US remains jazz central

The Portland Fest's theme, meant to introduce a slew of Norweigan artists to a northwest audience, is taken from British author and academic Stuart Nicholson's dumb book purporting that our vernacular idiom-turned-art form, born some hundred years ago from America's urban cultural mix of blacks, whites, yellows, browns, oranges and zebras, has faded away due to the neo-conservative aesthetic of Wynton Marsalis dominating American jazz education. Nicholson's ridiculous premise was backed up by no visit to the U.S., no note of the many streams of jazz issuing from this country that have nothing to do with Marsalis, and the author's determination to ignore the continued sway of American jazz icons living or dead upon anyone seriously interested in making a mark on the evolving tradition. In fact, tonight Wynton Marsalis will become a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, accepting the prestigious recognition of civilian merit established by Napoleon in 1802. Say what you will about Marsalis's music, he has done his utmost to represent American jazz in every land on Earth.

While a glance at this week's New York Times jazz listings reveals a marvelous array of music derived from sources as disparate as Chilean singer-songwriters, Afro-Cuban rhythms, Brazilian samba and tropicalia, South Asian heritage, Belgian gypsy swing and Icelandic pop divas, there can be no doubt that the two dozen acts Nate Chinen has highlighted (a fraction of what's happening here this weekend) could only be found performing over the course of one non-festival week in New York City, New York State, USA, North America.

Why do jazz musicians look to the States for validation? Ask alto saxophonist-composer-bandleader Julian Julien, who spent six months planning the visit of Fractale, which lists among its main influences Frank Zappa, Moondog, Keith Jarrett and Tom Waits. I had a hard time catching up with him -- no one traveling with the band could understand my English over the phone -- so we resorted to email exchanges. He wrote: