[img]583|left|||no_popup[/img]With great interest, I recently watched the debate between columnist Stanley Crouch and percussionist James Mtume on the evolution of modern jazz. Crouch, the steadfast jazz purist, took the position that much of what is passing for jazz today is a corruption of the art form. Mtume said Crouch was out of touch with the new face of jazz.
In my opinion, Crouch was right. Mtume was remaining consistent with what his musical philosophy seems to advocate, playing to the audience, giving applause priority over substance. Crouch made the mistake of not framing the issue in a way that would allow him to seize the bottom line. It’s not about New vs. Old. Rather, Quality vs. Lesser Quality, and that can be measured.
Because something is new, that doesn’t mean it is better. The problem with electronic music is electronics is being used to camouflage a lack of technical competence. So much noise and electronic distortion give the musicians the “freedom” to play bad notes, be less than melodic, and play musical nonsense. Acoustic music is intimate, purely about the musician and his technical ability. If Bud Powell played a bad note or the wrong chord progression, it would stick out like a sore thumb. If he were playing electronic music, there is so much chaos and distortion that nobody would notice.
Mtume talked about “technical exhaustion.” He said that after a given time, in a given context, everything has been played that can be played in a given form of music. Nonsense. The ability to do something new with the rhythm and chord progressions of “Stella by Starlight” is exactly what we mean by art.
Of 10 and 12
There are only 10 basic numbers known to mankind, 0 to 9. Yet we can take those 10 and combine them in an inexhaustible number of ways. On the other hand, there are 12 notes in music. As with numbers, you can build an infinite combination of scales, chords and rhythmic constructions with those 12 notes. Mtume’s claim that you can “exhaust” the possibilities of what can be played on a saxophone is demonstrably wrong.
The fact is, Miles started having problems with his chops. So he went into retirement. He loved music so much he wanted to get back into the game. Being a genius, he invented a form of music he could play. Then we had a generation of musicians who came along behind him. Not having a vision of their own, they built an entire musical movement based on what Miles had created to accommodate his old age and disability.
Finally, Mtume justified this “new music” by saying that it inspired young people who weren’t previously into jazz. Art never is supposed to lower itself to accommodate the tastes of the lowest common denominator of the people. Art is meant to raise the consciousness of the people to its level. That is why it’s called art.
There is an easy way of resolving this debate of New vs. Traditional. Just as with good parenting, you can measure quality by what quality produces. We can gauge the relative quality of the two eras by assessing the quality of what each era produced. Where is today’s equivalent of Charlie Parker, Theolonious Monk, Bud Powell, Miles Davis, Dexter Gordon or Jackie McLean? Where are today’s jazz standards, like “So What,” “Round Midnite,” “Moody’s Mood for Love,” “Impressions” or “A Night in Tunisia?” They don't exist.
The great jazz standards of the past are non-existent because the jazz giants who produced them have become all but a thing of the past. I can’t think of one person of the stature of Dexter Gordon, John Coltrane, or Jackie McLean who has been produced in over 30 years. There is a good reason: The quality of the music the past 30 years is not conducive to producing people of that stature and creative ability. That should close the case.
The Good Die Young
Let’s look at how young some old-school giants of jazz were when they reached their musical maturity. Charlie Christian, the father of the modern jazz guitar, died at 25. Charlie Parker died at 34. Clifford Brown died at 25. Booker Littler died at 23. Paul Chambers died at 33. Fat Navarro died at 26.
So John Coltrane and Eric Dolphy were relatively old men when they died, Coltrane at 41, Dolphy, 36. Many giants of the past made their mark and moved on long before today’s musicians had gotten all of their scales together. Why? Because in the past young musicians were held to a much higher standard. They were exposed to a far superior quality of music, and musicianship.
The Jazz Crusaders
The musicians of the bebop and hard bop eras understood from the outset they weren’t going to get rich playing the music they loved. They sought to validate themselves through excellence. Today’s musicians are in a hurry to learn their chromatic scale so they can run out and achieve wealth and fame. They figure they can learn to play in Gb Maj while they are on the road. Then they get out and play distorted chord progressions, add a thunderous beat and loud electronic distortion to camouflage their limitations, and label it as “The New Thang.” Thereafter, they slap one another on the back as brilliant and dismiss those of us who recognize it as noise as being out of touch.
The bottom line, so-called musical “revolutionaries” never took the time to learn what jazz is about. Jazz is more than just another form of music, not just fun and games. Jazz is a way of life. There’s a political component to it, a way of thinking that reflects a unique way of viewing reality. Jazz purists are not just upset over a modified beat and the introduction of electronics. They are upset by the cave-in to mediocrity, abandonment of political principles and qualities that jazz represents.
A Service to Mankind
One of the great contributions jazz has made to the black community is informing the world that we are not frivolous and thoughtless as others have portrayed us. The harmonic complexity of bebop served to bring the dazzling intellectual capacity of black people to the world stage. Naturally, jazz purists are hostile to going back to the people-pleasin’ days of what is essentially a musical form of Steppin’ Fetchit-ism.
Jazz traditionally has been the cultural anthem of social revolutionaries – black and white – willing to fight the good fight. Jazz purists resent the mongrelization and surrender of those principles in lieu of “Can we all just get along?” To them, that represents the selling of our principles. That is why commercialism is looked upon with disdain.
You can’t just put a funky beat behind noise and call it jazz. Once you go frivolous, the spirit of jazz has been abandoned. While jazz does kick up its heels on occasion, it's a serious form of music that is designed to appeal to the mind, not just the body. For that reason, a logical and organized structure is essential to its character. Without that, and its distinctive arrogant swagger, it is not jazz.
Eric L. Wattree is a writer, poet and musician, born in Los Angeles. A columnist for the Los Angeles Sentinel, the Black Star News, a staff writer for Veterans Today, he is a contributing writer to Your Black World, the Huffington Post, ePluribus Media and other online sites and publications. He also is the author of “A Message From the Hood.”
Mr. Wattree may be contacted at wattree.blogspot.com or Ewattree@Gmail.com
