Cracking the Mossy Stone

 

 Let’s just say it, people: the jazz internet has a contemporizing bias. Trawl the blogs, cop the tweets, and you might mistakenly conclude that most partisans of this music are anti-essentialists, allergic to strict guidelines, always up for something new. But that’s simply not the case, which is one reason for this month’s column in JazzTimes. For some time, I had been musing over an ascendant strain of “jazz traditionalism” that embraces the mid-century modern axis (Shorter, Hancock) but excludes some recent fissures (Lehman? Moran?).

 So what do I do, then: coin a new term of disparagement? Please, don’t let that be the case. I embarked on my mossy trail with open heart and earnest mind. (Of course I also hope the damn thing is a fun read.) The recent spate of jazz obituaries -- for guitarist Herb Ellis*, pianist John Bunch and critic/trombonist Mike Zwerin, if we’re keeping to a two-week radius -- has only renewed my conviction as a mossy-stone adjunct, a sympathetic soul. But not, I suppose, a true believer.

I am, after all, a card-carrying member of the critical establishment, the brow-furrowed body of professionals who see fit to hype every new angle, each new arrival. This tension is hardly new: take a gander at some Eisenhower-era back issues of Down Beat sometime, if it’s evidence you desire. But we’re presently in the midst of some rapid evolution, in this progressive jazz era -- here I pause to disavow any and all parallels with the rhetoric of Glenn Beck -- and it’s only natural that some longtime fans might come to feel alienated.

 Not long ago I heard from one of them, in fact. During a routine mail pickup at the offices of the New York Times, I opened a package from a New Jersey address. Enclosed was a CD, with Post-It affixed:

Nate  In one of your columns you touted Vijay Iyer ("Historicity") as one of (if not the best) the best CD's of 2009. 

In my opinion, it's not. Maybe #999. Since I don't want it in my collection, I'm returning it to you. - Gary [surname redacted] 

I found this an oddly touching gesture -- the “return” of something that I never “gave” him, except by way of recommendation -- and promptly decided to turn it around. Through my Twitter feed, I advertised one gently-used copy of Historicity, up for grabs to the first respondent who hadn’t yet heard the album. Within about 10 minutes, I had a taker: one Keith Flentge, of Chicago. I dropped the offending item in the mail, along with the note. (Somehow they needed to go together.) And a couple of weeks ago, I checked in with Keith, to see how he liked it. He began with a disclaimer: “I’m relatively new to Iyer (I got ‘Tragicomic’ a few weeks before you sent me ‘Historicity’).”

Keith said he likes the album, adding that it shares some qualities with other CDs that appeal to his non-jazz friends. “It’s a modernism that isn’t necessarily reliant on a composed, abstract ‘uber-modern’ melody. A lot of the modernism comes via Vijay’s improvised lines (and the band’s overall interaction) over a fairly simple groove.” 

So there you have it: one more response among many. And Gary, on the off chance that you see this post: thanks for your honest feedback, and for going to the trouble. Now what did you think of the column?

Comments

[brian cheney]

I'd like to extend a personal invitation to Nate to join the crowd at the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival, flushing Meadows Park, Aug 7. At 3:30 Napua Davoy and her Brave Cool World Band will take the main stage and play tracks from her new album :All I Want" and her Broadway shows "Stella Rising" and "Miami". Napua is a gret artist, he will enjoy this date.

[mark shilansky]

A friend of mine once went up to an artist at a CD signing and GAVE BACK the CD ("Who do I make this out to?" "No one, just keep it... it's terrible").

[Alex W. Rodriguez]

Interesting article, Nate. I wish I had more time to get into my reaction to it, but that will have to wait.

One thing I'll point out quickly, though: I have a bit of an issue with your invocation of Bernard Gendron, whose article "Moldy Figs and Modernists" from which you quote serves an academically shallow purpose of creating polarized dualities (what he calls discursive formulations) that fail to capture the nuance and interest of the music of the era. Just because a guy with a Ph.D wrote it doesn't mean it's true. For a much more interesting (and up-to-date) take from a philosophy professor on jazz, I would point you toward Eric Lewis (no, not ELEW) who teaches philosophy at McGill in Montreal and has done some interesting things to pick apart at the dualistic mindset glossed over by Gendron.

As a final note, I worry that your term, echoing as it is the polemical debates of the 1940s, will be interpreted as similarly polarizing. I have to say, I share Michael Steinman's "wariness of labels, especially those derived by jazz critics."

Good luck trying to stake out that middle ground once the reverb chamber of the internet picks this up ...

-Alex

[de]

I think 'classicism' is a better term. Up for debate where the center of the music currently lies--many musicians today use the verities as a touchstone.

[Mike]

Excellent article!

[Michael Steinman]

Dear Nate,

So how about a Sunday in June? Take a look at your calendar and see! In the meantime . . .

http://jazzlives.wordpress.com/2010/04/07/nate-chinen-figs-and-stones/

Cheers, Michael

[Nate Chinen]

Indeed I do, Paul! Embarrassing substitution. Soon as I'm back at my computer, I'll make the change. Thanks.

[paul]

You mean Herb Ellis. Tal farlow died in 1998