Prelude: Jazz Imitates Life

[Jazzybeatchick]

“It's the way you play that makes it. What I say is, for Christ's sake, you don't have to kill yourself to sing. Play like you play. Play like you think, and then you got it, if you're going to get it. And whatever you get, that's you, so that's your story.”       Count Basie

Jazz became the new American form of musical expression debuting at the turn of the 20^thCentury.  Life became expansive, universal, and prolific. Jazz is the most influential approach to music. Jazz applied improvisation and hot rhythms to life infused with harmonic manipulations and intent through solo and group performances. A breath of freedom giving birth to contemporary and exciting new soulful sounds that examined and redefined the old and familiar music.  Jazz spans the spectrum -- from soothing background music to an art form where sounds challenge and require unwavering attention.  It is a beautiful thing to hear the deep emotion conveyed in John Coltrane’s Alabama or Duke Ellington’s Come Sunday.  Louis Armstrong’s Stardust was sheer majesty.  Jazz is magically evocative as performed by the Modern Jazz Quartet’s Vendome or Monk’s Epistrophy.

Jazz has something in the bag for everyone. Some folks may not resonate with bebop but love jazz infused hip hop.  Some find free jazz unsettling and a cacophony of sounds but are completely moved by the energy and beat of swing.  Jazz introduced some of the century’s greatest creative cats and most colorful characters:  Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, T.S. Monk, Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis to name a few.  Their inspired creations sparked and liberated other artistic pursuits:  dance, choreography, literature, poetry, art and film.  Jazz has sensual and eye style qualities. R. J. Hohimer is a painter of jazz age art.  His paintings capture the stories of inspired musicians who spontaneously make music for that moment.  His paintings reflect the ambiance of jazz.  It is pure jazz on canvas.

Jazz progressed so fast that it galvanized the century long evolution of European classical music from local dance bands and orchestras to thriving and a vital international art form with cutting edge innovation.  The evolution of jazz acquired the historic and cultural trends of the time.  An example of this was the post war optimism and a surging youth culture that was born out of night club jazz and dance hall swing of the 1920’s.

The multiethnic flavors presented themselves in music such as Manteca performed by Dizzy Gillespie; calypso of St. Thomas by Sonny Rollins and Stan Getz’s The Girl From Impanema emerged and reflected the U.S. immigration and migration which increased the inter/intra-cultural connection that flourished through jazz music.  Bebop in the 1940’s expressed the creative freedom from racism and social injustice of African Americans and the cool and free jazz of the 1960’s that articulated social injustice’s call for civil rights and equality.  Also, the Beatniks in the ‘40’s with Jack Kerouac and in the 60’s the birth of the Hippies which was a counterculture that fostered free love and the use of drugs.

Post 60’s jazz introduced synthesizers and the merge with technology signaled yet another transformation that articulated jazz style..  Jazz always mirrored from its heart an honest, spontaneous higher level of communication that musicians were able to improvise.  That approach ensured that their message was heartfelt and sincere.  Jazz language was in concert with the complexity of classical music and made the auditory communication limitless.  Jazz portrayed the truest imitation of life’s complexity and transgressions.

Jazz represents personal and collective stories evoking emotional and visceral responses from the listener.  The jazz musician through retrospection and introspection is a style that gives a signature to their experiences and brings them to light and shares their story.  The dispiriting and dehumanizing aspects of jazz are transform  the freshness, the human aspect and most of all the hope for transcendence and freedom of expression of jazz for a more harmonious multicultural future.  Peace out!