While Ken Burns has been roundly criticized for the scant
attention "Jazz" paid to the music since 1970, after seeing episode 10
I only wish he had said nothing whatsoever. What a sour note to end
on! My 14-year old son, who had watched the entire series, asked, in
confusion, why the last episode was suddenly nothing but people putting
down other people's music.
It would have made a far happier ending for everyone, the devoted fan
and the newly initiated, to have portrayed the 70's for what they
really were: the triumph of jazz, a triumph both commercial and
artistic, and, indeed, a triumph inseparable from the success of the
civil rights movement.
Ken Burns and Geoffrey Ward judged jazz in the 70's to be in a state of
collapse and despair, but this is clearly the judgement of people who
were not there or, at least, certainly not paying attention.
Here's what the record really shows.
Commercial success:
Jazz consistently charted throughout the decade, from the ridiculous
(Deodato's catchy sendup of Richard Strauss) to the sublime (Roberta
Flack's spellbinding "First time ever I saw your face", which,
Billboard magazine noted, enjoyed the longest stay at No. 1 on the pop
charts any female vocalist had achieved since 1956).
Other artists who achieved hit singles on the pop charts: George
Benson, Joni Mitchell (with an old Lambert Hendricks and Ross song!),
Chuck Mangione (a reminder that Mangione still is the best selling
trumpeter of all former Blakey sidemen), Herbie Hancock, Quincy Jones,
Carlos Ward (The B.T. Express), Manhattan Transfer (with the Joe
Zawinul-Jon Hendricks "Birdland"), Roy Ayers, The Crusaders (with the
sensational Randy Crawford). Add the soul charts and the list grows
rapidly longer: Donald Byrd, Stanley Turrentine, Grover Washington,
Jr., David Newman, Webster Lewis, Lonnie Liston Smith, Cedar Walton.
Even Milt Jackson hit the soul charts with Cedar's "I'm Not So Sure".
If all this is too "Pop" for you, consider other artists who had major
label contracts in the 1970's:
Miles, of course (CBS, Warner Bros.) and of his great quintet, Hancock
(Warners, CBS), Shorter (CBS), and Williams (Polydor, CBS), but also
Cedar Walton (RCA, then CBS), McCoy Tyner (CBS), Bobby Hutcherson
(CBS), Phil Woods (RCA), the Heath Brothers (CBS), Gil Evans (Atlantic,
then RCA), Arthur Blythe (CBS), and the Art Ensemble of Chicago
(Atlantic).
Aside from the majors, a plethora of independent jazz labels sprang
up. Among those those with durable commercial success, Pablo, CTI,
Concord, and from Germany, ECM.
In the 1970's, record companies discovered that their back catalog of
jazz was nothing less than a cash cow, and the modern-day reissue was
born. (It is hard today to realize just how scant was the availability
of older music prior to 1970.) But throughout the decade the musical
world recognized that the great accomplishments of the 30's, 40's and
50's were "classics", durable works of art that audiences were still
eager to hear.
Recognition and Honor:
Jazz did indeed become "classical" in the 70's. Universities recruited
jazz musicians for their faculties, with sometimes fierce competition
for the top talent. (Jackie McLean could well have told that story!) By
the end of the decade, even the staid conservatories were following
suit. Governmental arts fund poured in first from the New York State
Council on the Arts, then from the National Endowment and the
Smithsonian. In 1973 was born the first of the Jazz Repertory
orchestras, Chuck Israels' National Jazz Ensemble.
Big bands were touring again. Basie's of course, selling out houses
wherever he went, but also Maynard Ferguson and Woody Herman (with some
superb young musicians and with Wayne Shorter compositions added to his
book. There high-profile tours by the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra
and the Carla Bley Band.
A generation of musicians who had spent much of the sixties in exile,
in limbo, or in prison, reappeared to significant acclaim. Burns
mentions Dexter Gordon, but could just as well have added Slide
Hampton, Betty Carter, Hampton Hawes, Sonny Criss, Johnny Griffin,
Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker, Milt Jackson, Phil Woods, Hank Jones, Chet
Baker, Ernestine Anderson, and even Dave Brubeck, whose "Two
Generations" album was his most successful since "Time Out".
By the 1970's, jazz had virtually taken over incidental music for
movies and television. It was virtually impossible to get a job in the
studios if you had no jazz experience.
Jazz in the 1970's became not just America's music, but the World's
music. Europe and Japan were as much a part of the itinerary as the
U.S. And U.S. record and ticket sales were now only one part of the
totals revenue. By the late 70's, Cedar Walton could downplay the
importance of New York, saying "New York is where my office is."
Conversely, artists from all over the world were making a big impact in
the U.S.: Airto Moreira & Flora Purim, Dollar Brand, Teramasa Hino,
Jean Luc-Ponty, Jan Garbarek, Toshiko Akiyoshi, etc., etc.
It is important to recognize what all this meant for musicians. Mary
Lou Williams, like quite a few others of her generation, who had lived
from hand to mouth for some 40 years, lived the last years of her life
with undreamed-of financial security, recognition, and respect.
Charley Parker or Clifford Brown could not have imagined either the
recognition or the remuneration bestowed on Ornette Coleman or Joe
Henderson.
Masterpieces:
Finally, there was great music. The recorded legacy should speak for
itself. Don Cherry's "Relativity Suite" and Clifford Jordan's "Glass
Bead Games". The work of Arthur Blythe, of Carla Bley, of the Randy
Weston-Melba Liston Orchestra, of Roland Hanna & Mickey Tucker's New
Heritage Keyboard Quartet and Max Roach's MBoom re:Percussion, of
Eastern Rebellion, Howard Johnson's Gravity, and Warren Smith's
Composers' Workshop Ensemble, of the Tony Williams Lifetime and the
Great Jazz Trio. Jump in now to add your favorites, folks, and we'll
have, in no time at all, a long thread describing some of the century's
finest music.
It is certainly true that Jazz, propelled by the explosive innovations
(and ambitions) of the 1960's, moved in the 70's in a thousand
different directions, but it has always been the nature of Jazz to
assimilate and reshape every conceivable kind of music, and to draw
from the entire musical world for its basic working materials. In the
1970's the world was simply shown the true richness of that nature.
Regards,
Steve Bayer
Sent via Deja.com
http://www.deja.com/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Mon Feb 12 2001 - 07:52:11 CET