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Great talk on jazz - Wynton Marsalis | |
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His comments concerning Avant-Garde/Free Jazz were more tactful than i've read/heard in the past.
Although I don't agree with his general dismissal of improvisation based music that doesn't incorporate the swing element, he does have other opinions that I wholeheartedly share. the average black person has no idea and no understanding of the rich legacy of African-American arts and doesn’t know that there is something to know. Common knowledge has led us right back to the minstrel show by way of rap music and corrupted church music of people hip-humping while singing about Jesus. In the same article the above quote comes from, he does get in a jab at "outside playing". Some time ago, the tenor saxophonist Frank Foster was playing a street concert from the Jazzmobile in Harlem. He called for a blues in B-flat. A young tenor player began to play “out” from the first chorus, playing sounds that had no relationship to the harmonic progression or rhythmic setting. Foster stopped him. “What are you doing?” “Just playing what I feel.” “Well, feel something in B-flat, motherfucker.” http://www.wyntonmarsalis...-guardian/ The book (Moving To A Higher Ground: How Jazz can change your life) seems to setup a very obvious analogy. The dynamic of a musical group can easily be analagous to a society. To operate properly and productively the group/society must listen and respond to each other in a very humane way to create a functioning performance/community. I haven't read it, but this is the impression that I get based on the interview. tA  Tribal Disorder
http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431 "Ya see, we're not interested in what you know...but what you are willing to learn. C'mon y'all." | |
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theAudience said: To operate properly and productively the group/society must listen and respond to each other in a very humane way to create a functioning performance/community. I haven't read it, but this is the impression that I get based on the interview. tA Tribal Disorder
http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431 tA, I very much like this analogy... there's a clip here with Billy Taylor demonstrating how jazz operates, and the host ends with comments very much along the lines of what you just said... | |
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Another clip from that same show:
Notice, how they talk about the approach to the beat... the persistence of the rhythm in the improvisation, as a defining quality of jazz... I think it's this aspect that Wynton feels that free jazz lacks... I'm not agreeing or disagreeing with him though... [Edited 7/30/09 21:35pm] | |
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