Music + Words (Writing on Music)
The recent EMI giveaway brought me back to Ted Gioia's West Coast Jazz, a book that deals with all variety of Jazz in California following the demise of the Central Avenue scene. Gioia does a good job of bringing together Cool Jazz and Avant Garde experiences, but nonetheless underlining how influenced most musicians were by Bop. What's interesting is how the complexity and sophistication that they injected into the music gives way to greater experimentation among those who would revolutionize Jazz in the 1960s, particularly Eric Dolphy (unfortunately, the author makes no mention of Bobby Hutcherson). Anyway, when trying to put it all in context, Gioia writes:
The passage says more about how Gioia feels about music criticism than the music itself. But I think that at its crux, it's a point that pertains to many music scenes, not just jazz. Intense, overly successful scenes don't bring about greater diversity. I've heard it said many times that the first dozen Goth groups sounded much more unique when compared to each other than the thousands that would come a decade later.The critics who claimed that a Brubeck or a Desmond or a Baker would never have "made it" in New York may, in their own way, have been stating a truth, but one that is less flattering to the east than they might think. Their assertion tells more about the opportunities for individualism in the 1950s New York jazz scene than it does about Brubeck or Desmond. These artists might well have never made it in Manhattan, but is that to New York's credit or disgrace? Herbie Nichols, now celebrated posthumously, never made it in the 1950s New York jazz scene either. But that wasn't his fault. His distinctive sound was simply not close enough to what passed as fashionable at the time. Perhaps he would have never made it out west eithercertainly California was not the place to make a critical (as opposed to a popular) reputation in the 1950s, or even today for that matter. But his eccentric music would certainly have had a chance in the pluralistic West Coast scene that could land a recording contract for Ornette Coleman and a steady gig for Bob Graettinger.
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