The Death of J***

Posted by: mikeeschman on 18 November 2009

Forty years of listening to jazz has produced a horrifying result. The life blood of jazz is in the changes, the harmonic structure of the music. After forty years, they are all familiar - they have become so comfortable that they no longer create excitement. The thrill of the unexpected is no longer there - even on Coltrane's "Giant Steps".

New Orleans music has been spared for me, as familiarity spans my lifetime for this music, and somehow it still seems fresh every time I hear it.

So can anyone recommend a cure for this horrible jazz affliction?
Posted on: 24 November 2009 by Mat Cork
It'll never stand up in court Mike..."Sorry I'm so battered honey, it's that Albert Ayler wot dunnit" Winker
Posted on: 25 November 2009 by mikeeschman
Yesterday Black Unity and Whistlestop came. I gave them a listen and found them a little boring. Not my cup of tea. Incidentally, it's a good thing to pull your tuning slide out a bit when playing a trumpet with a mute. The intonation on Whistlestop is not so good :-)
Posted on: 26 November 2009 by mikeeschman
This thread is causing me to reflect on my experience of jazz over the last four decades. Looked at in this light, a sea change makes itself apparent. When did jazz lose some of it's joy of life, and begin to live within despair and anguish?

Some say it happened when Charlie Parker and Miles Davis made music together.

At any rate, I won't worry too much about it.

But it made me go hunting for some free, uninhibited and joyful jazz, so naturally Dizzy Gillespie came to mind.

I'm going to try some of the European jazz recommended in this thread.
Posted on: 26 November 2009 by aht
quote:
Originally posted by mikeeschman:

The Albert Ayler Trio assaulted my soul with the sense of hopeless desperation common to all mental illness, and it did it everywhere. I felt those emotions, as if it was me.



Mike, there is no doubt that Ayler is not everyone's cup of tea. And his titles are rather, uh, presumptuous ("Holy Ghost," etc). But to me the operative word is cathartic. A lot of free jazz is so full of cacophony and excess that, paradoxically, it creates an inner center of tranquility and peace within the listener. To each his own.

In any case, Naim equipment really is the best for this kind of music. It can separate the individual threads of music even-handedly, even dispassionately, while still transmitting the emotion of each musician.
Posted on: 26 November 2009 by aht
By the way, since European jazz has been widely mentioned here, don't overlook the catalogue of Leo Records, a UK outfit.

In particular, their Ganelin Trio albums are mesmerizing. Improvisation and innovation of the highest order; at the same time, the backdrop is 1980's USSR, so you can hear repression, a yearning for freedom, and entropy of the political order, all in the most urgent musical terms.