2/3’s Adventure

Here is a great piece written by Carlos Henriquez, the bassist with the Jazz at Lincoln Centre Orchestra:

So, where is jazz now? is it dead? Well it’s definitely not as popular as in the early-to-mid-20th century where it was the pop of our age, but it’s far from dead. Although it has largely fallen out of the public eye, jazz is still brimming with invention and energy in the right places — they’re just harder to find, that’s all.

Jazz did its part in the greater evolution of music: the struggles of the African American people of the late 19th century evoked a movement in music defined by a yearning for freedom and a breaking of rules, it was something fresh and blaringly human. This flame of originality eventually spread throughout the world, taking a multitude of forms: free jazz, cool jazz, big band swing, gypsy swing, etc. After its life of being a very prominent genre of its own, it influenced other upcoming genres such as classic rock (Hendrix/Pink Floyd), pop (Sinatra), funk (Herbie Hancock and the Head Hunters), soul (Hank Crawford), R&B (Booker T. and the MGs) etc. there are always little nuggets of jazz language buried hiding in the modern canon which you can hear sometimes if you’re listening carefully — its contribution to music was a natural ebb and flow.

The stars of the olden days who epitomised the genre were people like Miles Davis (trumpet), Charlie Parker (alto sax), Bill Evans (piano), Billie Holiday (vocals) etc., artists whose work was as widely consumed as the famous artists today; all that has decreased now is the fan base, not the talent and passion. Replacing those greats in the modern era are — in my opinion — Wynton Marsalis (trumpet), Kenny Garrett (alto sax), Keith Jarrett (piano) and Dianne Reeves (vocals). Not well known, maybe, but just as good. Wynton Marsalis’ composition Blood on the Fields was even the first jazz piece to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music — the talent’s still alive, folks.

The top big bands of the good old days belonged to Duke Ellington and Count Basie, but the biggest name in big band swing in the modern day is the Jazz at Lincoln Centre Orchestra led by Wynton Marsalis. These men are the best at their art — their synergy is a blast from the past and is breath-taking to behold. They tour every continent except Antarctica (they’re afraid of melting the ice) and boast a repertoire ranging from original pieces, new takes on old greats, and old gold as one would have heard it out of the clarinet of Benny Goodman or the trombone of Glen Miller himself.

Since I’ve written a lot here about history and context, I’ll keep the piece review short: if you’ve listened as you’ve read, you are probably up to the killer piano solo. This song is from the Band’s Album Live in Cuba, and the fire, pace, and heavy Latin sound really takes the listener to Havana — more effectively than Camila Cabello, if you ask me — with its sudden shifts from hot and pacey swing to a laid-back afro-Cuban trumpet solo which has one grasping for the nearest Piña Colada. This piece changes like a weather-cock between rhythms and feels, taking you on a tumultuous journey of style and sound and revealing how the rift between the US and Cuba never existed in music — I hate to be sappy, but it is truly a great unifier.