Music: Miles Davis, "So What"

Is Jazz Dying?

Over at Good Magazine, jazz writer, Adam Spangler, concludes, "It’s not jazz that is dying—clearly there are musicians worth seeing, producing music worth buying—it’s the audience that’s on life support." Catch the whole thing here.

Any thoughts?

Bille Holiday - "Fine & Mellow" (1957)

John Coltrane, "My Favorite Things" (German TV - 1961)

Duke Ellington, "It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing" (1943)

American maestro, Duke Ellington, everyone...

I really dig the politeness with which they all trade chops in this clip.

"Black Music and Black Possibility"

When I teach about music in my African American Studies classes, I often use a framework articulated to me by one of my friends and mentors at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Craig Werner. It is very useful in helping students, many of whom are not used to listening deeply to music and/or who might not be familiar with African American culture, hear "black music" in new and constructive ways.

Craig's framework starts with an assertion:

“African American music and African American history are deeply rooted in what the great novelist Ralph Ellison called the underlying ‘impulses’ of African American culture: blues, gospel and jazz.”

Here are the three impulses and Craig's descriptions:

The Blues Impulse: “The blues confront the suffering at the center of [African American history] and articulate the isolation an despair, the sense that black people have been cast adrift in a world where the devil has taken control. Rather than giving in to those feelings, blues artists ‘finger the jagged grain’ of the ‘blues experience’ and tell their stories in voices that walk the line between despair and laughter, asserting black humanity in a world predicated, as Martin Luther King, Jr., observed, on the ‘thinginfication’ of human beings.”

The Gospel Impulse: “The gospel impulse bears witness to the burdens of life, often the same experiences that gave rise to the blues. But where the blues celebrate survival, gospel seeks redemption with both individual and communal dimensions. Whatever its specific form – traditional gospel, reggae, soul, the celebratory moments of disco and house music – gospel reconnects individuals with powers larger than themselves: God and a community committed to, as Mahalia Jackson sang, ‘moving on up.’”

The Jazz Impulse: “Where both blues and gospel are grounded in the ways things are, the jazz impulse imagines what might be. Jazz impulse artists, many of whose records will never be filed in the jazz section of the record store, assemble pieces drawn from a limitless range of traditions into models of a new world. New combinations of sounds imply new ways of thinking about self, community, and their role in what Ellison called ‘link[s] in the chain of tradition.”

Now, when you listen, try to seek out these impulses...

Here are a few of Craig's books, if you are interested:
• A Change Is Gonna Come: Music, Race & the Soul of America
• Higher Ground: Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Curtis Mayfield, and the Rise and Fall of American Soul
• Up around the Bend: The Oral History Of Creedence Clearwater Revival

Max Roach, R.I.P.

Max Roach, one of the great drummers in jazz history, passed away on August 16th at the age of 83. As my friend Joe Germuska wrote, "Roach was a giant of the music who kept innovating after most of his generation had passed on and the rest had largely settled into a pretty comfortable niche. Roach, on the other hand, always pressed forward, advancing radical political views as well as a very fresh approach to sound." Amen.

NPR did a really nice segment on Roach. You can listen to it here:
NPR appreciation of Max Roach

Here is a groovin' clip of Max Roach jammin' with Billy Harper, Cecil Bridgewater and Reggie Workman:

Obituaries:
New York Times
Washington Post
L.A. Times

Other YouTube clips:
Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln
Roach drumming to MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech
Max Roach and Art Blakey dueling
M'boom project

Richard Harrington of the Washington Post suggests the following CDs:

• "Max Roach and Clifford Brown," Vols. 1 and 2, and "Daahoud" (all 1954). These three classic albums define the hard bop sound of the '50s, and give the promise of what would have been a seminal quintet had not Brown died in a car crash in 1956.

• "The Max Roach 4 Plays Charlie Parker" (1958). A pianoless quartet explores music by or associated with Roach's first great musical partner.

• "We Insist! Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite" (1960). A fiery melding of politics, racial justice and social aspiration, with lyrics by the late Oscar Brown Jr.

• "Percussion Bitter Sweet" (1961). Another politically tinged outing with help from Eric Dolphy and Clifford Jordan, among others.

• "M'Boom" (1979). Rhythm was fundamental to the instruments used here, but used in way that reflected what Roach called "the traditional definition of music . . . an equal triangle of harmony, melody and rhythm."

Herbie Hancock - "Chameleon" (live 1975)

Dig this! Herbie Hancock and the gang layin' it down on "Chameleon" from his classic "Headhunters" album. Is that a calculator watch Herbie is wearing on his wrist???!!!?? Either way, smokin' hot...

... if you thought that was groovin', check this one out:
Herbie Hancock, "Hang Up Your Hang Ups" (1979)

Enjoy!