Post by isaacs on Feb 20, 2006 21:51:03 GMT 10
The Australian
Edition 1 - All-round CountryTUE 14 FEB 2006, Page 014
Mastered by the apprentices
By John McBeath
American jazz has become conservative while other countries are finding their own solo voices, writes John McBeath
AT the start of the 21st century, America's great musical creation, jazz, is undergoing monumental key change. It's as if a child swingster had grown up in New York and then moved abroad to raise a talented musical family.
The whole point of jazz is change and development -- it is music that never stands still -- but now most of that innovation is happening away from the music's birthplace.
The emphasis has shifted to Europe, especially Scandinavia, but also to countries where musicians draw on local cultural and environmental influences. There is a cross-fertilisation of American jazz with local cultures. New styles springing up around the world use the basic syntax of American jazz but with a local accent.
We can hear it happening in Australia. Last year pianist/composer Paul Grabowsky and vocalist Katie Noonan released a CD called Before Time Could Change Us. The songs -- settings of poems by Dorothy Porter -- use extended harmonic structures, subtle rhythms, huge leaps to the upper register, tempo and mood changes and beautifully integrated, jazz-based arrangements. They could almost be called jazz arias.
It's a leading-edge suite, animated by Noonan's superbly expressive voice soaring through her amazing soprano range, making it quite unlike anything previously recorded here or overseas. Grabowsky claims the Australian ethos has made us a resourceful people with the ability to improvise, physically and musically.
In Europe, much contemporary jazz draws on references from classical and folk music. The Finnish piano trio Toykeat, which toured Australia in 2005, played passages that might have been from Chopin or Rachmaninov, skilfully embedded in compositions by jazz piano greats Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk.
At another point on the spectrum is the Marco Zurzolo quintet from Italy, which also visited Australia last year. Their set featured kitschy, show-style arrangements that drew heavily on Neapolitan musicomedy. It was an interesting idea but not necessarily successful. Young, innovative players around the world continue to study the work of American legends Armstrong, Ellington, Parker, Monk, Gillespie, Coltrane, Davis and Evans, but then modify those ideas with influences from their own areas.
A young Australian trumpeter will be familiar with these American antecedents but also with the works of local cutting-edge brass players such as Scott Tinkler (who also contributes beautifully to the Noonan/Grabowsky CD); Phil Slater, who uses computer sound files; or Paul Williamson, whose impressive original works come with an injection of Australian jazz humour.
There are other outstanding jazz musicians: pianist Mike Nock, whose compositions incorporate world music elements; the tenor sax virtuoso Jamie Oehlers; James Muller, with his imaginative chord control and flashing ideas on guitar; or altoist Bernie McGann, whose playing Grabowsky compares to the Australian landscape -- dry, brittle and witty. Our jazz trumpet cadet will also have listened to global players such as Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stanko, and various musicians from Finland, Scandinavia, France and Italy who toured Australia last year, and to others on CD.
Another important development is that young players today compose many -- if not most -- of the pieces they play, and increasingly include input from a wide range of electronica.
A new book by the British jazz critic Stuart Nicholson, Is Jazz Dead? (Or Has it Moved to a New Address), makes a timely examination of some of these new developments. Nicholson uses ``glocalisation'', an ugly but useful word to describe the interaction of global and local musical practices, and gives many examples of glocal styles, including Australian players.
Innovative jazz works still emerge from the US but their numbers and global influence have declined. Why? The book argues that in the US, due to ``neoconservative'' arts policies, jazz funding is going only to large, established institutions, most notably Lincoln Centre in New York. The Lincoln's artistic director of jazz, the celebrated trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, is identified as a ``neoconservative'' musician, intent on preserving an idealised, dated representation of jazz at the expense of the avant-garde.
Similarly, Nicholson accuses US jazz conservatoriums of stultifying the young and suppressing innovation, resulting in creative stagnation: American jazz is depicted as ``largely sticking to a script written 40 years ago''. Some specialists there (but not all) disagree, and several critics have been dismissive of the grim picture the book paints for future US jazz.
Something beyond the chords must be changing, though, when The New York Times claims most top US jazz musicians now earn most of their income from Europe.
Whether jazz is dead or alive, waxing or waning, is almost impossible to answer since much depends on anecdotal evidence. Audience numbers at Australian jazz festivals seem to indicate the genre is far from mortuary material, with 33,000 people attending the 2005 Wangaratta Festival of Jazz, its 16th year.
Yet at the same time some of our best exponents too often play to undeservedly small audiences, and in our capital cities jazz venues close with disappointing regularity. It can't be that we have insufficient listeners for too many top players. It's more likely that potential audiences don't realise the excellent quality of our home-grown, under-publicised product.
The young Melbourne pianist and composer Aaron Choulai, born in Papua New Guinea, has released an all-original album of unique pieces, Korema, recorded at home (an increasingly common practice, as cheap high-quality recording equipment has become available) with his talent-loaded sextet. The music is glocal: exploratory, exciting, yet accessible. Choulai speaks of creating art in and for the community, saying: ``This is a Melbourne album, and the rest of the world gets a chance to hear.''
The idea that location shapes personality, which then influences music, especially in improvisation, deserves further investigation. After all, we talk of the soul of music, and that -- whether local or glocal -- comes from the soul of the player.
Edition 1 - All-round CountryTUE 14 FEB 2006, Page 014
Mastered by the apprentices
By John McBeath
American jazz has become conservative while other countries are finding their own solo voices, writes John McBeath
AT the start of the 21st century, America's great musical creation, jazz, is undergoing monumental key change. It's as if a child swingster had grown up in New York and then moved abroad to raise a talented musical family.
The whole point of jazz is change and development -- it is music that never stands still -- but now most of that innovation is happening away from the music's birthplace.
The emphasis has shifted to Europe, especially Scandinavia, but also to countries where musicians draw on local cultural and environmental influences. There is a cross-fertilisation of American jazz with local cultures. New styles springing up around the world use the basic syntax of American jazz but with a local accent.
We can hear it happening in Australia. Last year pianist/composer Paul Grabowsky and vocalist Katie Noonan released a CD called Before Time Could Change Us. The songs -- settings of poems by Dorothy Porter -- use extended harmonic structures, subtle rhythms, huge leaps to the upper register, tempo and mood changes and beautifully integrated, jazz-based arrangements. They could almost be called jazz arias.
It's a leading-edge suite, animated by Noonan's superbly expressive voice soaring through her amazing soprano range, making it quite unlike anything previously recorded here or overseas. Grabowsky claims the Australian ethos has made us a resourceful people with the ability to improvise, physically and musically.
In Europe, much contemporary jazz draws on references from classical and folk music. The Finnish piano trio Toykeat, which toured Australia in 2005, played passages that might have been from Chopin or Rachmaninov, skilfully embedded in compositions by jazz piano greats Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk.
At another point on the spectrum is the Marco Zurzolo quintet from Italy, which also visited Australia last year. Their set featured kitschy, show-style arrangements that drew heavily on Neapolitan musicomedy. It was an interesting idea but not necessarily successful. Young, innovative players around the world continue to study the work of American legends Armstrong, Ellington, Parker, Monk, Gillespie, Coltrane, Davis and Evans, but then modify those ideas with influences from their own areas.
A young Australian trumpeter will be familiar with these American antecedents but also with the works of local cutting-edge brass players such as Scott Tinkler (who also contributes beautifully to the Noonan/Grabowsky CD); Phil Slater, who uses computer sound files; or Paul Williamson, whose impressive original works come with an injection of Australian jazz humour.
There are other outstanding jazz musicians: pianist Mike Nock, whose compositions incorporate world music elements; the tenor sax virtuoso Jamie Oehlers; James Muller, with his imaginative chord control and flashing ideas on guitar; or altoist Bernie McGann, whose playing Grabowsky compares to the Australian landscape -- dry, brittle and witty. Our jazz trumpet cadet will also have listened to global players such as Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stanko, and various musicians from Finland, Scandinavia, France and Italy who toured Australia last year, and to others on CD.
Another important development is that young players today compose many -- if not most -- of the pieces they play, and increasingly include input from a wide range of electronica.
A new book by the British jazz critic Stuart Nicholson, Is Jazz Dead? (Or Has it Moved to a New Address), makes a timely examination of some of these new developments. Nicholson uses ``glocalisation'', an ugly but useful word to describe the interaction of global and local musical practices, and gives many examples of glocal styles, including Australian players.
Innovative jazz works still emerge from the US but their numbers and global influence have declined. Why? The book argues that in the US, due to ``neoconservative'' arts policies, jazz funding is going only to large, established institutions, most notably Lincoln Centre in New York. The Lincoln's artistic director of jazz, the celebrated trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, is identified as a ``neoconservative'' musician, intent on preserving an idealised, dated representation of jazz at the expense of the avant-garde.
Similarly, Nicholson accuses US jazz conservatoriums of stultifying the young and suppressing innovation, resulting in creative stagnation: American jazz is depicted as ``largely sticking to a script written 40 years ago''. Some specialists there (but not all) disagree, and several critics have been dismissive of the grim picture the book paints for future US jazz.
Something beyond the chords must be changing, though, when The New York Times claims most top US jazz musicians now earn most of their income from Europe.
Whether jazz is dead or alive, waxing or waning, is almost impossible to answer since much depends on anecdotal evidence. Audience numbers at Australian jazz festivals seem to indicate the genre is far from mortuary material, with 33,000 people attending the 2005 Wangaratta Festival of Jazz, its 16th year.
Yet at the same time some of our best exponents too often play to undeservedly small audiences, and in our capital cities jazz venues close with disappointing regularity. It can't be that we have insufficient listeners for too many top players. It's more likely that potential audiences don't realise the excellent quality of our home-grown, under-publicised product.
The young Melbourne pianist and composer Aaron Choulai, born in Papua New Guinea, has released an all-original album of unique pieces, Korema, recorded at home (an increasingly common practice, as cheap high-quality recording equipment has become available) with his talent-loaded sextet. The music is glocal: exploratory, exciting, yet accessible. Choulai speaks of creating art in and for the community, saying: ``This is a Melbourne album, and the rest of the world gets a chance to hear.''
The idea that location shapes personality, which then influences music, especially in improvisation, deserves further investigation. After all, we talk of the soul of music, and that -- whether local or glocal -- comes from the soul of the player.