June / July 2010 JAM - Kansas City Jazz Ambassadors

ALTERNATE TAKE
26
I learned a valuable lesson years ago. Never criticize
someone’s choice in music or religion, they tend to take
them rather personally. Unfortunately, criticism in the
form of snobbery runs rampant in our society, and I’ve
had quite enough. For our purposes, I will focus on the
type that effects me the most directly, jazz snobbery.
Too many times I have encountered jazz lovers who
believe that they are atop the musical food chain and,
therefore, are more evolved than other mere mortals.
This kind of arrogance and conceit is especially distasteful
and abhorrent to me because is smacks of ignorance
and narrow mindedness, just the type of attitude that
almost killed jazz in the fi rst place.
Usually, people fi nd it too easy and convenient to
cop an attitude about a genre of music without doing
any real research that, in the end, would reveal that
all music is connected, both in evolution and content.
Everything comes from something else. So, if your
mind is closed tight, don’t bother to read on. If there is
a tiny bit of light squeezing through the door, please
proceed.
I remember walking a certain jazz luminary to her
car after a jazz jam session. She asked me what I was
doing, to which I replied,” I’m playing in a R&B/funk
band.” With utter distain, she said,” Why would you
want to do that?” “Because it’s fun!”, I answered, and
that was the end of that. The fact is that any skill you
learn in one style can easily be transferred to another,
thus improving both. Playing
Soul music taught me the value of simplicity and
the importance of a deep groove, ideals I immediately
employed in my jazz playing, not that you can tell.
It is especially disdainful to me when jazz musicians,
especially the young ones, look down their noses
at rock music. Usually it’s because they just don’t get it.
Much of the value of rock from the
60’s and 70’s, for instance, stems from history, what
was going on at the time and what the music meant to
us emotionally, politically and sexually. If you weren’t
there it wouldn’t mean much to you. People tend to
forget that many of the musicians that recorded those
tunes were jazz musicians. The rhythm section that
performed on all of the Motown hits were jazzers. Listen
to the bass line of “Rescue Me’ by Fontella Bass and
you’ll see what I mean.
And what about Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis,
Chick Corea, George Benson, Wayne Shorter, etc?
stanton kessler
JAM JUNE | JULY 2010
Does it diminish their standing in the jazz community
because they got their hands dirty playing jazz/rock
fusion, or does it simply signify that their minds are
broader than those who would condemn them? Even
here in our fair town of Kansas City, there are those jazz
“blue bloods” who would dismiss the likes of Pat Metheny
because they have only heard The Pat Metheny
Group and none of his spectacular Be Bop recordings.
It’s a good idea to check out an artists’ body of work
over time before jumping to a hasty conclusion.
Blues, real, down and dirty three chord blues, is
often considered beneath the accomplished jazz musician.
Ironic in light of the fact that blues is one of the
foundations of all jazz. The funny thing is that jazzers
who ignore the blues have a hard time playing it in spite
of, or because of it’s simplicity. Blues is all about feeling,
an element that is crucial in any musical endeavor.
Listen to Lou Rawls or Louis Armstrong and tell me if
their music is cerebral.
I vividly remember the stink that was made by jazz
purists over the CTI recordings of the early 70’s. Too
much orchestration, too many pop tunes, too much
rock! Those records resurrected or dramatically expanded
the careers of dozens of Be Boppers, including
Freddie Hubbard, Wes Montgomery and Stanley Turrentine.
It was nice for those cats to fi nally make some
good bread and those recordings were beautiful!
Afro-Cuban styles had to be adopted by Dizzy
Gillespie before anyone in the jazz community took
them seriously. Thanks, Diz! Why, it’s from south of the
border, so how can it be worthy of our consideration?
Especially confounding are jazz musicians who fail
to appreciate classical music. From where do you think
the complex harmonies of jazz originate? There is nothing
harmonically in jazz , and not much melodically,
that has not already been written in classical music.
It’s how you play it from your heart, the phrasing, that
makes it original.
Country music gets a signifi cantly bad rap amongst
jazz lovers. That was the case with yours truly until I
was forced to listen to hours of classic country over the
P.A. at one of my part time jobs. I
discovered that the songs touched me and the studio
musicians were top fl ight. Ever listen to Roy Clark rip
it up on guitar? I’m tellin’ ya’! Plus, you just can’t beat
the classic country lyrics.
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