How to Build a Jazz Collection: Part One
This is the first in a series of essays designed to
introduce people to jazz and its many styles. It is intended as a guide for the
prospective listener -- someone who wants to enjoy the music and have an understanding of
the stylistic variations of jazz. It is not meant as a scholarly treatment of jazz music,
its personalities, or the cultural conditions that gave rise to it. There are plenty of
good sources if those things interest you, but my intention here is to help the new
listener become acclimated to the music and build a collection.
My approach to introducing jazz is one I haven’t seen
done before, but which I believe will be both helpful and fun for the new listener.
I’ll start with an album by Miles Davis and his sextet: Kind of Blue, first
issued in 1959. This album, loved by critics and fans alike, routinely tops lists as the
greatest, most influential jazz record ever made. After an introduction to Kind of Blue,
I’ll devote a series of essays to the recorded output of the seven members of the
group: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Cannonball Adderley, Wynton Kelly, Jimmy
Cobb, and Paul Chambers. Looking at the work of these musicians will bring the reader into
contact with many of the styles of jazz, and expose him or her to many of the great jazz
albums and great jazz players.
While I’ve chosen albums that are either defining
moments in the history of jazz or simply enjoyable records, the omission of an album
should not be seen as an indication of its inferiority. This series is simply an overview
and introduction. Once you’ve been exposed to different kinds of jazz, you’ll be
in a good position to go adventuring on your own and find the kinds of albums you like
best.
An introduction to Kind of Blue
 Kind of Blue [Columbia
CK 64935] was recorded in March and April of 1959 at the recording studios of
Columbia Records in New York City. The original album consists of five tracks: "So
What," "Freddie Freeloader," "Blue in Green," "All
Blues," and "Flamenco Sketches." (The recent CD reissue also includes the
only alternative track available from the sessions, another version of "Flamenco
Sketches.") All of these tracks are fantastic, but "So What" and "All
Blues" stayed in Davis’s repertoire for several years. At the time, Wynton Kelly
was the pianist in the Davis sextet, but Davis had composed the music of Kind of Blue
with Bill Evans in mind (Evans had left the band a while before the recording), and Evans
returns to play on most of the album.
Davis’s compositions on Kind of Blue display a
concern with scales, or musical modes. (Prompted by Evans, Davis had investigated the use
of scales by such classical composers as Rachmaninoff and Ravel.) Modal jazz is organized
around musical modes instead of chord progressions. When we talk about musical modes, we
are usually talking about any of seven scales: three major scales (Lydian, Ionian, and
Mixolydian) and four minor scales (Dorian, Aeolian, Phrygian, and Locrian). When playing
modal jazz, musicians improvise over scales, not chord progressions -- this provides new
improvisational opportunities for the soloists. In "So What," for example,
Davis’s musicians improvise on the Dorian scale. In pure listening terms, this gives
the music a delicacy and relaxed feeling that make it perfect for chilling out.
In his original liner note to Kind of Blue, Bill
Evans draws an analogy between an improvised music such as jazz and a kind of Japanese
painting. Both arts require great concentration by the artists to produce abstract yet
emotionally involving art -- without serious attention paid to form, the work falls apart.
This may seem difficult to believe, because the results of both Japanese painting and jazz
are in an abstract form that is not chaotic but is the result of sustained concentration.
It is easy to imagine, while listening to Kind of Blue, that the level of
concentration among the musicians was phenomenal. There is a completeness and finality to
the music that is hard to describe but easy to hear.
We will now turn to look at some of the other milestones in
Davis’s discography: Birth of the Cool, and next month, Miles Ahead, Miles
Smiles, and Bitches Brew.
Birth of the Cool
 Recorded with a
nonet in 1949 and 1950, Birth of the Cool provides a picture of jazz as a kind of
chamber music. The recordings have their origins in a loose organization of jazz musicians
in New York who were developing and struggling with new theoretical developments in jazz.
Some of this resulted in a more dynamic musical presentation that attempted, in the words
of Pete Welding, to achieve "the broadened coloristic and textual palette of the
large orchestra while using a relatively small number of instruments." Part of this
resulted in an attempt to add more cohesion to the improvised solos and written
arrangements. Instead of breaking completely from the arrangement, soloists seem to bubble
up from it, then melt back into it when finished. This tight connection between
determinism and spontaneity has a lasting influence on jazz and connects with developments
in 20th-century avant-garde music.
The musicians of the nonet are also remarkable; it is worth
mentioning just some of their later work. John Lewis and Kenny Clarke formed the Modern
Jazz Quartet, which was a mainstay in jazz for decades. Max Roach became one of the great
jazz drummers (see, for example, his work with Clifford Brown). Kai Winding and J.J.
Johnson remain the two best-known jazz trombonists. Gil Evans went on to produce several
great albums with Davis (see next time). Gerry Mulligan formed two great pianoless
quartets; the most famous one was with Chet Baker, but Mulligan’s work with Paul
Desmond is also fine. The recent reissue of Birth of the Cool [Capitol
5 30117 2], which is part of the remastered Rudy Van Gelder Collection, sounds
excellent.
Next month I’ll discuss three more from Miles Davis.
...Eric Hetherington
|
