I received the following via anonymous email last week, and it looks awfully familiar, though I cannot really tell you why. Maybe the anaphora the author uses has drilled the idea that I must have read this before, somewhere else, into my head.
If no one else recognizes this, and by way of explanation, is willing to illustrate (no experience necessary), extend, celebrate or parody these sentiments, I would be most grateful.
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Because jazz for me is life in all its confounding, painful, joyful efflorescence. Jazz is not a polite music. Jazz is Jelly Roll Morton sitting in a brothel in the French Quarter, hitting the ivories and claiming he invented the music. Jazz is Armstrong hitting high notes and mopping his face with a huge white handkerchief as concert-trained trumpet players in the audience rip out their hair in frustration. Jazz is Bechet's unbelievably ripe vibrato. Jazz is Ellington's jive -- and his genius, his sense of color and movement and drama. Jazz is Dizzy Gillespie pulling a knife on Cab Calloway after that crazy argument about spitballs (it wasn't Dizzy). Jazz is Bird's junk-sick version of "Lover Man". Jazz is Illinois Jacquet blowing his brains out on yet another JATP version of "Flyin' Home". Jazz is Lionel Hampton dancing on the tympani. Jazz is Coltrane playing a 40-minute solo. Jazz is Mingus punching Jimmy Knepper in the mouth. Jazz is the steel plate in Art Blakey's head. Jazz is Shelly Manne describing playing drums with Stan Kenton as being like "chopping wood". Jazz is Ornette Coleman writing a symphonic work -- union restrictions, you know -- just so he can enter the UK and play his with his trio. Jazz is Cecil Taylor beating the crap out of the piano at the Five Spot. Jazz is finding Jimmy Smith on an old jukebox. Jazz is Philly Joe Jones doing his Bela Lugosi impersonation. Jazz is Jimmy Giuffre's accompanying himself only with the sound of his foot tapping. Jazz is Lester Bowie titling a composition "Jazz Death?" Jazz is Johnny Otis voluntarily declaring himself an African-American. Jazz is Sonny Clark throwing in that damn "Carmen" quote is just about every solo he takes after 1959. Jazz is Roland Kirk playing three reeds at once. Jazz is Warne Marsh collapsing as he's playing "Out of Nowhere", his favorite tune, and never getting back up. Jazz is Dean Benedetti. Jazz is Chet Baker having his teeth stolen while working as a gas station attendant. Jazz is M'Boom, an orchestra of percussion instruments. Jazz is some kid in rural Georgia, or inner city Philadelphia, or some burned out, formerly-great industrial center in Europe, hearing the sound of a saxophone -- or trumpet, or piano, or drums -- and wanting then to dedicate their lives to the mastery of a musical instrument. Jazz is Miles turning his back on an audience. Jazz is, like all great American innovations, vulgar and loud and occasionally garish. It is unpredictable and it often mocks you with the sheer volume of truth it presents you. And I wouldn't want discussions of this music to give me anything less. |
I can’t place it either, but I like that definition a damn sight better than these:
Jazz: A style of music, native to America, characterized by a strong but flexible rhythmic understructure with solo and ensemble improvisations on basic tunes and chord patterns and, more recently, a highly sophisticated harmonic idiom. www.dictionary.com
What tied [jazz] all together was a foundation in the blues, a reliance on group interplay and unpredictable improvisation. Throughout the years, and in all the different styles, those are the qualities that defined jazz. AMG
Here are a few additions that spring to mind:
Jazz is Fred Anderson hunkering down at the knees into his signature crouch. Jazz is the Velvet Lounge’s peeling piebald wallpaper. Jazz is Cecil Taylor dancing pirouettes beside his piano. Jazz is Al and Zoot rolling cigarettes between solos. Jazz is Joe McPhee waxing philosophic about a rose. Jazz is William Parker accessing the Tone World with four bows. Jazz is Hamid Drake rhythm-a-ning with every limb, finger, palm and toe. Jazz is David S. Ware decked out in a Stay Puft Marshmallow Man dashiki. Jazz is my ex-girlfriend asking “where the hell are the lyrics?” Jazz is Louis Armstrong quipping “Man, if you have to ask, you’ll never know.”
"Jazz is Al and Zoot rolling cigarettes between solos."
Yes, yes, indeed. What sort of tobacco are they using?
Jazz is Pee Wee Russell's grimaces.
Jazz is the hole in Freddie Hubbard's lip.
Jazz is Thelonious Monk's penchant for unusual hats.
Posted by: Joe Milazzo at June 30, 2004 2:33 PMJazz is dead.
Posted by: Alastair at July 1, 2004 5:05 AMBuzzkill.
Posted by: derek at July 1, 2004 6:13 AMJazz is waiting in the parking lot listening to the radio, knowing that you’ll probably be a few minutes late if you also stop in the cafeteria for a muffin. Jazz is coughing and not always covering your mouth, even when other people are around. Jazz is putting back an empty ice cube tray in the freezer and then telling the wife that, hey, it wasn’t you, because you’re usually pretty good about that kind of thing. Jazz is about taking all those crazy, reckless chances in life because, gosh, you only go around once.
Posted by: William Lawless at July 1, 2004 6:28 AMJazz is shrimp gumbo for the soul.
(after Marsalis)
Posted by: Joe Milazzo at July 1, 2004 7:41 AM
"Jazz is shrimp gumbo for the soul
(after Marsalis)"
Jazz is "Hot House Flowers" (Marsalis)
"This is not to say that Erstwhile's approach may not from time to time produce hothouse flowers" (bagatellen)
Posted by: non ame at July 1, 2004 1:56 PMThis is not to say that Hothouse Flowers' productions may not from time to time approach erstwhile, baggy tellings.
Cf., "Don't Go."
Posted by: Joe Milazzo at July 1, 2004 2:06 PMJazz is Hervé Sambe.
Recognize!
Jazz is also the collective evil eye generated by your squeaky chair in an audience of 15.
Posted by: al at July 1, 2004 4:32 PM"Jazz is also the collective evil eye generated by your squeaky chair in an audience of 15."
Damns straight.
Jazz is also that drunk woman in a too-tight floral print dress who has been telling everyone at the bar about her artistic ambitions losing her last inhibition and jumping onstage to dance with the saxophone player, who suddenly looks both bemused and very, very vulnerable.
Also...
Jazziz.
Posted by: Joe Milazzo at July 7, 2004 8:21 AMJazz is a two drink minimum.
Posted by: Cary Ralston at July 10, 2004 2:10 PMtobacco, your props are much appreciated. It’s nice for the site to get feedback.
Posted by: derek at August 3, 2004 3:58 PM*someone* digs cigarettes. I prefer Blackjack gum.
Posted by: derek at August 4, 2004 10:39 AMCarly
they rather had jokes like
CAN I HAVE A GIN TONIC FILLED UP
and YOU COULD KEEP ALL THE TONIC FOR YOURSELF ----- ?
That plus all the "other" things
always a JAZZ doctor around in these days
how to roll joints with barley ANYTHING and get very high
And there s a Famous tour in the late 60´s
of more or less the P Brotzmann Nipples group organised by him ...door money but rather big venues ...the only thing was Peter forgot to mention the fee was the door MINUS THE BAR BILL ............
wasn t much money left for the band as one could guess
n
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