Jazz for aficionados

Rok,
You from Kansas City? No wonder you are standing up for Bird. (He was definitely a great one!) So, do you like Count Basie too (another Kansas City likes to claim as its own)? I saw the Count twice, once at Fulton College in Missouri in '74 (I went to Mizzou) after he was coming back from receiving the keys of the city from Kansas City. He had alot of his former stars playing that night-Harry "Sweets" Edison, Eddie Lockjaw Davis, Al Grey to name a few--and the band was in great form. A few years later, I saw Count Basie at the Willowbrook Ballroom near Chicago. Different band and experience, but during a break, the Count was standing on the side of the stage and I walked up to him and said hello. I was fresh out of college at the time. He was very gracious and we talked for a couple of minutes. Great memories.

Charles1dad,
Clifford Brown was amazing; died way too young. Although I am usually not a big fan of the "with strings" types of albums, Clifford's is great. Dexter Gordon was great too. Very smooth and silky. I have heard of Sonny Stitt numerous times, but for whatever reason, never listened to him. Because of your post, I plan to change that. Also plan to listen to Victor Feldman. One piano player I really like is Kenny Barron. He had a real musical connection with Stan Getz.

Rok, the picture of a big burly man struttin around in leotards, put me in stitches, I couldn't stop laughing; and at a time when I needed a good joke.

Pnmeyer:
Not from KC. Texas. But since we started this magical mystery tour in New Orleans, where we decided who started Jazz, and then went on to Cuba, where we defined Cuban Jazz and trashed the BVSC, and then they tried to go to Baghdad (I drew the line at that!).

Then it was on to NYC. Where the Frogman lectured us on the finer points of Jazz playing. When they decided to go to southern cal coffee houses, wearing leotards and 'BAN THE BEBOP" T-shirts, I just decided to wait for them in KC, since that would appear to be the next logical Jazz stop. Basie, Parker et al.. and right down the road from Miles' home. Also maybe the second most important city in all of Jazzdom!

But they could fake me out and continue on to that Mecca of 'COOL' improvisation, Bosie Idaho!. If they do that, I'm going home.

Keep the Faith!

Cheers

The subject of stylistic influence in jazz is a fascinating one. As Orpheus10 points out, sometimes a player comes along that has such a profound influence that in spite of most jazz players' commitment to individuality and aversion to copy-catying, the influence is just too strong to avoid entirely. But, if we dig a little deeper we find there is more to the process than meets the eye.

There are many parallels between jazz evolution and evolution in nature. What is it that causes a "Bird" to come along? Or a Coltrane? Players that cause an entire art form to shift and move in a different direction. Is it a slow process of adaption and change according to the subtle influences that a pool of many musicians, individually, have on the overall style that creates a departure from an established style (swing) and causes it to gradually evolve into a drastically different new style (bebop)? A kind of survival of the fittest. Or is it that a player suddenly comes along with something entirely new and different? A mutation of sorts.

Pnmeyer mentions Sonny Stitt; one of my favorites, and a player that was so hell-bent (like Pepper) on not being type-cast as a Bird copy-cat that he started to play tenor and not just alto. His story (as told by Stitt himself), as it relates to the subject of stylistic influence, is a fascinating one. Around the time that Bird was gaining prominence, musicians that would pass through Stitt's home town would comment on how much his playing sounded like this new guy from Kansas City (Parker). Stitt had never even heard Parker play. The rest is history; but interesting food for thought, IMO.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2i4_K6E6-nQ