Talking and Talking and Talking Jazz
No music is more conversational than small-group jazz, so it isn't surprising that the many great jazz musicians Ben Sidran interviewed during the five years he hosted the public-radio program "Sidran on Jazz" (1985-89) turn out to be quite a conversational bunch. A well-regarded jazz pianist himself, Sidran asked the right questions of the music's best players and recently released the results. Talking Jazz: An Oral History is a boxed set of twenty-four-CD boxed set containing conversations with sixty musicians. Talking Jazz is available online for the time being, and here are some highlights:
Miles Davis: "[John Coltrane] could play under the chord, over the chord, a minor third up from the fifth of the chord....[A] dramatic player like Trane...could just turn you on to the sound of one note. The only people I heard who could you do that was Charlie Parker and Coltrane. That's the only two I heard in my entire life."
Betty Carter: "It's a shame, too, that I and Art Blakey are the only two people that will really take that shot with the young twenty- and twenty-one-year-olds when there are so many musicians, my contemporaries, who work, who have not yet made the sacrifice to educate young players. We need more people like me and Art Blakey who will give these young musicians a job."
Dr. John: "You got three inside [rhythms] goin'....What I think was unique within the New Orleans thing was that people danced all three ways: slow, fast, or 'half-fast,' as the joke went."
Keith Jarrett: "This category thing always comes up because I seem to skirt them. But the simple truth of it is, once a category exists, what's in it is impotent....The only thing I've been interested in all along are the potentials that are missed in any given scene. The things that are forgotten by a whole audience in any given hall."
Michael Brecker: "Well, this might sound strange, but I believe strongly in commitment. That has worked out well for me....[Steps Ahead] allowed me to be myself, with all the good and bad.... I was comfortable in the shadows, trying to be kind of a mysterious soloist, and not have to really expose myself more than I had to....It just seems in the past few years I've been finally ready to venture out on my own, which is scary for me but has been very rewarding."
Wynton Marsalis: "Before I started playing with Art Blakey, I didn't even see how it was possible to play jazz. How could you make a living doing that?...I can honestly say that when I was playing with Art Blakey, I didn't know what you were supposed to be trying to do when you played a solo."
Comments
ben sidran says:
I like the connection you make between small groups and conversation because that's exactly what it is; playing jazz is talking -- although I have to say, most jazz musicians I've met, whether employed in a big band or small group, seem to share this love of story telling. I think the reason we become jazz musicians in the first place is partly to invent, or write our own narrative and then to find the personal voice with which to tell it.
08/13/07 12:01 PM