Jazz Beyond Jazz

Howard Mandel's Urban Improvisation

Archives for 2008

Newport by bus

As an enclave of the newly gilded during the Gilded Age, the town of Newport, Rhode Island was   somewhat privileged by its relative isolation. The easiest ways to get to this promontory during the 1890s may have been by making a fortune in railroads, or by yacht — the old town (dating from 1639) has long been considered sailing capitol of the U.S. In some circles, though, it’s better known as home to the Newport Jazz Festival starting in 1954.


In its early years the Newport jazz fest broke some race, class and entertainment barriers, but during the past decade it’s become cost-prohibitive for New York jazz fans who can hear most of the acts without leaving town and paying exhorbitant rates for the weekend’s lodging. So this year, the festival fights back with chartered buses offering day trips starting in and returning to Manhattan or Brooklyn for a single fee that includes price of the entry ticket. 

[Read more…]

What every infant should hear

So Boston Globe staffer Jeremy Eichler has enlisted his infant son Jonah as a test subject for early musical perception and education. Why limit the kid’s choices to Mozart and Schoenberg? How ’bout some good ol’ American prime Louis Armstrong, introducing the concepts of improvisation and swing? 

[Read more…]

Return to Ever?

Loud, fast and chopsy — that was the definition of “jazz-rock fusion” assumed by panelists (including me)  in a Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Matters public panel discussion of “Fusion at 40” held in conjunction with the headline appearance of  Return To Forever at the Ottawa Jazz Festival.

RTF — introduced by pianist Chick Corea in 1974 to comprise guitarist Al DiMeola, bassist Stanley Clarke and drummer Lenny White — is a banner act at jazz fests most everywhere this summer. This lineup is together for the first time since 1983, its tour promoted as a 25-year anniversary and accompanied by a two-cd retrospective album (Return To Forever The Anthology) which has gangstered much jazz magazine coverage. RTF meets the loud, fast and chopsy criteria, sorta. But the supergroup was born several minutes past fusion’s finest hour, and its members’ collaboration honestly shows their age.

[Read more…]

Jazz, secure, shrugs off “joke” threat

“We’re doing everything we can to eliminate jazz from American culture,” a promoter for Live Nation Artists, the world’s dominant pop music production and marketing firm “joked” to Florida councilmen considering a proposed upcoming music festival. Jazz responds with a can’t-be-bothered shrug. 


Too hip to be rattled by ignorant, idle, defensive — and of course, revealing – threats, the greatest living musicians are basking in hard-earned recognition and producing inspiringly energized, not necessarily mellow music. Undeterred by Live Nation-like commercial disdain, jazz festivals are thriving throughout North America under nominally non-profit organizations run by a coterie of canny impresarios. Jazz clubs — not only in NYC, I saw it in Chicago, too — are hosting eager audiences, maybe because the cheap buck has lured international tourists. But the buck’s not cheap Canada, which is also promoting jazz. Jazz is always endangered, but right now it’s in high bloom. 

[Read more…]

Prophecy fulfilled: the future now at jazz fests

“Music that we’re playing now is just the blues of all of
America, all over again, it’s just a different kind of blues. This is the
blues, the real blues, it’s the new blues, and people must listen to this music
because they’ll be hearing it all the time. Because if it’s not me it’ll be
someone else that’s playing it. The majority of the younger musicians I’ve
heard in New York, they’ve begun to play this way because this is the only way
left for musicians to play. All the other ways have been explored, in the time
past.” 


So sayeth tenor saxophonist Albert Ayler in December 1964 — a clip I used in my latest NPR audio piece about a Swedish documentary film on Ayler currently touring U.S. arthouses. He believed unbound, exploratory and free (yet focused) improvisation was the sound of the future. Typically depicted as a wild-eyed radical whose mysterious death 38 years ago came at the crux of his brief but ecstatic career, Ayler is being proved right by the explosive energies that seek to turn America’s vernacular music transcendent — at jazz festivals this week and next in New York City and beyond. It’s the only way left for musicians to play!

[Read more…]

Good time blues

B.B. King played coy at the 25th annual Chicago Blues Festival last weekend. “I won’t say what party I’m for,” the great vocalist and guitarist began, in obvious reference to local resident Barack Obama’s ascension to Democratic presidential nominee, “but everybody has something to be happy about now. Including the women — who found out ‘Yes, we can!‘” Few other of the hundreds of performers were even that explicit onstage, but the fest reportedly drew 750,000 listeners over four days, and the music projected a general air of triumph against daunting odds.



[Read more…]

Hometown-of-Obama Blues

The music of Chicago — gritty urban blues — is famously about hard times, heartache and struggle. But practitioners of the genre may boast a refreshed if wary air of accomplishment this week, upon favorite son Barack Obama’s ascension to  Democratic presidential candidate. At least, that’s my thesis, which I’ll test by listening close to some of the 90 performances at the City-sponsored, free downtown 25th annual Chicago Blues Festival June 5 – 9 — and probably a slew of after-fest blues in neighborhood taps scattered around the toddlin’ town. 

[Read more…]

What’s in a Jazz Award?

Why don’t jazz journalists care about the biggest names in jazz? When Awards are given for jazz excellence, why don’t in-the-know critics applaud the popular musicians, top record sellers and radio playlist stars? 


Two upcoming Awards presentations highlight these questions. The Jazz Journalists Association with a cocktail barbeque buffet on Wednesday June 18 at the Jazz Standard, in Manhattan, hails the jazz aesthetic but risks preaching to the choir. The First International Jazz Awards, advertised as a “two-hour televised extravaganza” hosted by comedian D.L Hughley at the Beverley Hilton in Beverley Hills on June 29, bases its nominations on Soundscan‘s top jazz sellers,” contributing to the tautology “What sells best is best.” Everyone knows that, right? 

[Read more…]

Modest proposal, and recommendations

Saxophonist and Love of Life Orchestra leader Peter Gordon gave one of the most lucid presentations at the recent Experience Music Project’s Pop Conference — being the only person over three days to perform a note of music within their allotted 20 minutes. Of course, his reasonable, arguably achievable suggestions may seem outrageous, given the outrages of our time — but I offer them here with hopes presumptive nominees for president of all parties in the U.S. (and why not abroad?) give serious consideration to their support, in exchange for the gratitude and perhaps the votes of the music-lovin’ public. 


Also, see Matt Miller’s newest recommendations for NYC performances — Comin’ Right Up.

[Read more…]

Return to top of page

an ArtsJournal blog

This blog published under a Creative Commons license