"The word jazz doesn't mean much."

Our class readings so far have all dealt, in one way or another, with setting the context for understanding the apparent split between concepts of “tradition” and “innovation” in jazz today. I call it a split, but Time Out New York calls it “the raging jazz wars”. How did jazz—famously, the sound of surprise—become a classical music? And how did “jazz”—the word—become something an “innovator” might want to explain away, as Esperanza Spaulding seemed to do when she told the audience at a PR event a couple of weeks ago that “the word jazz doesn’t mean much”.*

We decided in class to name the blog “Jazz Heresy” as something of a joke, but I’d like to take a moment here to talk about the word: not jazz, but “heresy”.  My dictionary defines “heresy” as a belief that is at odds with orthodox religious doctrine, or an opinion profoundly at odds with what is generally accepted. In this week’s readings, we observed Wynton Marsalis doing a rhetorical flip of the words “conservative” and “radical”: to Marsalis, a “radical” is someone who upholds the sanctity of the jazz tradition, while the “conservative” is someone who follows the trend of dismissing the importance of tradition. In this topsy-turvy conception, then, we can be heretical by opposing tradition, or upholding tradition; by embracing innovation in jazz, or by excoriating it. I’d like to suggest another way: let’s be heretics by making it plain that the word "jazz" means something, means different things to different people at different times and places. Let's engage with history, culture and musicians' stories to understand what these things are. Let's talk about who we are, what kind of music we want to make, what kinds of musicians we want to be, and why.

The class assignment is to publish a post that responds directly to something we’ve read, watched, listened to, or discussed in class. We’ve covered a lot of ground in the past three weeks, and to start off our discussions here – and to give anyone else out there an idea of who we’ve been reading and listening to – I’ll sign off with a list of the things we’ve been looking at.

 Looking forward to the discussion!

*Here I quote journalist and scholar Lara Pellegrinelli, who paraphrased Spaulding’s remarks in her preview of the bassist and vocalist’s upcoming performance in the September 30-October 6 edition of Time Out New York.
 


Assigned Readings

Steven F. Pond (2003), “Jamming the Reception: Ken Burns, Jazz, and the problem of “America’s Music””, Notes, 60(1), 11-45.

Robert G. O’Meally, Brent Hayes Edwards and Farah Jasmine Griffin, “Introductory Notes” in O’Meally et. al., Uptown Conversation: The New Jazz Studies (Columbia University Press, 2004), 1-6.

Scott Deveaux, “Constructing the Jazz tradition” in O’Meally, Ed., The Jazz Cadence of American Culture (Columbia University Press, 1998) 483-512.

David Ake, “Jazz ‘Traning: John Coltrane in the Conservatory”, Jazz Cultures (University of California Press, 2002), 112-145.

David Ake, “Jazz Traditioning: Setting Standards at Century’s Close”, Jazz Cultures (University of California Press, 2002), 146-176.

Ethan Iverson, “Wynton Marsalis: Reader’s Guide” and “Interview with Wynton Marsalis: Part Two”, Do The Math, http://dothemath.typepad.com/.

Supplementary Readings

Hank Shteamer, “Jon Irabagon: A local saxist refuses to pick a side in the still-raging jazz wars,” Time Out New York, Issue 780 : Sep 9–15, 2010. http://newyork.timeout.com/articles/music/88746/jon-irabagon-interview#ixzz117PhsBaN

Jamie Katz, “Keeper of the Keys: Pianist Jason Moran laces his strikingly original music with the soulful sounds of jazz greats”, Smithsonian Magazine, October 2007. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/specialsections/innovators/moran-yi.html

A discussion on publicist Matt Merewitz’ Facebook page on jazz education.

Viewing

Ken Burns: Jazz, Chapter 10: A Masterpiece by Midnight

Listening

Jon Irabagon. “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” on Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/8507010)
Mostly Other People do the Killing on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/mostlyotherpeopledothekilling)
John Coltrane: “Giant Steps”
John Coltrane: “Ascension”
Bill Frissell, “Have a Little Faith”
Wynton Marsalis, “Standard Time Vol. 2: Intimacy Calling”
The Bad Plus: “These Are the Vistas”
Mary Halvorsen, preview of “Saturn Sings” on NPR: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129996649