Avant Jazz

So what does anyone consider jazz these days, because it is a derivative term we use to describe premier acts from the 40's and 50's such as Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton, Stan Getz "Bird" amongst others. But when did jazz enthusiasts decide that introducing contemporary instruments into the music would dilute it of it's authenticity. Because to me expression is the key to what we call J***. It is seen as a dirty word by people who play it or listen to it because it has the connotations of pigeon-holing the genre, therefore catergorizing with everything else.

I'll tell you something, dixieland was king, then bigband, then bebop, free/avant garde, fusion/ jazz rock took their place as time went on. And the only way music could get out of the doldrums was to evolve like anything else, it's the circle of life I'm afraid.

People were shocked when musicians, especially african americans were starting to take hold of their publishing rights in jazz, the black musicians suddenly stopped acting the goat up on stage and just played, they stopped announcing songs, didn't say good evening, and demanded more money for packed clubs.

Primarily Miles Davis set the seen for this kind of revolutionary asthetic. he would continue defying the odds in a world where the fans wanted familiarity, but all he wanted to offer them was uncertainty and exploration which isn't a bad thing i guess. You get spoonfed things for a while and you forget about what things you can learn. Jazz as we know could of stayed in this time vortex, if it hadn't of been for the likes of Ornette Coleman, Miles, Coltrane, Chick Corea, John Zorn, Ahmad Jamal, Bird, Dizzy, John Mclaughlin and so forth.

"Guitars! 4/4 time signature, this is not jazz", so it's very irony is that they don't want to pigeon hole jazz but they didn't want to change it either.

It's fair enough that people have tastes ok, so that's fine. I guess that the fusion thing confused a lot of people at the time, notably Bitches Brew by Miles Davis. It was an alien-like sound palette that consisted of lengthy jams interwoven and wailing horn by the man himself. It was tempo stuff though, and suspense building in the extreme, so the elements of a musical composition were still there, it was random noise. But the killer for the purists was that "the melody" was long gone in the record underneath all the disonance. This record is culturally important more than anyone knows.

This record doesn't get made, and the world would be different from what it is today. And that is no exaggeration on my part. it revolutionised fusion music and Miles became the most successful jazz artist of all time, playing to the biggest crowds ever in his career. He was playing festivals now in front of tens of thousands, instead of hundreds inside cramped clubs like uptown's Minton's. It's certified gold, it sparks debate even today, but bitches brew was important.

To use an analogy, The Beatles. Those first albums aren't made, Please Please Me, the world would be different today. The timeless songs are imbeded in the history of our culture over the last century. So Bitches Brew obviously didn't sell anywhere near the amount as the beatles did, but it opened the floodgates and other artists were able to embrace different cultures and rythms to their music it was sublime.

Return to forever, Mahavishnu, National Health, Magmum, Circle, Keith Jarrett, Focus, Soft Machine,Roy Ayers, all these guys much appreciative of the change that had come. Some of them played with Davis' group during his fusion period, and learnt a lot from that time of exploration.

In hindsight, looking back it was alien, melodic lines were thrown out the door at one stage. Some passages of live at the filmore are so dissonant that one has to wonder, what the fuck is going on?
But it's awesome, i've been a fan of avant noise anyway so i'm inclined to like it, but for the howty towty brubeck and hampton fans,well you've got no hope and if you didn't get back then then you won't get it know. This stuff is lengendary but the new generation are discovering the dixieland sound and bebop through the avenue of fusion music, so in a way it's been good for the genre, reconnecting with like minded individuals who are interested in the musical heritage of america.

So what will it be for you, is it sheets of sound? Or flourishes of melody?