Classical and Cool
From the nightclub to the academy.
Just Add Soul
The third stream stylistic fusion almost trickled away before a missing ingredient, funk, was added. Flutist Hubert Laws, who played with both the Jazz Crusaders and the New York Philharmonic, turned the crossover into a commercial success. Laws’ The Rite of Spring, featuring jazz/funk arrangements of classical pieces by Debussy, Bach, Faure, and Stravinsky, outraged classical fans and confused jazz followers. But mainstream music fans made the album and its sound a major hit.
Jazz Gets Serious
As it hit its fifties, jazz appeared to be in search of respect. The music’s status as a unique American entertainment invention was secure, and its fans, now scattered worldwide, regarded it as a genuine art form. But, for all the serious study and prolonged practice musicians put into it, jazz was — as it still is — best known for its unpredictable improvisations and extrapolations, attributes rarely associated with more “serious” music.
Jazz, despite its sophisticated structure and advanced musical sensibilities, had been labeled “primitive” by both its critics and fans since early on. Even as it grew increasingly complex, the emphasis on improvisation served to obscure the compositional excellence of the source material, further undermining serious artistic attention. The problem had always been a part of the identity of jazz, and that’s why Jelly Roll Morton began to compose his pieces formally in the first place.
Third Stream Squeezes Through the Cracks
The stylistic dichotomy was seriously addressed independently by several jazz theorists and composers in the ’50s, and the results of their efforts became a mini-movement. Gunther Schuller (responsible for the descriptive “third stream” name of the effort to fuse jazz and classical), European émigré George Russell, pianist John Lewis, educator William Russo, and flutist Jimmy Giuffre all made significant contributions to the cause. It was Miles Davis, however, shining the spotlight on Canadian arranger Gil Evans in a series of classic collaborations that brought the fusion its widest exposure.
In addition, the Modern Jazz Quartet’s dignified presentation of its Baroque blues, complete with intricate, contrapuntal piano and vibraphone lines, created a new hybrid best termed “chamber jazz.” The elegant, impeccably performed music matched the tuxedos the MJQ wore on stage, making for an unusually formal jazz experience.
Milestones
Without multiple Miles Davis CDs, you don’t really have a jazz collection. But where to start with an artist who has a half-century of classics in his catalog? Try Milestones or Round About Midnight for a taste of the legendary ’50s group with John Coltrane, Nefertiti or Miles Smiles for a sample of the superlative ’60s supergroup, Porgy & Bess for Miles with large brass ensemble, and the electrified Bitches Brew to know what everybody’s talking about.
Miles: Reinventing Genius on a Regular Basis
The mercurial Miles Davis, in his many musical personas, was the dominant jazz figure of the century’s second half. He did more things, and did them better, than any half dozen other legends of the era. He also did them with the casual arrogance of genius and the indomitable attitude of a prizefighter, transposing the stylish aggression of his idol, boxer Sugar Ray Robinson, into jazz terms.
Trailblazer
Modern jazz, when it could, followed in Davis’ fast-moving and zigzagging footsteps. In the course of a career whose depth and diversity is unequaled in jazz history, Davis played in almost every style, many of which were his own inventions. Each time Miles changed musical direction, the jazz establishment immediately questioned and castigated his choice. And a year later the nay-sayers were scrambling to follow his direction.
But Davis, ever elusive and frequently exasperating, usually had moved on, blazing a new and controversial trail. It was his musical method as well as his mindset, and it was a constant from the time he was a teenager, who abandoned studies at Juilliard Academy to hang out with Charlie Parker, until the decade of his death, when he recorded the acid jazz gem Doo-Bop with rapper Easy Mo Be.
Nine Lives?
Working with Parker in the ’40s, John Coltrane in the ’50s, and inventing fusion in the ’60s is a pretty solid career. Then there are several other outstanding careers, such as the sublime and trendsetting orchestral works with Gil Evans; the hard bop workouts with Sonny Rollins; and the mid-’60s quintet of Davis and saxist Wayne Shorter, pianist Herbie Hancock, bassist Ron Carter, and drummer Tony Williams, the greatest jazz group of all time in my admittedly subjective opinion.
Soul Jazz
By emphasizing rhythm and incorporating R&B, gospel, and blues, Horace Silver pioneered a groove-oriented brand of bebop that became known as soul jazz. Pianists Les McCann, Gene Harris, and Ramsey Lewis, as well as guitarists Grant Green, Wes Montgomery, and George Benson, played important roles in popularizing the soulful and still existent sub-genre. But it was innovative organist Jimmy Smith who gave the musical movement its signature stylist with his enlightened funk forays.
Chillin’ in California
The bebop revolution had transformed the East Coast into a hotbed of feverish jazz exploration, as musicians tried to outdo each other with faster, still more complex extrapolations. Things were much different on the West Coast, where musicians had downshifted into a relaxed, almost reactionary style that would be known as cool jazz.
The cool jazz movement, which simplified and decelerated the rapid-fire virtuosity of bebop, was as much a reaction as an innovation. The cool sound, one of the few conservative creations in jazz history, took a more laid-back, mental approach to the music, one that contrasted with the energetic physicality of both bebop and the horn-powered jump blues scene that dominated the California scene.
Father of Cool
Although there were other influences involved, such as pianist/composer Lennie Tristano, whose emphasis was on long melodic lines and a passive rhythm section, the internalized fire of the cool jazz style was modeled directly on — who else? — Miles Davis. The movement’s namesake was its first (and many would say best) recorded example: Davis’ 1948 album Birth of the Cool.
The California jazz scene coalesced around the cool movement as stars such as saxists Gerry Mulligan, Lee Konitz, and Art Pepper; trumpeters Chet Baker and Shorty Rogers; flutist Buddy Collette, one of the very few African-Americans involved; and drummer Shelly Manne made names for themselves and the new music style. Miles, of course, had already moved on to a hard bop sound, playing with decidedly “hot” types like saxist Sonny Rollins and drummer Art Blakey.
Born Again
Despite its apparent commercial success, cool jazz didn’t really make it out of the ’50s, although more than a few of its champions kept their careers going. Elements of cool jazz would be incorporated into the mainstream before the cool school finally re-emerged, fittingly enough in a California-bred sub-genre, as the contemporary radio favorite smooth jazz.
Uncle Sam Needs You
Jazz received official validation from the U.S. government in 1956 when the State Department decided to fly the flag of American culture in foreign lands by sending Dizzy Gillespie on tour to South Asia and the Middle East. Gillespie, leading a racially diverse band featuring female trombonist Melba Liston, proved to be a hit as an international ambassador and more tours, including Benny Goodman to Thailand and Louis Armstrong to West Africa, soon followed.
NYC: Epicenter of the Jazz Universe
Jazz might have been born in New Orleans and nurtured in Chicago and Kansas City, but New York City is where it calls home. That’s neither a chamber of commerce boast nor a new development, since jazz and the Big Apple have been synonymous for most of the music’s history.
Bebop, swing, fusion, to name only three earth-shaking stylistic developments, were invented and perfected in New York City. Of course, with the conspicuous exception of cool jazz, that applies to just about every major, and more than a few minor, jazz stylistic innovation.
Nightspots Needed
Jazz is a performance art form that is at its best in a live context. For most of the history of jazz, that’s meant nightclubs. The fabled venues most frequently involved in historic jazz happenings, clubs like Birdland, the Village Vanguard, the Cotton Club, and the Blue Note, were — not too surprisingly — all New York City nightspots.
New York City has been a magnet for jazz musicians since the mid-’20s, when the first group of established stars moved from Chicago. More jazz musicians live in New York City than anywhere else in the world, and the fact that there are more of them than can ever possibly find work on the local scene doesn’t seem to matter. For many jazz musicians, spending time on the New York scene, even if it’s only sitting in a club watching another musician play, is a rite of passage, as well a gesture of respect and recognition for all the jazz men and women who dedicated their lives to the music in the past.
