As part of the Spirit of America fundraiser, our friend Patterico commissioned me to write an essay recommending good jazz recordings for classical music fans. He mostly likes classical and romance period music, but also likes some modern rock groups, especially stuff like Pink Floyd. That being the case, coming up with a few recommendations for him should be fairly easy. Believe it or not, though, it'd be easier for me the other way around, since I know more about classical than jazz. However, let's see what we can do, eh?
First off, the most important thing to understand about jazz, real jazz music the way it originally started, is that it is improvisational music. Classical music fans will be familiar with the concept of "variations on a theme," especially since Bach and many other composers frequently wrote them. Jazz works along similar principles, except that the musician is generally expected to make up improvizations spontaneously, as he plays. (Believe it or not this used to be quite common among classical musicians as well, but that's another subject.) Some jazz performances will feature a little improvization, some will be almost entirely improvizational.
A big part of the "hook" for the serious jazz fan is in understanding that every time you hear a piece played, it's going to be different. Maybe a little different, or maybe a lot. And any particular recording you hear will be unique, recorded a certain way only once. Once you listen to enough jazz, you start to really appreciate this, because every performance becomes an adventure. You're not just listening to the notes, but you're also appreciating how the musician's mind works, how his creativity works, because if he's any good he's going to surprise you. That's part of the thrill.
Even the vocal performances are improvizational. Again, some more than others, but they're all improvization-based.
The pitfall to all this is that some of the most ingenious improvisers often wind up producing work that's not very accessible to those who aren't deeply immersed in jazz music. I have some jazz recordings in my library that are practically unlistenable to anyone who isn't a jazz musician or a very serious affcianado.
Another frequent complaint about jazz is that it sounds sterile. Many jazz musicians, particularly starting in the 1970s, seem to embrace an austerity and an almost strictly mathematical approach to their music. Often the music is very cerebral and what many people would consider sterile: passion and blue notes and, for want of a better word, "soul," tends to take a back seat to the excitement of the hunt for beauty and complexity of construction.
These things are, of course, subjective. But I suspect most jazz fans know what I'm talking about, even if they wouldn't always agree with my particular picks.
Thus classical fans might actually be surprised to hear it, but they actually probably need to start with jazz that can be classified by that dread word: "accessible." That doesn't mean "for dummies." It means steeped enough of standard chord and melodic structures, and with enough simple hooks, to let the uninitiated get a grasp on what's going on. After you start your adventure in (relatively) safe territory, you can begin exploring and branching out from there, and either keep playing fairly close to home where there's lots of wonderful music, or range as deep into uncharted waters as you want.
With that in mind, here are a half-dozen personal recommendations of jazz music that I think the average classical music fan would appreciate that will also give you an insight into what makes jazz a unique, interesting, and very enjoyable art form:
---
Billie Holliday: Lady In Satin
Serious jazz fans are of two minds about this immortal recording, because strictly speaking the only "jazz" going on here is Billie Holiday's singing. The musical arrangements are very traditional, old-school, Hollywoodish scoring, very lush and simple and lacking any improvization. Offhand this would sound like it would not be much of a jazz recording, then.
However, Holiday herself sings pure jazz throughout, weaving and improvizing around the very simple, straightforward arrangements. You thus get a deep appreciation for her performance, for everything interesting or profound in this recording comes from Holiday's voice. Everything else is just a simple backdrop for that.
And what a voice it is. This recording needs to be listened to in a quiet room. Yes, you can put it on as background music and probably not offend anyone, but to truly appreciate it you must listen to it like you listen to great classical music, with earphones or in a quiet room, with a glass of wine perhaps, while you relax.
Holliday was very near the end of her life when she made this recording, and frankly her voice was nearly gone. She'd had a hard, difficult life, and at first you think she's not even singing very well. She's hoarse, her voice cracks now and then, and rasps throughout. But by the time you're halfway through it, if you're really listening, likely your heart will be breaking---because hers so obviously was.
It's simply an amazing recording.
A contemporary to such big band swing greats as Bennie Goodman, Glenn Miller, and Tommy Dorsey, Artie Shaw managed to do something unique. While the other big band musicians mostly wrote pop music with strong jazz influence, Shaw's music tended to be jazz music with a pop accessibility. It was improvizational, original, cutting edge, and yet still kids in their 20s could listen to it and jump, jive and swing to it.
While he wasn't the most popular of the big band leaders, he was peerless in terms of musical ability.
Unfortunately, the best Shaw recordings are all from the 1930s and 1940s, which means they're monaural and limited in fidelity. Nevertheless Shaw's music is so powerful, interesting, and dynamic, it shines right through even the quality limitations of the era.
Afro-Cuban Jazz played by masters of an almost forgotten subset of popular jazz. Accessible, dancable, rich, and subtly complex. It sounds laid back when you first listen to it, but the more you listen to it, the more intensity and richness you find. I can think of nothing bad to say about this recording.
Al DiMeola, John McLaughlin, & Paco DeLucia: Friday Night in San Francisco
Three simply phenomenal guitarists explore and virtually make love to the amplified acoustic guitar. While the musical forms are basically jazz with a strong flamenco influence, the music otherwise defies categorization. But I don't see how any fan of any form of guitar music can fail to be both impressed and awed by this amazing live recording.
I think even Andres Segovia would have respected what these musicians could do together.
Mahavishnu Orchestra: Between Nothingness and Eternity.
Having not mentioned any real electric jazz yet, I picked my personal favorite. This 1973 live recording in Central Park could have better recording quality, but the sound is quite acceptable and the music exceptional. Spacey, cerebral, intense, at times mind-blowing. This is probably the quintessential electric Jazz/Fusion recording from the 1970s. It's right on the edge of what I'd call "accessible," since it's not something you'll exactly tap your toes or swing dance to. But if you like electric guitars and synthesizers, and also like complex and interesting music, this is an exceptional and surprising recording.
Duke Ellington and John Coltrane
Ellington and Coltrane represent two different generations and two different mindsets on jazz, and in this recording is in some ways like a baton-passing by Ellington and a tribute to the older generation by Coltrane. It's mostly Ellington's music, but Ellington lays back and lets Coltrane do his thing.
Reportedly, there were no charts or formal arrangements used at any time during the making of this recording. Ellington and Coltrane would sit down at a piano, talk, come to some agreements, then get up and tell the other musicians what they wanted--and then just play. To really appreciate this recording, you want to appreciate that aspect too: these musicians weren't sure just exactly what was going to come out of their instruments at any given moment. They basically knew where they were going, but making it up as they went along anyway. When you feel the excitement of that in your soul, you'll start to get what's so cool about jazz. At least, really good jazz.
Grateful Dead: One From The Vault
Bonus recommendation: A lot of people will hoot at this one, but they can go stuff themselves. The Grateful Dead were seminal pioneers and, at their best, unsurpassable masters of an under-appreciated genre known as "Hippie Jazz," also known these days as the "Jam Band" sub-genre. More or less rock based, hippy jazz is best understood as an eclectic mix of musical styles with a moderate pop sensibility, not too different from what artists like Count Basie and Artie Shaw were all about: accessible, but with no small amount of creative improvization in the mix.
The Grateful Dead were a live band meant to be heard live and, most importantly, they always played every song differently. The set lists changed from night to night, the tempos changed, and while the basic chord structures stayed the same the improvisations often got so wild it often felt impossible for these magicians to find their way back together--but they always did.
The Dead were so improvisational, and their lead guitarist Jerry Garcia sometimes so undisciplined, they sometimes delivered a lousy show. Indeed, it wasn't uncommon for people at some shows to say, "what's the big deal, why do people like this band?"
On a good night, you understood: when they were on, they were on. You had no idea where they were going or what they were going to do but when they were clicking it was mind-blowing.
As you listen to this mid-70s live recording, which features killer sound, note that what may sound like carefully structured songs are, in fact, largely improvisations around themes. Pay particular attention to the solos, and to the breaks as they move between songs, which was where the band liked to improvise the most. At every good Dead show, there were always moments for the real fans when they'd be listening, and enjoying, and all of a sudden they'd hear something and look at each other and go, "wow, where did that come from?" Hear tell it, that happened to the musicians on stage a lot too.
The music is accessible, pleasant, creative, and intense, and I think even serious jazz fans who've never experienced the best of what the good jam bands have to offer will find this a pleasing recording.
---
So there you have it: the Dean Esmay pick of jazz music that classical music lovers might well enjoy. I believe you'll find these picks all interesting, with enough depth to show the subtlety, power, and variety that can be found within the jazz art form, and to see its potential.
Now, I'm quite certain that many people will disagree vehemently with some of my recommendations, and maybe all of them. If so, well, that's what the comments are for. So tell me, readers: what do you think of my choices, and what recommendations might you make?
Hey, Dean. I agree with much of your analyses about classical and jazz. I would offer up one suggestion for your recommendations: Concerto for Classic Guitar and Jazz Piano by Claude Bolling.
It may take some bird-dogging to find a recording on CD or vinyl but it is well worth the hunt. It truly is a spectacular piece! The name is a bit misleading since the only other instruments on the recording are bass and drums (and pretty minimal drums at that) but the whole piece is marked by inventive shifts and masterful blending of the two genres plus a little blues tossed in for good measure(!)
I've performed the guitar part for the first three movements several times with piano alone and with the whole ensemble once and am constantly amazed at the complexity but more so by the "accessibility" as you rightly expressed it.
The dean of the music school at our local university is a friend of my wife's and has practiced his faculty recital on her piano at our home a couple times for a small group followed by dinner and wine. I put the Bolling concerto on during dinner last month and Dr. Cook stopped eating about two minutes into the recording wondering what we were listening to. He was very taken by the piece.
Anyway, check it out if you haven't heard it before and thanks for letting me ramble.
Alot of classical is meant to be improvisational; like Beethoven's piano concertos. Also, really good classical music sounds like it's improvised anyways, because of how smoothly everything goes. Again, listen to any Beethoven song and you'll notice this.
I heartily recommend Brubeck's "Time Out" as being accessible yet real jazz. Also Don Byron's "Bug Music," which is a relatively recent recording of selected music of big band composers Raymond Scott, John Kirby, and Duke Ellington, including "Powerhouse" (which you'll know from Looney Tunes).
Also, some of Keith Jarrett's work might be a good choice, because he's respected both as a classical and as a jazz pianist. His "Koln Concert" is a classic of improvised solo piano.
Thanks for the post, Dean. I hope you had as much fun writing it as I had reading it. I look forward to checking out these recordings.
To expand on Dowingba's observation, Beethoven was well-known for his piano improvisations. Such a shame that Edison came along as late as he did (but better late than never!).
Right on for including the Dead!
Miles Davis--Sketches of Spain
I would sure include Pat Matheny in any list of jazz for classical fans. One day Pat Metheny WILL be considered classical.
Bassist Ron Carter's recording of the Brandenburg Concertos, with a bebop continuo.
One day Pat Metheny WILL be considered classical.
The recording he did of Steve Reich's "Electric Counterpoint" is classical.
I'm glad someone mentioned Miles' Sketches - that was my first step toward rediscovering what little I learned about jazz through a college roommate while I was studying music back in the heyday of fusion. 'Round About Midnight and Kind of Blue are good choices for more pure jazz. Kind of Blue has some thematic elements running through the album, making careful listening satisfying. So What and Flamenco Sketches are my favorites. On the other album, 'Round Midnight just oozes cool, while Bye Bye Blackbird is an absolutely wonderful treatment of an old standard.
For slow jazz (is there such a thing?) check out Grover Washington, Jr. and George Benson.
Paul Butterfield and the Butterfield Blues Band - One song stands out - "East-West".
/An odd little man enters the room. He is wearing a paper bag over his head that has thoughtfully-placed holes in the regions of the eyes and mouth. He appears to be shaking head slowly and rubbing the back of his neck./
Dean;
How could you leave out John Coltrane? More specificly, how could you leave out John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman?
I'm stunned.
I'm speechless.
I need to call my therapist.
/The odd little man exits, shoving a cell phone under his papger bag./
I didn't leave out Coltrane!
But see the therapist anyway. And let us know if you have any dreams of strange redheads....
I know you didn't leave out Trane, but you left out his defining work. My personal choice would have been A Love Supreme, as that was not only some of his finest work, but possible the only one he did clean and sober, but it is a bit heavy for an introduction.
I have been keeping up with our favorite redhead, though I have some new material to look over this week. But I also have a world to save which, as you may have noted, is teetering on the brink of unpleasantness. I'm still there, though.
it doesn't get much better than thelonious monk. and he also collaborated with john coltrane on an album. true virtuosos.
Honest to God, I could never recommend Thelonius Monk to anyone interested in beginning to explore jazz. While he was an influential innovator, his music isn't something most people can relate to. To the average listener, frankly, most of it sounds like noise.
This is truly one of the most bizarre lists of recommended-records for jazz I have ever seen. (By the by, it's also astonishingly white.)
Anyone who listens to classical music with comprehension can, with patience, easily come to understand a large amount of the jazz produced over the century.
So why not just provide the neophyte with a group of albums which can help chart out many of the various styles of jazz, points in history which are acknowledged by fans, critics and musicians alike to be among the seminal creations in the genre?
A much more representative group of seven albums would be something like:
Louis Armstrong, Hot Fives and Sevens
Duke Ellington and his Orchestra, works from the late 30s and 40s
Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie: A CD of their records from the 1940s
A good Ella Fitzgerald collection
Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers with Thelonious Monk
Miles Davis et al: Kind of Blue
Miles Davis et al: Bitches Brew
Everyone will come up with their own list, of course, but this one is much less idiosyncratic than Dean's.
(By the way, classical fans should definitely pay attention to Art Tatum, the virtuoso pianist and musician who astonished Vladimir Horowitz.)
First off, it's not "astonishingly white," and just saying so strikes me as racist. I'm rather offended.
Second, the goal here is not to choose "representative," but "accessible." The difference is key. People not familiar with jazz will, in my experience, not click with stuff like "Kind of Blue" or practically anything by Thelonius Monk. Charlie Parker and bebop in general are also very difficult to click with unless you're already steeped in a good understanding of the intense, jam-oriented variations on the theme that pervade simpler and more accessible forms of jazz.
Your suggestions also elide almost anything past the 1950s, and completely skips both electric jazz and the hippy jazz scene that came out of the late 60s and early 70s and continues to this day.
in 1983, i visited st. maaten where benny goodman had a winter home. the woman in whose home i was staying drove him to/from the airport and helped take care of his house when he was gone. she was a fan and had grown up dancing to the music he and his band played. he made a special tape of music for her... and when she took us over to see how he was doing and to introduce us to someone who gave her feet life, we found a gracious and gentle man. still making music.
Dean,
Pay no attention to Croche. He just has a hard time saying anything without being insulting. You get used to it after a while -- sort of.
As Dean knows, my only real foray into jazz was buying a couple of Miles Davis albums a few years back ("Kind of Blue" and "Sketches of Spain"). Wasn't real enthralled with either. I'm more excited to try some of Dean's idiosyncratic choices, though I'll keep Croche's list (and others' suggestions) in mind as well.
I don't really have the time or the interest to go back and forth with Dean on this, but I'll make a couple quick points:
1) Let's not pretend that jazz music wasn't racially marked when it was created and recorded. Artie Shaw's musicians and audiences differed from Ellington's or Count Basie's. Race also played a role in the formation of bebop and hard bop - two central repertoires of jazz untouched by Dean.
I showed the list to some friends. Their reaction was just the same as mine: "astonishingly white." (The string section for Billie Holiday, Artie Shaw, 2 (!) John McLaughlin records, the Grateful Dead.) As a friend of mine remarked: "That sounds like a list intended to appeal not so much to fans of classical music as to fans of 60's guitar wanking."
2) Check the date of Bitches Brew: it's past the 1950s. Obviously a list of 7 records isn't going to be complete. But this one includes:
* Performances by the man regarded by many as the first jazz soloist (and milestones of the 20s jazz repertoire)
*performances of the most original big-band music of the swing era
* performances of bebop
* performances of hard bop
* performances of cool jazz and the beginnings of modal jazz
* performances of jazz/rock fusion
Ella was thrown in for good measure.
These records are no more demanding to absorb than Mozart, Brahms or Stravinsky. Sales of the Miles Davis records, of course, went through the roof. John McLaughlin, good, but maybe not so much....
For Mile,s Kond of Blue, yes, Art Tatum should be there, Luis Armstrong yes.
But I'm amazed at no one picking Jacques Loussier. He's a direct connection between classical and Jazz : most of his owrk is taking a classical piece ( most notably Bach, either Air on a G String or Toccata and Fugue in D Minor ) and then vamping them in a piano / bass / drums three piece. You really have to check him out, peer to peer will carry it.
It's worth noting, by the way, that the same fellow who writes:
"First off, it's not "astonishingly white," and just saying so strikes me as racist. I'm rather offended."
also writes:
"I am the proud owner of a dog, three cats, a wife, and a small boy named Jake, who I plan to sell to Gypsies once we've fattened him up enough."
Of course, I'm sure some of Dean's best friends are Roma and Sinti.......
Apparently it's ok to refer to race or ethnicity when making a disparaging joke about a group, but not when describing a list of records as unrepresentative.
Blah blah blah. Ignore him, Dean. He's a troll. He does this on my blog, too.
It used to be that he could at least discuss music without being an ass. No longer.
A very good list, IMHO, and on target -- considering that jazz is such a huge category with so many permutations. I enjoy classical music, always have, and find parallels between that and the traditional jazz of New Orleans. I'd suggest George Lewis, Sweet Emma, some of the Preservation Hall bands, the marching bands, anything recorded by the Humphrey brothers, anything including Jim Robinson. There is a joy and majesty in the music that I find in a Beethoven symphony, as well....or maybe it's the Scotch? (silly grin)
my major comment WRT your selections, Dean, isn't particularly that the selections are "too white," but rather that there's little of what i think of as "jazz" in them; the comment about "a list intended to appeal not so much to fans of classical music as to fans of 60's guitar wanking" seems like a fair cop (and i LOVE the Grateful Dead!), though i'd have said "70s guitar wanking" instead.
Instead of Artie Shaw, i'd have gone with a good compilation of Duke Ellington stuff, which is equally accessible in its melodicism and far more "jazz."
rather than "Friday Night in San Francisco" i'd have gone with one of the Bela Fleck/Edgar Meyer recordings; the one i'm most familiar with is "Uncommon Knowledge," which also features Mike Marshall.
and i'd have included Charles Mingus' "Mingus Ah Um." the compositions would resonate with anyone familiar with modern classical music, and if something on that record doesn't touch your heart, you don't have a heart.
how could i forget to mention the Modern Jazz Quartet? their near-classicist approach would be just the ticket for classical music fans.
Artie Shaw is profoundly underrated, I think, and I worry that people will only begin to respect him when he clunks out. They heard Begin the Beguine one time and thought that's all there is, but they're wrong.
Check out the Gramercy Session, for instance.
Two records I've found with lots of crossover appeal are the Ella & Louis disks and Chet Baker Sings. A lot of people get Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus as well, the slightly more adventurous ones.
BTW, if you want to here Beethoven improvise, check out the Choral Fantasy. The first twenty minutes or so were improvised by LvB at the premier and then written down afterward; that's the closest we've got I'm afraid.
"Gramercy Five Sessions" is what I meant to type.
He also writes novels. Cool guy, that Shaw.