August 3, 2011: Greatest Generation = BEAT Generation

Charlie Parker with John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie

I love Jazz. However, a number of years ago while sitting in a tiki bar in Ottawa, I made the misleading comment that "I hate Jazz". I think I had mainly been put off by the then recent exitement over the musical "Chicago" and its painful song "all that Jazz". For some reason, that song and many diluted renderings of "Jazz Standards" by privileged bland-igentsia had driven the comment along with a very generic and arrangement that had somehow found its way to my ears at that moment. I immediately tried to clarify that what I disdained was music which can only be identified as "jazz" rather than Be Bop or Samba etc. I don't really know where this came from, but it probably arose out of my powerful dislike of the Swing Music revival of the 1990's. Is there anything more deserving of scorn than a band with "Big Bad" or "Daddy" in its name? 

I continued to explore my love of Brazilian Jazz and picked up the odd CTI or Impulse recording. Enter Ken Burns' Jazz series from PBS. The show will blow your socks off and make you cry. Starting with the origins of the Blues in Louisiana (which, interestingly, happened after emancipation) it explains what is meant by the musical verb "to swing". Anyway, the show helped reinforce my misgivings over bland jazz and my suspicions of the swing revival. What these forms lack is the genuine blues aspect that when applied to marching band instruments creates a swing that has changed everything. Like "everything in moderation", the phrase "don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing" is stated with the wrong emphasis. Emphasize the "that".

The Burns episode I watched last week exposed the great friendship and collaboration between Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. There was a truly epic concert at Massey Hall featuring these two and other greats. I am lucky enough to have a Portuguese release, which I played last night. Burns also illuminated me to the genius of Art Tatum, a man Thelonius Monk described as "God". We heard from volume 2 of a set of records recorded at casual parties. Cool.

Art Tatum could play the keyboard like he had 30 fingers

What can I say? I also wanted to play some Moe Koffman, which led to his song "Bilbo", which led me to the nonsense below. Say what you will, this track has some great large horn sounds. Of course, not to be outdone, Shatner had to prove he was even less capable of carrying a melody.

Nothing like an off-duty vulcan in a blazer and white turtle neck to lure... admirers?

So I don't hate jazz anymore than I hate rock and roll. What do I hate? Say a television show aimed at 4-year-olds has an episode in which a protagonist rock band appears. The show will take all of the elements of rock and have a mild mannered person who's ancestry dates back to when the Angles met the Saxons come up with something on the Casio for the band to play. In a way, that is pure rock.  Not krautrock, just "rock". It will also suck the life out of you and it is what I hate. Same goes for (all that) Jazz. More on my complicated relationship with the saxophone in a later post.

In terms of Robot News, this week's bot has the appearance of Fluffy and Uranus with the strength and wit of Lennie Small. The end of humanity is nigh.

Played List

Artist - Track - Album 

Herbie Hancock - Spank - A - Lee - Thrust

Max Webster - Toronto Tontos - Max Webster

Leonard Nimoy - The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins - Both Sides of Leonard Nimoy

Moe Koffman - Bilbo - Moe Koffman Live at George's Spaghetti House

Art Tatum - Mr Freddie Blues - Piano Discoveries Vol. II

Charlie Parker All Stars - Salt Peanuts - Jam Session

Robot News: Teddy Bear Personal Support Worker

Sun Ra and His Astro Infinity Arkestra - Atlantis - Atlantis