I agree wtih much of what is said. But, Burns did make one undeniable,
unassailable point. In the 1920's-40's, "jazz" accounted for 70% of recorded
music sales. In the 70's and beyond, that number shrunk to about 3%. He
focused primarily on the so called "golden age" of jazz.
BTW, does anyone remember if Burns' "Baseball" spent more time on Babe Ruth
or Mark McGuire? Ty Cobb or Pete Rose? Josh Gibson or Johnny Bench?
I don't think anyone would argue that Burns thinks Baseball fell apart in
the '70's-90's. Just like jazz, some of the best ballplayers of all time are
alive and doing it right now. But, people don't know much about Hans Wagner
OR King Oliver, Cool Papa Bell OR Bix Beiderbecke. So, Burns uncovers and
instructs. what's wrong with that?
(ps... *all* history is revisionist history.)
----- Original Message -----
From: Stephen Bayer (by way of Jason Witherspoon
<aNOrzaSPAMchel@speakeasy.org>) <spbayer@yahoo.com>
To: <acid-jazz@ucsd.edu>
Sent: Sunday, February 11, 2001 11:25 PM
Subject: Jazz in the 70's: an opposing view
> 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/
>
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