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OPINIONS ON JAZZ AND OTHER TOPICS
Warning: The author is highly opinionated, and
given his relationship to the main topic, could be
accused of having a "conflict of interest." Further,
unless otherwise noted, his research is most unscientific.
Greetings! I am a musician and educator active on
the Jazz scene in New England. Lately I have seen a
renewal of interest in Jazz locally and in general,
and have decided to take advantage of the space
offered me here to try to encourage that interest.
Some folks in the area, myself included, have gathered
together to create the Merrimack Valley Jazz Society. Our
purpose is to facilitate communication among those who have
an interest in Jazz in the Merrimack Valley (roughly from
Concord, NH to Haverhill, MA), and to further jazz education
in this region. On Sunday, October 17, from 1:00 to 3:30
PM, The Society will present its second Jazz Brunch and
Membership Call at Madden's Restaurant, 37 Crystal Ave. in
Derry, NH, 603-432-8403. Hosting the jam session will be
Joan Watson-Jones and her Trio, with special guests Paul
Combs and Jay Ford. Also featured will be the art work of
internationally known painter, New Hampshire resident, Mel
Bolden. Refreshments will be served, and if you are a player,
bring your instrument and join in the fun.
Although Jazz music is alive and well in all corners of the
United States, and most urban centers of the rest of the world,
it gets little attention in the mainstream media. Much of the
media attention is focused not on those things that people are
doing because it matters to them–and often to many others as
well–but on the things that make a lot of money quickly. The
latest "pop" music star, who may be forgotten in a couple of
years, will sell, thanks to the hype, one, two or three million
copies of his or her CD. This person will be profiled on TV
entertainment news magazines, and invited to shmooz with
the late night comedian/hosts. Whereas, artists who have
worked all their lives at their music (and made a living at it,
too) such as Clark Terry or Tokisho Akioshi, in Jazz, Koko
Taylor or Gatemouth Brown, in Blues, are rarely, if ever, seen
on TV or mentioned in the press.
I have struggled against this trend all my adult life. When I was
a child I watched and heard Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington,
and Nat Cole, as well as Leonard Bernstein on "mainstream"
TV stations. I first heard Ellington's early music accompanying
the old "Farmer Brown" cartoons. Can you imagine a child of
today watching cartoons to a sound track of, say, the music of
Charles Mingus? How about being able to watch a great symphony
conductor sit down with a bunch of kids and talk about
Classical music with them on prime-time television?
I would raise the "Burn Your TV" banner here, except it
sounds too much to me like killing the messenger because one
does not like the message.
Speaking of Jazz locally, I would like to introduce the work of
some of your neighbors whose CDs have come into my possession
in a rather random fashion.Whenever I run into a colleague
who has just released a CD, I swap one of mine for one of his or
hers. The equipment and the process of replication have become
relatively affordable, so one no longer needs to wait for a record
company in order to make the music available.
Joan Watson-Jones’ album, her second release, is titled "One
More Year." Some of you may know Joan from her cable TV
show "Joan's Jazz Jam." Others of you may know her from her
performances over the last twenty years. Stylistically, Joan is very
interesting. She performs with a "modern" piano trio and horn
players, yet her singing recalls singers from earlier in the century,
like Ethel Waters or the "classic" blues singers. Jazz is a continuously
developing art, and this stylistic juxtaposition is a bit like
the "post-modern" movement in architecture. Joan is accompanied
by the trio of Hakim Law, piano, Skip Smith, bass and
Gordon Grottenthaler. She also has several fine horn players: Jay
Daly, trumpet; Fred Hass and Curtis Rivers, saxophones; David
Eure, violin; and Sonny Stanton, flute.
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