Five unusually sunny days and a sumptuous solo performance by Cecil Taylor before at least 2000 absorbed listeners marked the first weekend of the fourth annual Portland Jazz Festival. Deconstructions by musicians and critics of the words “swing,” “jazz,” “sound” and “music” demonstrated this was a high ol’ time. What should we call it? Propulsive compositional improvisation?<\/p>\n
Five unusually sunny days and a sumptuous solo performance by Cecil Taylor before at least 2000 absorbed listeners marked the first weekend of the fourth annual Portland Jazz Festival. Deconstructions by musicians and critics of the words “swing,” “jazz,” “sound” and “music” demonstrated this was a high ol’ time. What should we call it? Propulsive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-68","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1i3CL-16","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":127,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2008\/10\/alaska_airlines_to_the_rescue.html","url_meta":{"origin":68,"position":0},"title":"Alaska Airlines to the rescue: Portland Jazz Fest revived","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"October 1, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The Portland Jazz Festival, pronounced dead on September 8 due to the pullout of Seattle-based title sponsor Qwest Communications, now rises from its ashes on the wings of Alaska Airlines and an advisory board of local businesses and individuals. According to a press release issued today by PDX Jazz, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":227,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2009\/08\/best_review_ever_of_miles_orne.html","url_meta":{"origin":68,"position":1},"title":"best review ever of Miles Ornette Cecil — Jazz Beyond Jazz","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"August 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm humbled by writer-poet-performance artist\u00c2\u00a0Kirpal Gordon's appreciation of and insight into my book on the avant garde through the models of Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor, in the just-posted NOLA issue of Big Bridge magazine. He's captured my intent and says I accomplished what I meant to. See\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":66,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2007\/12\/oscar_peterson_consolidator_co.html","url_meta":{"origin":68,"position":2},"title":"Oscar Peterson: Consolidator, conservator","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"December 27, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"All due respect to the formidable pianist, dead at age 82 -- Oscar Peterson's jazz has never been my personal cup of tea. A consolidator and conservator rather than a explorer and originator, the man mastered jazz conventions established by the generation before him, and found joy in spinning endless\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2431,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2018\/04\/cecil-taylor-dead-at-89-celebrated-nine-years-ago.html","url_meta":{"origin":68,"position":3},"title":"Cecil Taylor, dead at 89, as celebrated when he’d turned 80","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"April 6, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The brilliant, challenging, perplexing and incomparable pianist\/improviser\/composer Cecil Taylor died April 5, 2018, at age 89. Here's what I wrote of him to celebrate his 80th birthday: Cecil Taylor, unique and predominant, 80 years old 3 27 09 Cecil Taylor\u00c2\u00a0is the world's predominant pianist by virtue of his technique, concept\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/CecilTaylor-nea-jazz-master-2014-santa-300x297.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":328,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2010\/07\/italy_here_i_come.html","url_meta":{"origin":68,"position":4},"title":"Italy here I come","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"July 21, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The Siena Jazz Workshop has me present my book Miles Ornette Cecil - Jazz Beyond Jazz (buy it for your Kindle!) Sunday, July 25 at 10 am (yes, in Siena, Italy).\u00a0Can you suggest unmissable music in Tuscany (or Vetirbo through July 31? In Siena I'll talk and show brief bits\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"siena square.jpeg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/siena%20square.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":123,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2008\/09\/bad_news_from_the_northwest_po.html","url_meta":{"origin":68,"position":5},"title":"Bad news from the Northwest: Portland Jazz Fest dies","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"September 8, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The demise of the Portland Jazz Festival was announced today by press release from its membership umbrella organization PDX Jazz, cancelling plans for February 2009 due to the pullout by title sponsor Qwest Communications. 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\nAlto saxophonist-composer Tim Berne and trumpeter Cuong Vu (who uses electronic processing quite creatively in Myra Melford’s Be Bread quintet) questioned the power of words, suggesting in panel discussions held amidst concerts that terms commonly applied to their creative endeavors keep audiences away, rather than draw them, and limit understanding.
\nBut to my mind, “jazz” and “swing” ought to be celebrated and clarified as capacious concepts, not cliches. Cecil Taylor’s very rich and uniquely meditative performance, more than an hour and including his reading of a hard-to-decipher prose poem, was not “jazz” or “swing” in any historically-applied sense, but contained the elusive essence of what those words represent, and thus expanded on their historic meaning to arrive at a refreshed idea of what the words and concepts can contain. I’m not alone in thinking so; just read how the Portland-centric Art Scatter<\/a> blog, run by Vernon Peterson, got into the “Jazz Conversation” I engaged at the fest with Ornette and Denardo Coleman.
\nDid I mention Powell’s Books is one of the few places where readers can find volumes they never knew their favorite writers had written? That Stumptown Coffee delivers great flavor even without dark roasting? That the Columbia River gorge, at least as far as Starvation Creek which I explored, is spectacular? That there’s another weekend of the Portland Jazz Fest to come, with the duet of vocalists Nancy King and Kurt Elling among top attractions? howardmandel.com<\/a>
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