Jazz, Part 2

Like a jazz song, I’m going to begin writing this piece with a certain theme and direction, then go off into a tangent and talk about something else somewhat related while trying to stay within the overall theme, then come back and finish up cleanly. Hopefully.

I saw Luther Hughes and the Cannonball-Coltrane Project play tonight at the Crowne Plaza Hotel near Los Angeles International Airport. Here’s a line from his March 2005 Jazz Review interview:

If you want true quality music you have to listen to jazz or classical, that’s pretty much it. Some Brazilian and some Cuban, but that’s about it.

I, Gerardo, took classical piano lessons as a kid. Classical music is damn hard to play, and there’s very little room for bullshitting, unless you’re very good at it. And if you’re very good at it, why bullshit in the first place?

Pop music, on the other hand, often depends on bullshit much more so than musicianship. By definition, pop music is the most popular music around, what most people listen to. Nine times out of ten, if you ask someone what music they like, you’ll probably get an answer that falls into the category of pop music. That’s just the way it is. If most of your friends listen to something other than pop music, you’re probably weird and not very popular with the majority crowd.

I heard jazz all my life but never really understood it until only a couple years ago. It was damn hard to understand. I’m not talking about smooth jazz, like Kenny G. Saying Kenny G is a jazz player is like saying Liberace was a classical pianist, or Thomas Kinkade is a painter. They all reached a certain point of fame and then depended on bullshit to sustain their popularity. Instead of using their talent to really dig into what’s underneath, what needs to be uncovered, they decided to buy a second mansion. Sometimes I don’t blame them.

As I was saying, jazz is hard to understand. I’m talking about straight-ahead, bebop, traditional jazz, the way black people intended jazz to be. Jazz that has nothing to do with vacation resorts. Jazz that corporations have yet to figure out and mass produce. Jazz that’s nearly impossible to dance to, because the beat is always changing, always being improvised, always being challenged to not be easy. Jazz that cannot be ambient noise or background music. Jazz that you have to pay attention to, just like you pay attention to a real person trying to tell you a good bit of truth.

Sometimes it also hurts to listen to jazz. Maybe because the beat is complicated and the melody, because of improvisation, is unpredictable. Maybe because it forces you to listen to every aspect of itself. Why is jazz the only place you’ll hear the bassist play a solo?

Why didn’t I like jazz when I was younger? Why didn’t I see as many colors when I was younger?

A friend of mine, the son of a true jazz musician, once told me that John Coltrane would practice by playing the notes off a page of sheet music, then turn the page upside down, and play the song that way. Beethoven completely lost his hearing at age 44 but continued to write music until his death at age 57.

In Los Angeles, there is one radio station that plays jazz (88.1FM). There is one radio station that plays classical music (105.1FM). There are at least three radio stations that play smooth jazz. There are at least ten radio stations that play pop music.

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Related links:
Luther Hughes interview from Jazz Review, March 2005
Cannonball-Coltrane Project
Ludwig van Beethoven on Wikipedia