remarked that some argue that the greatest composer of the 20th century was Duke Ellington I've been listening to more jazz than I usually do. I'm asking myself, could this possibly be true? Really? So I listened to Mood Indigo a few times:
Well, ok. But then I listened to Thelonius Monk:
Uh-huh. Then I listened to Miles Davis:
And I remember reading something Duke Ellington said about jazz and freedom:
Put it this way: Jazz is a good barometer of freedom... In its beginnings, the United States of America spawned certain ideals of freedom and independence through which, eventually, jazz was evolved, and the music is so free that many people say it is the only unhampered, unhindered expression of complete freedom yet produced in this country.
I like that.
You have to understand, I have always had a difficult relationship with jazz. When I was still a teen, the only serious music magazine I could find in my local store was Downbeat, so I subscribed to it for a year or so. I didn't actually have access to jazz performances or recordings so I was mostly reading about music I hadn't heard. Later on, I did get a chance to hear some jazz recordings, but my most intense encounter was when I was hired to play rhythm guitar in a 27-piece big band for a few months. Oh, man, I was the worst jazz rhythm guitarist ever. All I knew how to play was blues and rock and suddenly I had to find an E flat, flat 5th, flat 9th chord? And they only played in horrible keys. And what the hell is a 13th chord anyway? So that was pretty intimidating. Anyway, my path led to classical music from then so I didn't have anything to do with jazz for a long time. The basic aesthetic principles just didn't make any sense to me, even though I liked a few pieces. Some Dave Brubeck, some Miles Davis. And like I said, if the music is about freedom, then it starts to make sense to me.
Plus, these are obviously very serious musicians.
But look, if I have to give an honest comment on the clips above, here is what I am going to say.
- Duke Ellington, "Mood Indigo". It seems arbitrary or sketchy to me, both in concept and execution but this is probably inherent in the style.
- Thelonious Monk, "Lulu's Back in Town". A stiff touch on the piano, so it must be a stylistic thing. But a bit painful to watch if you are used to classical pianists. And the sax is badly out of tune with the piano.
- Miles Davis, "So What". I liked this quite a lot, but I had the feeling all the way through that the real title should be "F**k You."
- Sun Ra, "Take the A Train". This guy is way out there, and I liked that insane piano introduction. Freedom, yeah.
Small thing: they're jazz tunes and solos, not jazz pieces. It's like saying that Brahms wrote songs. It seems like hair-splitting, but there's an important idea in there: the Western classical work-concept doesn't apply in the same way to jazz. The "composition" (the notes on paper) is a starting point, a bare skeleton, more like bass figurations than a full score.
ReplyDeleteEllington has a distinctive piano style by himself, but to really assess "Mood Indigo" you need to hear it played by the Ellington Orchestra. Otherwise it's like listening to Franz Liszt's piano reduction of the Beethoven's Fifth Symphony - the basic outlines are there, but it's not the full experience. The "work" Mood Indigo is the collective sound of all those musicians on the record, and Ellington's role as the "composer" is to direct that entire sound.
Monk's microrhythm and touch are definitely not to everyone's taste. It isn't "the" style, it's his style. There are no other pianists who sound like that, which is probably why Monk was widely reviled during his period of peak creativity. The consensus shifted, of course, so I tend to forget that it's possible to react negatively to him.
Why no jazz guitarists on here? No Charlie Christian, no Django Reinhardt, no Wes Montgomery?
Thanks, Ethan. I'm trying to see jazz in its own terms and not entirely succeeding!
ReplyDeleteI did listen to Mood Indigo with the orchestra, but just once. I will have another listen.
I guess no jazz guitarists because I don't much care for jazz guitar? Funny, because there are a lot of blues guitarists I quite like...
Charlie Christian is the bridge between blues and jazz. Had he not died so extremely young, it is likely that jazz guitar would have retained more of the string bends and other blues-isms, rather than moving in the horn-like direction it ended up going in. Would be interesting to hear how you feel about more current rock/blues/jazz crossover people like James Blood Ulmer.
ReplyDeleteIt is true that jazz is about freedom, but it's about other things too. There is plenty of music that is more free than jazz in the Ellington mold, e.g. the whole universe of open-ended "art" music improvisation more descended from John Cage than John Coltrane. Jazz is as much about constraint as it is about freedom. Improvisation as practiced by Ellington is taking place within the narrow confines of folk and pop forms. For me, the core appeal of jazz is its connection to the African diaspora. It's a vessel for preserving West African musical tradition within the American commercial marketplace (and, later, universities), and the iron bars of 12-TET. Jazz as practiced by Ellington, Davis and Monk is ultimately about the experience of being a Black intellectual in a world of Jim Crow. It's a resistance music that is also a party music. For me, jazz lives on a continuum with blues, funk and rap, and while it draws on Western European more than those other musics, it ultimately aligns with their defiant stance.
One of the most fascinating things you can ever read is Percy Grainger talking about jazz. He saw jazz as a music of freedom, partially because of improvisational content, but also because of the way that was always stepping outside of 12-TET. When he invited Duke Ellington to perform at his NYU music seminar, Grainger wanted to make a point about musical freedom. Ironically, the tune that he asked the Ellington band to play, "Creole Love Call", is entirely through-composed.
ReplyDeleteThe Sun Ra take on Strayhorn is pretty fun. It got me thinking it was like he refracted the Strayhorn piece through all the Conlon Nancarrow Player Piano Etudes. :)
ReplyDeleteDespite the fact that he did session work with Armstrong and Ellington, Lonnie Johnson seems pretty firmly on the blues and even country side of things as a guitarist.
Yeah, there were some REALLY negative responses to Monk during his career but then my brother was telling me Monk might not have liked fusion era Miles Davis and reportedly called up Davis and complained of one track, "Miles, it's just one $%@%ing chord!"
But as chops go it was widely known Scott Joplin's chops at the piano were considered mediocre at best and other ragtime players who respected his compositions and influence would still make fun of how sloppy his playing could get. James Scott, on the other hand, was reportedly a remarkable pianist and yet compared to Joplin only ragtime fans are likely to have heard of James Scott.
Ethan, thanks for the listening suggestions--I will have a go at some of those guitarists.
ReplyDeleteIt is amusing to me that while Miles Davis revered Monk as a composer, and made some of the most iconic recordings of Monk tunes, he and Monk couldn't stand each other personally. You couldn't ask for two more temperamentally different people. And yet John Coltrane got along great with both of them.
ReplyDeleteHave you listened to Brad Mehldau?
ReplyDeleteBrad Mehldau's arrangements of Beatles tunes are consistently great.
ReplyDeleteMehldau's on my to-get-to listening list. Heard good things.
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