Louis Armstrong's Hot Five - the real Jazz Age
I was recently reading all the hype about the new Gatsby
film, and reading so much rubbish, (at least in the Irish papers), being
written by journalists about the ‘Jazz Age’ - journalists who have NO idea what they’re talking about, bar what
they read in Wikipedia. And this got me thinking about
how while there's all this fuss and hyperbole being written about the ‘Jazz Age’, the music itself struggles so hard to be heard and to
survive. A very good point was made by a
friend of mine (thank you Billy!), in which he observed that the people who
actually created jazz would never have been allowed into the hotels and
residences of Gatsby and his pampered idiotic ilk, unless as entertainers, in
which case they would have been treated as servants.
And this got me thinking about the REAL value of this music
– a music of honesty and beauty, with an incredible history – a music that is
in a different universe from the one inhabited and illustrated by the vapid
shenanigans of a bunch of rich airheads from the 20s. I began to think about the
reasons why I love this music so much, and here are some of them…………
1)
It’s The Product Of An Amazing Human Story
There are three universal musical languages, music that is
played and listened to everywhere: European classical music, rock music, and
jazz. Classical music evolved through the church and later through an
aristocratic elite, rock music by Post WWII, (mostly middle class), English and
American baby boomers, and jazz emanated from a people who were an underclass,
descended from slaves, and often existing in conditions that were not much
better than slavery.
Afro-Americans were despised and abused by the majority
population, denied basic human rights and were deprived economically. Yet this
oppressed underclass gave mankind one of its greatest musical gifts. A music
that was democratic, inclusive, powerfully emotional, a music whose message
spread around the world with extraordinary speed, and spoke to people of all
races and nationalities. In the history of human art, there has never been a
story like this – a music that rose out of the worst social conditions, yet which
was joyful, progressive, celebratory, and participatory, with a universal
message.
Jazz is a unique human, artistic triumph, created in an
environment of incredible adversity.
2)
Jazz music celebrates both the individual and
the collective
Jazz is both a group music and an individualist’s music. To
be able to play for the greater good of, and contribute to the ensemble, is an
indispensible quality for any good jazz musician. To describe a player as
someone who ‘doesn’t listen’, is the worst criticism one musician can give to another.
To act as one is the ultimate aim of any band.
Yet at the same time individualism is not only highly
prized, but expected, and celebrated. Jazz is a music that has evolved both
through the work of great bands, and
great soloists. To express yourself in an individual way is the sine qua non of
all jazz musicians, and the history of the music is illuminated by great
soloists on every instrument.
Jazz is both a collective music and a virtuoso music. To
work for the collective, yet be yourself – what a wonderful combination of
qualities, and, as a human being, what a wonderful esthetic to be involved in.
3)
Jazz is a Meritocracy
Playing jazz at the highest level is hard, and demands a
lifetime of dedication practice and commitment. In such an environment only the
best players survive and get to play the music – at least in the long term.
Yes, like all music, jazz does have its fair share of bullshitters and
charlatans – guys who know a little and can sound competent for a minute, as
long as it’s in a certain musical environment that they can control. They then
depend on various non-musical qualities to keep themselves in the limelight,
(they’re usually good hustlers and self-promoters), but ultimately they will
always fall away. Because jazz is about being a great player all the time, over a long period of
time, in any situation. You can only control the situations you are in for so
long, and ultimately if in the end, if you can’t really play, then you can’t
sustain a career at the top table of the music.
And I really like that, because then ultimately the people
who do the work and have the talent, get the careers. I’m not talking about
amateur or part-time musicians here – I love when people play the music for
pleasure alone. It’s the guys who can’t really play but pretend they can, and that
they are worthy to play with the greatest musicians, that bother me. But
happily, the charlatan thing where a musician who hasn’t done the work, but hires
and uses great players to give themselves a patina of competence, doesn’t
succeed in the long term. In the end the music will find you out (the real
musicians will find you out on the first tune……), and that’s a good thing,
because ultimately the music will be created and evolved by people who really
care about it.
4)
Jazz is the broadest of broad churches, yet
retains its traditions
Another seeming contradiction. Jazz music is omnivorous, and
always has been. It is accepting of all
material as being grist to the creative mill. It is a music that grew from the
combining of many elements to create a new music, and a new approach to making
music. From the outset it has been relentlessly modernistic – the new thing
being prized, both instrumentally and in the overall music. Armstrong,
Ellington, Parker, Coltrane, Miles – those five names alone embody a huge
reservoir of innovation and dedication to the idea of change. The inclusion of
new elements has been in jazz since the outset, and here, in the first part of
the 21st century, jazz can cater for the widest possible tastes, yet
still remain true to itself.
If you like swing, Brazilian music, Afro-Cuban music, electronica,
extended form composition, instrumental virtuosity, lyrical simplicity,
seriousness, playfulness, depth, bluesiness, mystery, orchestral writing, solo
playing, funk, minimalism, density, sparseness, sad music, happy music,
celebratory music, intense music – then there is something for you somewhere in
the jazz tradition of the past 100 years.
There is no other music that encompasses the range of
musical influences that jazz does, yet retains its own identity through its
history, rhythmic language, collective
spirit, spontaneity, virtuosity, and improvisational traditions.
5)
Jazz musicians love music……..
That may sound self evident, but not all professional
musicians love music, surprising as that may seem to the lay person. There are
many professional musicians who are not particularly invested in music for its
own sake. They may find it a convenient way to earn a living and they may even
enjoy what they do for social reasons. Many professional musicians are
certainly interested in the craft of music, and interested in the social
aspects of being around music (who got what gig, - and why they shouldn’t have,
anecdote after anecdote, who screwed up on this or that gig etc.), but they’re often
not terribly interested in music as an art form. And some, (though not all of
course), orchestral musicians are clock
punchers, working every week for their salary. Highly skilled of course, but
ultimately not too invested in the music they play.
But I’ve yet to meet a serious jazz musician who was not
ready to talk about music at the drop of a hat. If there’s one thing jazz
musicians love, it’s talking about music – great recordings, the differences
between one musician and another, their own philosophy of what they do, what
they’re working on musically, asking what you’re working on musically, a great
musician or recording they’ve recently discovered etc.
If you choose jazz as a means of earning a living, and are
prepared for the long haul and hard graft that is required to make a living
doing so, you have to love music!
Love of the music is the reason people get into jazz in the first place, and
the ones who remain in the profession of jazz musician have a passion for the
music that is infectious. If you want to see a jazz musician’s eyes light up,
start talking to him or her about music…..
6)
Jazz has produced some of the greatest music of
all time
‘Hot Fives’, ‘Black Brown and Beige’, ‘The Savoy Sessions’,
‘Miles Ahead‘, ‘Shape of Jazz To Come’, ‘Blues and Roots’, ‘Five By Monk By
Five’, ‘The Bridge’, 'A Love Supreme', ‘ESP’, ‘Bitches
Brew’, ‘Facing You’, ‘Birds of Fire’, ‘Mysterious Traveler’……………. etc. etc.
Armstrong, Ellington, Basie, Tatum, Parker, Dizzy, Mingus, Miles,
Ella, Monk, Rollins, Trane, Ornette, Evans, Konitz, Jarrett, McCoy, Corea, Shorter, Hancock, Steve
Coleman, Liebman, DeJohnette, Bill Frisell….. etc. etc.
Nothing more to say really.
